Modular Unification-Based Parsers

Rémi Zajac and Jan Amtrup

Abstract

We present an implementation of the notion of modularity and composition applied to unification-based grammars. Monolithic unification grammars can be decomposed into sub-grammars with well-defined interfaces. Sub-grammars are applied in a sequential manner at runtime, allowing incremental development and testing of large coverage grammars. The modular approach to grammar development leads us away from the traditional view of parsing a string of input symbols as the recognition of some start symbol, and towards a richer and more flexible view where inputs and outputs share the same structural properties.

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