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Introduction

This document presents background information on the Grammar Matrix Customization System (Bender et al., 2002; Bender and Flickinger, 2005; Bender et al., 2010). As more phenomena are added to the system, filling out the questionnaire becomes a less and less trivial task. In addition, the system allows users to create more complex grammars increasing the necessary effort to require a good understanding of the grammar. This documentation is intended to reduce these efforts and thereby facilitate the grammar engineering start-up process. It is a first stab at providing feedback to users of the customization system. Several researchers have contributed to the development of the LinGO Grammar Matrix Customization System: we and us in this document refers to the grammar matrix developers.

Developers and contact

The matrix developers can be addressed by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. There is also a larger mailing list for both matrix-developers and matrix users: [email protected]. We recommend you subscribe to the latter, so that you may follow and contribute to discussions on grammar development with the grammar matrix.

Users should feel free to contact either list depending on their preferences, but we recommend using the matrix-dev mailing list for bug reports and questions or comments on the customization system. The general matrix list is recommended for discussion on the Grammar Matrix itself and questions or comments on implementations for specific phenomena.

Libraries

• MatrixDoc/WordOrder

How to use this information

This documentation contains both general information and library specific information on the questionnaire and implementations. When you are aiming at making full use of the questionnaire, it may safe time to read relevant documentation on how to use it. The LinGO Grammar Customization System is constant work in progress, and feedback from users plays an important role in improving the system. Criticism, ideas, request and questions are therefore very welcome. Information on implementation is mostly relevant for users new to grammar engineering with LKB, though more advanced readers may also get a better indication as to what to expect. Documentation on specific analyses attempts to describe what the idea behind an analysis is, how it is implemented with short references of what the exact implementation looks like. The main idea behind this set-up is to facilitate the understanding of the grammar for users who have no or little experience in implementing grammars using LKB. It is assumed, however, that users are familiar with HPSG, and comfortable with formal analyses.

The descriptions of options and analysis are divided in subsections that refer to specific phenomena. Implementations that are shared among several questionnaire options are repeated in individual sections, so that you only need to read the sections that are relevant for your grammar. Finally documentation may address upcoming work. This is mainly of interest to people who are missing options in the current version of the questionnaire, but it may also be worthwhile to read out of general curiousity about the ongoing work.

Feedback and tips on future plans are very welcome!

References