Compiling HPSG type constraints into definite clause programs

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method for translating HPSG grammars into definite clause programs, enabling efficient processing and implementation of linguistic theories without manual translation.

Contribution

It presents a compiler that automates the translation of HPSG type constraints into executable logic programs, improving efficiency and clarity.

Findings

Efficient processing of HPSG grammars achieved

Off-line constraint inheritance and code optimization implemented

No manual translation needed for HPSG to logic programming

Abstract

We present a new approach to HPSG processing: compiling HPSG grammars expressed as type constraints into definite clause programs. This provides a clear and computationally useful correspondence between linguistic theories and their implementation. The compiler performs off-line constraint inheritance and code optimization. As a result, we are able to efficiently process with HPSG grammars without having to hand-translate them into definite clause or phrase structure based systems.