A computational grammar for Maltese
Poster (konferens), 2013
The Grammatical Framework (GF) is a multilingual grammar
formalism based on using abstract syntax trees as a
language-independent semantic representation. By supporting both
generation and parsing to/from this interlingua, GF can produce
high-quality multilingual translations within closed domains. The
framework includes a Resource Grammar Library (RGL) which
captures the morphology and basic syntax of some 26 languages
from around the world. GF is freely available as open-source
software and has most recently been used as the framework of
choice in the European project MOLTO (Multilingual Online
Translation). This work presents an implementation of a Maltese
resource grammar using the GF formalism, attempting to cover all
aspects of Maltese morphology and syntax. By using GF, this
single grammar can be used for bi-directional translations
between Maltese and any other language already supported by the
RGL. The smart paradigms implemented in the grammar allow full
inflection tables to be produced for any lexical unit, often
requiring only a lemmatised form. Using these smart paradigms,
the construction of a large scale monolingual dictionary can be
bootstrapped from other linguistic resources. Work on building
such a companion lexicon is also underway, which when combined
with the resource grammar could be used to power a fullform
computational lexicon for Maltese, enabling comprehensive
spell-checking and other related tools. The GF system can also be
used as a localisation framework for web and desktop software,
allowing developers to provide interfaces to their applications
in multiple languages simultaneously, including Maltese. As with
all GF resources, this Maltese resource grammar is completely
open-source and free to use for any purpose, released under the
GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
Maltese
Grammatical Framework
computational grammar