Syllable-based morphology for natural language processing
This thesis addresses the problem of accounting for morphological alternation within Natural Language Processing. It proposes an approach to morphology which is based on phonological concepts, in particular the syllable, in contrast to morpheme-based approaches which have standardly been used by both NLP and linguistics. It is argued that morpheme-based approaches, within both linguistics and NLP, grew out of the apparently purely affixational morphology of European languages, and especially English, but are less appropriate for non-affixational languages such as Arabic. Indeed, it is claimed that even accounts of those European languages miss important linguistic generalizations by ignoring more phonologically based alternations, such as umlaut in German and ablaut in English. To justify this approach, we present a wide range of data from languages as diverse as German and Rotuman. A formal language, MOLUSe, is described, which allows for the definition of declarative mappings between syllable-sequences, and accounts of non-trivial fragments of the inflectional morphology of English, Arabic and Sanskrit are presented, to demonstrate the capabilities of the language. A semantics for the language is defined,
Cahill, Lynne Julie
Computational linguistics
Syllable-based morphology for natural language processing. This thesis addresses the problem of accounting for morphological alternation within Natural Language Processing. It proposes an approach to morphology which is based on phonological concepts, in particular the syllable, in contrast to morpheme-based approaches which have standardly been used by both NLP and linguistics. It is argued that morpheme-based approaches, within both linguistics and NLP, grew out of the apparently purely affixational morphology of European languages, and especially English, but are less appropriate for non-affixational languages such as Arabic. Indeed, it is claimed that even accounts of those European languages miss important linguistic generalizations by ignoring more phonologically based alternations, such as umlaut in German and ablaut in English. To justify this approach, we present a wide range of data from languages as diverse as German and Rotuman. A formal language, MOLUSe, is described, which allows for the definition of declarative mappings between syllable-sequences, and accounts of non-trivial fragments of the inflectional morphology of English, Arabic and Sanskrit are presented, to demonstrate the capabilities of the language. A semantics for the language is defined,
syllable based morphology natural_language_processing address_problem accounting morphological alternation within natural_language_processing propose morphology base phonological concept particular syllable contrast morpheme based_approach standardly use linguistics argue morpheme based_approach within linguistics grow apparently purely morphology european language especially english less appropriate non language arabic indeed claim even account european language miss important linguistic generalization ignore phonologically base alternation german english justify present wide_range data language diverse german formal_language describe allow definition declarative mapping syllable account non_trivial fragment inflectional morphology english_arabic present capability language semantics language define