[Attempto] Categories in the ACE lexicon

[Kaarel Kaljurand]

Hi,

the spec also contains "formulas" like:

    tv_finsg(ThirdSgForm, LogicalSymbol).
    tv_infpl(InfForm, LogicalSymbol).
    tv_pp(PastPartForm, LogicalSymbol).

linking e.g. "finsg" to "ThirdSgForm" etc. I agree that it would be
more clear to avoid such duplicate names (they are not used in the
source code, see
https://github.com/Attempto/APE/tree/master/prolog/lexicon), and be
explicit about the linguistic theory, which is something like: (in
ACE) the syntactic categories of "infinitive" and "plural" use the
same morphological form, e.g. the sentences "John wants to run." and
"At least 2 men run." both use the form "run".
I don't remember the decisions on the naming conventions, and some of
it pre-dates my involvement (i.e. pre 2004). The original lexicon was
based on the work:

Alexandra Bünzli. AceLex — Lexikon für Ace, 2004. Diploma Thesis.
Faculty of Arts, University of Zurich.
http://attempto.ifi.uzh.ch/site/pubs/papers/lizarbeit_ABuenzli.pdf

But I think it was simplified later and names somewhat changed.

Best,
Kaarel

On Thu, Mar 10, 2022 at 12:00 PM Jörg Preisendörfer
<hallo at joerg-preisendoerfer.de> wrote:
>
>
> Dear Tobias,
>
> thx for the prompt reply!
>
> The ACE lexicon specification actually doesn't say anything about the
> rational of the mnemonics of 'finsg' and 'infpl'. In particular, 'finsg'
> is pretty much the only mnemocode in the lexcicon specification that
> doesn't have its roots addressed directly or alluded to in the text of
> the specification.
>
> Of course, I can come up with a guess about how 'fin' and 'inf' differ,
> but I think it would be better to be clear about the circumscription of
> the two classes.
>
> To see why I'm interested in finding out about the intentions of those
> mnemonics:
>
> The lexicon specification quietly assumes a certain theory of lexical
> classes which is not made explicit (e.g. by naming a certain theory), at
> least not in the specification document. This leads to the specification
> not being self-contained.
>
> Presumably the specific theory employed for ACE holds no surprises, but
> I'd still prefer someone involved saying something like "25 years ago,
> we arrived at that mnemonics because of such and such reasons" rather
> than guessing myself.
>
> Pls kindly bear with me in being picky about such aspects of the
> documentation. :-) This is actually a relative simple case; there are
> more ambiguities in the ACE Syntax Report which I will try to sort out next.
>
> Thx again,
>
> -- J.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Am 09.03.22 um 06:53 schrieb Tobias Kuhn:
> > Dear Jörg,
> >
> > The documentation page of the lexicon format can be found here:
> > http://attempto.ifi.uzh.ch/site/docs/ace_lexicon.html
> >
> > I hope that helps.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Tobias
> >
> >
> > On 08.03.22 18:08, Jörg Preisendörfer wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> Happy Women's Day everybody,
> >>
> >> in wrapping my head around ACE, some questions occured to me which I'd
> >> like to sort out step by step.
> >>
> >> I am aware that the answers in many cases will be entirely obvious for
> >> people who were involved in the development of ACE or even for every
> >> linguist of some sort, but I'd nevertheless prefer your answers over
> >> uninformed or informed guessing. You may want take that approach as an
> >> expression of respect. :-)
> >>
> >>
> >> To start with a simple one, here's a question refering to the word
> >> catergories in the ACE lexicon,
> >>
> >> *
> >> https://github.com/Attempto/APE/blob/master/prolog/lexicon/clex_lexicon.pl
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> The lexicon uses the abbreviations 'finsg' and 'infpl' to mark verb
> >> categories.
> >>
> >> Am I assuming right that 'finsg' stands for 'finite' and 'singular'
> >> whereas 'infpl' stands for 'infinite' and 'plural'?
> >>
> >>
> >> Thx
> >>
> >> -- J.
> >> _______________________________________________
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