Grammar Syntax and Linguistics

Question

I REALLY need a description of the english sentence structure in a way that can be translated by machine and is strictly rule based(no statistical stuff), it doesn't have to be a context-free grammar but that would be preferable(as it can't be and fully describe it). The best I've found was for a BNF but it was really basic. I need something that has no exceptions except where ambigious. Any links?

Answer 1

You could have a look at LFG which is basically a context-free grammar enriched with functional descriptions that are usually interpreted as first-order logic formulae. Grammars for a few languages have been developed within the ParGram project.

Answer 2

Start with A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language by Quirk et al. It's good to read that you're not looking for a context-free grammar for English, as English is not a context-free language. I don't think any natural languages are context-free.

Answer 3

I am also looking into a similar issue and I will share the best that I found: http://lands.let.kun.nl/TSpublic/dreumel/formal_grammar_english.en.html

This is dependent upon the AGFL variant of grammar descriptions: http://www.agfl.cs.ru.nl/

Answer 4

On a very generic level, have a look at Natural Language Processing. I'm afraid though, that this is not going to be very encouraging !