Explore how computers analyze English syntax with transformational parsing and well‑formed substrings.
This survey reviews a range of parsing approaches used in natural language processing. It explains how boundary markers, embeddings, and transformations shape the way sentences are analyzed, and highlights how different algorithms handle binary and unary transformations, embedded sentences, and recursive analysis. The text also discusses practical parsing strategies and compares top‑down methods, including several notable systems in the field.
Readers will gain a practical sense of how parsers convert raw sentences into structured analyses, including how suffixes, matrices, and loops interact in a parsing process. The material also includes an appendix introducing SETL concepts to illustrate language implementation details behind these parsing techniques.
- How inverse transformations and embedding affect sentence decomposition
- Different parsing strategies, from top‑down to transformational approaches
- How well‑formed substrings can speed parsing and reduce redundant work
- An introduction to SETL and its role in describing parsing systems
Ideal for readers of early AI and computational linguistics surveys who want a grounded view of parsing methods and their evolution.