The Linguistic Type Database processes grammars and treebanks to make online documentation for grammars made with the LKB.

The code and documentation can mainly be found on github: https://github.com/fcbond/ltdb

The Linguistic Type Database (LTDB, née Lextype DB), describes instances and types of the grammar with frequency information from the treebank if it exists.

Contents

  1. Sample In Line Documentation
    1. Examples
    2. Names
  2. Integration with FFTB and delphin-viz
  3. Installation
    1. Setting up your server
    2. Tool Support
  4. References
  5. To Do

The minimal Linguistic Type Database offers the following:

  • a web interface to types and instances (rules, lexical items and roots)q in a DELPH-IN grammar, including examples from the lexicon.
  • in-line documentation from the tdl file (if any)
    • human readable name (if any)
    • description (in Restructured text)
    • example sentences (positive and negative)
  • links to treebanks
    • words, rules and lexical types in context
    • grammar rules (including number of children (arity) and position of head (head))
    • adds the information from the Grammar Catalogue Metadata
  • approximate match for type lookup
  • dependency on PyDelphin

The LTDB has been updated by Francis Bond, Luis Morgado da Costa and Michael Wayne Goodman, using PyDelphin and visualization from delphin-viz. The software was originally written by ChikaraHashimoto and FrancisBond in perl, and used the html output provided by StephanOepen.

Sample In Line Documentation

n_-_c_le := n_intr_lex_entry
"""
Intransitive count noun (icn)
<ex>The dog barked.
""".

case-p-lex-np-kara := case-p-lex-np &
"""
<name lang='ja'>承名詞受身主格助詞</name>
名詞の直後について、受身文の主格（実際にその行為を行うもの）を表す助詞「から」。
<ex>子供 が 親 から たしなめ られる
<ex>親戚 から 怒ら れる
<nex>友人 から 自転車 を 買う
(07-03-30)間接受身でも使えるようにすべき。(lkb::do-parse-tty "親戚 から 怒ら れる")
(07-03-30)「〜」はこの type でよいのか？（格として取ることがないため）
(07-03-30) postp-lex の後につく type も必要。(lkb::do-parse-tty "子供 が 親 とか から たしなめ られる")
"""
                        [SYNSEM.LOCAL.CAT.HEAD.CASE kara-case].

Comments should appear inside the TDL doc-strings. They should be written in reStructuredText. There are two special things recognized.

Examples

<ex>A good example of this type
<nex>A bad example of this type
<mex>A good example of this type, but which is ungrammatical, which we parse through robust or mal-rules or constructions.

Ideally parses of positive examples should contain the type in question, while parses of negative examples should not (although they may be grammatical under other circumstances). It is assumed the the example is finished by a newline. We show both <nex> with an asterisk (∗) and <mex> with a circled asterisk (⊛) in the human readable documentation. Neither is accompanied by an Obelisk.

Names

case-p-lex-np-ga := case-p-lex-np &
"""<name lang='ja'>承名詞主格助詞
名詞の直後について、主格を表す助詞「が」。この type によってその名詞は各種用言・助動詞
の主語(ARG1)となることができる。受動態・可能態では、見た目は主格だが、
実際の行為の目的格(ARG2)となる。
<ex>犬 が 走る
<ex>バナナ が 猿 に 食べ られる
<ex>犬 に 芸 が できる か
<nex>彼 は 帰っ た が
"""
                        [SYNSEM.LOCAL.CAT.HEAD.CASE ga].

It is assumed that the name is finished by a newline.

Integration with FFTB and delphin-viz

If you shift-click on a rule or lexical entry in the Full Forest TreeBanker’s unary rules it will take you to the ltdb defined in assets/render.js:

var ltdburl = "https://lr.soh.ntu.edu.sg/~bond/cgi-bin/ERG_mo/search.cgi?typ="

Installation

The code can be found on github: https://github.com/fcbond/ltdb

Flask branch installation instructions (use this unless you know what you are doing)

  • Checkout the flask branch and switch to it
  • Run ./deploy.sh
  • Check that the database works: copy the local address from the terminal output and open it in the browser (Firefox recommended). You should be able to then use the ERG and the PorGram databases which come with the repository.
  • Move any treebanks you would like to include under your/grammar/tsdb/gold/
  • If you want to build your own database: create a virtual environment, activate it, and install pydelphin
  • Build your database: navigate to scripts and run python3 grm2db.py your/grammar/METADATA (you should have a METADATA file; model it on the PorGram one, for example)
  • The database gets saved under /tmp/some-temporary-filename. You should copy or move it from there to web/db/ (where the other grammars are).
  • Now if you refresh your browser window, you should be able to see your database under the options.

Main branch installation instructions (may be outdated?..)

There is a README file that describes how to build the database. The code makes certain assumptions:

  • gold trees are under tsdb/gold

Setting up your server

To enable CGI in user directories, add the following lines to the appropriate Apache configuration file. That could be /etc/apache2/httpd.conf, or more correctly, the appropriate file in /etc/apache2/site-enabled/.

<Directory /home/*/public_html/cgi-bin/>
   Options ExecCGI
   SetHandler cgi-script
</Directory>

Tool Support

As of 2018-11-4, docstrings are supported by the latest LKB-FOS and PyDelphin, PET and ACE, with support in the LOGON LKB promised soon.

Currently, the LKB does NOT support doc-strings in instances (such as rules, roots and lexical entries) only in types. LTDB and ACE supports these, but recommends you wait for the LKB to support them.

References

To Do

  • finish the documentation
    • add screenshots
    • link to some running Lexical Type Databases (like this)

Last update: 2023-10-23 by Olga Zamaraeva [edit]