Parsing Vorlin in 1998

In the late 90s I began using the freeware parser called PC-PATR from the sil.org website. This enabled me to write a formal specification of Vorlin syntax and to test example sentences for syntactic ambiguity. I was excited about this and I put a lot of time and effort into it. However, the people who were hanging around on the 'net at the time did not seem to appreciate this accomplishment.

(In case you don't understand why it's exciting, I'll explain. The parser finally provides a way for a conlanger to check his writing! We all make mistakes. Sometimes it's hard to spot a mistake in your own typing, and often it's impossible to find another human being who will actually look closely at your conlang. The parser will catch your errors. It points out errors in syntax. Two kinds of errors: typographical errors, and inconsistencies between the rules you have written and the way you are actually using the language. Furthermore the glosses provided by the parser can help you spot typos and incorrect word choices.)

Below is a preliminary set of syntactic rules from 1998:

    ; --------------------------------------------------------------------------
    ;           v-syntax.txt                              1998.06.30
    ;          for use with PC-PATR parser available from www.sil.org
    ;                     copyright 1998 Richard K. Harrison
    ;
    ;                   -> means "consists of"
    ;                    / means "or"
    ;                   () enclose an optional item
    ;                   {} organize several items into a group
    ; --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    ; 1: TYPES OF SENTENCES
    ; *********************

    ; sentence
    RULE
    S -> VocP / Fragment / FullS

    ; vocative phrase
    RULE
    VocP -> vopcl (NP) (SF)

    ; sentence fragment
    RULE
    Fragment -> {AjP / AvP / dem / ij / modal / NP / NumP / PP} (SF)

    ; full sentence
    RULE
    FullS -> TranS / IntrS / InvIS

    ; transitive sentence
    RULE
    TranS -> (SISM) (NP_1) TVP (NP_2) (TVarg) (SF)

    ; intransitive sentence
    RULE
    IntrS -> (SISM) (NP) IVP (IVarg) (SF)

    ; inverted intransitive sentence
    RULE
    InvIS -> (SISM) IVP NP (SF)

    ; --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    ; 2: TYPES OF VERB PHRASES
    ; ************************

    ; transitive verb phrase
    RULE
    TVP -> (TVP_2) (AvP) vt

    ; intransitive verb phrase
    RULE
    IVP -> (TVP) (AvP) vi

    ; --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    ; 3: NOUN PHRASES
    ; ***************

    ; possibly-modified noun/pronoun
    RULE
    NP -> (dem) (PossP) (NumP) (AjP) (RelC) {n / pn / proper / NomiP} (PP) (cja NP_2)

    ; proper noun
    RULE
    proper -> (title) prop (kwi) (prop_2 (prop_3))

    ; --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    ; 4: OTHER TYPES OF PHRASES
    ; *************************

    ; adjective phrase
    RULE
    AjP -> (AvP) aj (cja aj_2)

    ; adverb phrase
    RULE
    AvP -> av (av_2 (av_3))

    ; numeric phrase
    RULE
    NumP -> num (num_2 (num_3))

    ; possessive phrase
    RULE
    PossP -> popn / {NP es}

    ; prepositional phrase
    RULE
    PP -> pr (pr_2) NP

    ; nominalized clause
    RULE
    NomiP -> ke FullS (das)

    ; relative clause
    RULE
    RelC -> wel FullS da

    ; --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    ; 5: SENTENCE-INITIAL AND SENTENCE-FINAL
    ; **************************************

    ; sentence-initial sentential modifier
    RULE
    SISM -> modal / PP

    ; post-verb verb arguments, transitive sentence
    RULE
    TVarg -> AvP / {pv PP}

    ; post-verb verb arguments, intransitive sentence
    RULE
    IVarg -> AvP / PP

    ; sentence-final particles
    RULE
    SF -> sfpcl (sfpcl_2)

    ; --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    END

And below you can see the results. When provided with a suitable lexicon file, the parser was able to diagram Vorlin sentences and even provided a crude verbatim gloss.

    laho men ven
    "hello, friends"

    1:
            S
            |
          VocP
       _____|_____
     vopcl      NP
     laho     ___|____
     hello  NumP     n
              |     ven
             num  friend
             men
             >1

    S:
    [ cat:   S ]

    1 parse found

    ne sofi
    "don't sleep!"

    1:
          S
          |
        FullS
          |
        IntrS
       ___|____
     SISM    IVP
       |      |
     modal   vi
      ne    sofi
    don't!  sleep

    S:
    [ cat:   S ]

    1 parse found

    kus mat vido nom zon
    "his/her eye(s) see no sun"

    1:
                     S
                     |
                   FullS
                     |
                   TranS
           __________|___________
          NP         TVP       NP
        ___|____      |      ___|____
      PossP    n     vt    NumP     n
        |     mat   vido     |     zon
      popn    eye    see    num    sun
       kus                  nom
     his/her               zero

    S:
    [ cat:   S ]

    1 parse found

    ten gize mimo melan
    "the sky is somewhat ink-like"

    1:
                   S
                   |
                 FullS
                   |
                 TranS
       ____________|____________
      NP          TVP         NP
       |       ____|_____      |
       n      AvP      vt      n
      ten      |      mimo   melan
      sky     av     imitate  ink
             gize
           slightly

    S:
    [ cat:   S ]

    1 parse found

    ya vido bata ten wan ter
    "I see the western sky and the earth"
    (here I had to tag _wan_ as a preposition to make it parse correctly)

    1:
                   S
                   |
                 FullS
                   |
                 TranS
       ____________|____________
      NP     TVP              NP
       |      |       _________|__________
      pn     vt      AjP     n          PP
      ya    vido      |     ten     _____|______
     I/me    see     aj     sky    pr         NP
                    bata           wan         |
                   western         and         n
                                              ter
                                             earth

    S:
    [ cat:   S ]

    1 parse found

    ku vido yas sib es kat
    "he sees my sibling's cat"

    1:
                     S
                     |
                   FullS
                     |
                   TranS
       ______________|_______________
      NP     TVP                   NP
       |      |               ______|_______
      pn     vt             PossP          n
      ku    vido         _____|______     kat
    he/she   see        NP         es     cat
                     ____|____     es
                   PossP     n     's
                     |      sib
                   popn   sibling
                    yas
                    my

    S:
    [ cat:   S ]

    1 parse found

    menya dumo ke Vorlin wi guta
    "we think that Vorlin is good"
    (dum- was disturbingly ambitransitive in these days)

    1:
                 S
                 |
               FullS
                 |
               TranS
       __________|__________
      NP     TVP          NP
       |      |            |
      pn     vt          NomiP
     menya  dumo     ______|______
     we/us  think   ke         FullS
                    ke           |
                   that        StatS
                            _____|_____
                           NP        SVP
                            |      ___|____
                         proper   wi     AjP
                            |     wi      |
                          prop    be     aj
                         Vorlin         guta
                         Vorlin         good

    S:
    [ cat:   S ]

    1 parse found

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