This book presents a Paninian perspective towards natural language processing. It has three objectives: (1) to introduce the reader to NLP, (2) to introduce the reader to Paninian Grammar (PG) which is the application of the original Paninian framework to the processing of modern Indian languages using the computer, (3) to compare Paninian Grammar (PG) framework with modern Western computational grammar frameworks. The computational grammar is designed for free word order languages and makes special use of case-endings and post-positions. Efficient parsers for the grammar are also described.
The text provides a comparison of Paninian Grammar (PG) with modern Western computational grammars. It introduces three western grammar frameworks using examples from English: Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG), Tree Adjoining Grammar (TAG), and Government and Binding (GB). The presentation does not assume any background on part of the reader regarding these frameworks. Each presentation is followed by either a discussion on applicability of the framework to free word order languages, or a comparison with PG framework.
Students and researchers of both computational linguistics and NLP can study from one source the path-breaking research on the subject using the classic and time-tested Paninian framework.
AKSHAR BHARATI is the personification of a group working on Natural Language Processing with special emphasis to Indian languages giving due attention to the traditional Indian theories of grammar and language.
VINEET CHAITANYA, Ph.D. (Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India) is distinguished Faculty, Language Technology Research Centre. International Institute of Information Technology (IIT) Hyderabad. Earlier, he taught at BITS Pilani and worked at IIT Kanpur on Panini's grammar and its application for NLP.
RAJEEV SANGAL, Ph.D. (University of Pennsylvania) is Director, and professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi. He has held positions as Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at IIIT Hyderabad and IIT Kanpur. He has authored two books on LISP and published widely in conferences and Journals in the area of NLP and Artificial Intelligence.
This book presents a Paninian perspective towards natural language processing (NLP). It has the following three objectives:
1. To introduce the reader to NLP, 2. To introduce the reader to Paninian Grammar framework applied to the processing of modern Indian languages.
3. To compare Paninian Grammar framework with modern Western computational grammar frameworks.
Thus, the proposed book meets two goals at the same time: (1) It provides an introduction to NLP for Indian languages to students and faculty who are not initiated to NLP; and (2) It acts as a source book on computational Paninian framework bringing all the material in one place.
The first half of the book presents a computational grammar that has been developed for processing of Indian languages. Indian languages like many other languages of the world have relatively free word order. They also have a rich system of case-endings and post-positions (collectively called vibhakti). In contrast to this, the majority of grammar frameworks are designed for English and other positional languages. They are extended as an afterthought to handle free-word order languages, usually paying a price both in elegance as well as in processing efficiency. The unique aspect of the computational grammar described here is that it is designed for free word order languages and makes special use of vibhakti. It takes the concept of vibhakti and karaka relations from Paninian framework, and uses them to give an elegant account of Indian languages. Efficient parsers for the grammar are also described. The computational grammar is likely to be suitable for other free word order languages of the world.
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