Ruby-LinkParser

This module is a Ruby binding for the link-grammar library, a syntactic parser of English.

Authors

Requirements

Installation

These instructions assume a UNIX or UNIX-like environment. I've built it on MacOS X, FreeBSD, and Ubuntu Linux. I'm not sure how to get this to build under Windows, as I don't have a Windows license with which to test it. Suggestions welcomed.

First, you'll need to install the Abiword link-grammar library that comes with this source (or download it yourself if you wish):

$ tar -xvzf link-grammar-4.6.5.tar.gz
$ cd link-grammar-4.6.5
$ ./configure; make; sudo make install
$ cd ..

Now build, test, and install the Ruby library:

$ rake
$ sudo rake install

If you've installed the link-grammar library someplace that isn't in your regular include path, you might have to tell the build system where to look:

$ rake -- --with-link-grammar-dir=/usr/local

Under MacOS X, unless you've taken extra steps to compile the link-grammar library as a universal binary, you'll probably also have to limit it to your machine's architecture:

$ ARCHFLAGS="-arch i386" rake -- --with-link-grammar-dir=/usr/local

That's it!

Example Usage

require 'linkparser'

dict = LinkParser::Dictionary.new( :screen_width => 100 )
sent = dict.parse( "People use Ruby for all kinds of nifty things." )
# => #<LinkParser::Sentence:0xcf8eb "LEFT-WALL people use Ruby for all kinds
#      of nifty things . RIGHT-WALL"/2 linkages/0 nulls>

sent.subject        # => "people"
sent.verb           # => "use"
sent.object         # => "Ruby"

puts sent.constituent_tree_string
# =>
# (S (NP People)
#    (VP use
#        (NP Ruby)
#        (PP for
#            (NP (NP all kinds)
#                (PP of
#                    (NP nifty things)))))
#    .)

puts sent.diagram
# =>
#     +-------------------------------Xp------------------------------+
#     |                +----MVp---+----Jp----+     +------Jp-----+    |
#     +----Wd---+--Sp--+--Os-+    |    +-Dmc-+--Mp-+    +----A---+    |
#     |         |      |     |    |    |     |     |    |        |    |
# LEFT-WALL people.p use.v Ruby for.p all kinds.n of nifty.a things.n .

Legal

For licensing information, see the LICENSE file.

For copyright and licensing information for link-grammar itself, see the LICENSE file in that distribution.

$Id$