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GF Modern Greek Resource Grammar
Ioanna Papadopoulou
University of Gothenburg
ioannapapa78@hotmail.com
Abstract whilst each of the syntactic parts of the sentence
(subject, object, predicate) is a carrier of a certain
The paper describes the Modern Greek (MG) case, a fact that allows various word order
Grammar, implemented in Grammatical structures. In addition, the language presents a
Framework (GF) as part of the Grammatical dynamic syllable stress, whereas its position
Framework Resource Grammar Library depends and alternates according to the
(RGL). GF is a special-purpose language for morphological variations. Moreover, MG is one
multilingual grammar applications. The RGL of the two Indo-European languages1 that retain a
is a reusable library for dealing with the productive synthetic passive formation. In order
morphology and syntax of a growing number to realize passivization, verbs use a second set of
of natural languages. It is based on the use of morphological features for each tense.
an abstract syntax, which is common for all
languages, and different concrete syntaxes 2 Grammatical Framework
implemented in GF. Both GF itself and the
RGL are open-source. RGL currently covers GF (Ranta, 2011) is a special purpose
more than 30 languages. MG is the 35th programming language for developing
language that is available in the RGL. For the
purpose of the implementation, a morphology- multilingual applications. It can be used for
driven approach was used, meaning a bottom- building translation systems, multilingual web
up method, starting from the formation of gadgets, natural language interfaces, dialogue
words before moving to larger units systems and natural language resources. GF is
(sentences). We discuss briefly the main capable of parsing and generating texts, while
characteristics and grammatical features of working from a language-independent
MG, and present some of the major difficulties representation of meaning. The GF Grammar is
we encountered during the process of based on two different modules. An abstract
implementation and how these are handled in module provides category and function
the MG grammar. declarations, thus it constitutes a representation
1 Introduction of a set of possible trees that reflect the
semantically relevant structure of a language,
Greek is a member of the Indo-European family and one or more concrete modules that contain
of languages and constitutes by itself a separate linearization type definitions and rules, therefore
branch of that family. Modern Greek (MG) can managing to relate the tree structures with linear
be easily traced back to Ancient Greek in the tree representations. The RGL contains the set of
form of letters, word roots and structures, despite grammars of natural languages that are
the fact that the language has undergone a series implemented in GF. The parallelism of the
of transformations through the ages and has been grammars is inevitable, given that their
a subject of considerable simplification. MG development is based on the same rules and
makes use of the Greek alphabet since the 8th functions that are defined in a common abstract
century B.C. Today the language is spoken by syntax. At the moment RGL covers 34
approximately 13.1 million people worldwide. languages2 that originate not only from the
Some of the general characteristics of MG refer European continent, but from all over the world.
to the diversity of the morphology and the use of The common API defines around 60 hierarchical
an extremely large number of morphological
features in order to express grammatical 1 The other one being Albanian
notations. Words are in their majority declinable, 2 http://www.grammaticalframework.org/lib/doc/status.html
126
Proceedings of the Student Research Workshop associated with RANLP 2013, pages 126–133,
Hissar, Bulgaria, 9-11 September 2013.
grammatical categories, and a large number of all the specific features which may affect their
syntactic functions. MG constitutes the newest formation. The creation of nouns includes 17
addition to the RGL and its implementation distinct functions that are categorized depending
consists of 28 concrete modules. on the noun ending, the stress movement,
3 Morphology whether the noun is parisyllabic or
imparisyllabic, or whether the noun augments its
Morphology constitutes the most important syllables when inflected. These functions also
aspect of the Greek Language. The words are in handle specific phenomena of the MG language,
their majority declinable, produced via a such as the change of gender of a noun in the
combination of meta-linguistic elements, such as plural form, or nouns that originate from Ancient
a stem and an ending. The endings are assigned Greek, and are still used nowadays, retaining
proportionally with the part of speech and the intact their form and endings. Similarly 6
type, and act as carriers of grammatical functions create adjectives, where we also
notations, indicating the gender, the number, the introduce the degree parameter that creates
case or the person, or in the case of verbs the additional forms for all three adjective genders.
tense, the mood, the voice and the aspect as well. The formation of the pronouns is of special
Appendix A presents the parameter types and interest, as MG makes use of two distinct types,
the emphatic and the weak. The weak form3
operations that are defined in the grammar. The occurs more often, whilst the use is always in
implementation of the GF MG morphology close connection with verbs, nouns or adverbs.
started from scratch. All declinable words Our grammar introduces both forms of the
needed to undergo a first simplistic pronoun, but it also alternates between them
categorization in order to create basic declension when the syntactic structure requires the use of a
tables, before moving to sub-categorizations that particular form. Greek proper nouns follow all
allowed us to treat the various irregularities that the declension patterns and irregularities of
govern the morphological structure of MG. One common nouns morphology, meaning that they
of the main aspects of MG is the presence of a are primarily inflected for gender, case and
dynamic syllable stress, a phenomenon that number. Moreover, they present a major
created additional difficulties in the differentiation comparing to other languages,
implementation of the morphology. A stress can which refers to the introduction of the proper
move from a stem to an ending but in many cases noun with a definite article that takes its form
the movement is realized inside the stem. Such according to the grammatical features of the
issues are handled in GF with the introduction of modified proper noun. The morphology of the
pattern matching functions and pattern macros. verb in MG consists of a complex inflection
The MG grammar includes 25 pattern matching system, as shown in Appendix B. Whilst in many
functions and macros that indentify stressed languages, the grammatical notations are
vowels, while at the same time they perform over expressed with the use primarily of syntax, MG
a string, checking the matches, transforming the uses the combination of a stem and an
stressed vowels into their unstressed form, and inflectional ending to express grammatical
assigning the stress to the correct character. They categories such as person, number, tense, voice,
also serve to assigning the appropriate case aspect and mood. The fact that MG retains a
ending or handle irregularities, such as the productive synthetic passive formation increases
addition of extra consonants and reduplication drastically the number of possible forms of the
cases. verb, as most verbs have a second set of
3.1 Declinable Parts of Speech morphological forms for each tense in order to
All nouns, proper nouns, adjectives, determiners, express passivization. Whilst Greek verbs are
quantifiers, pronouns, participles, articles and divided in two main categories, the second one
verbs in MG are declinable and each category subdivided into two smaller ones, (Holton et al
presents its own characteristics and irregularities. ,1999; Iordanidou, 1999), the creation of the verb
The implementation of the above categories morphology in our grammar imposed the
follows a similar pattern: we first divide them consideration of a number of specific parameters,
into the main conjugations that grammars among them the stress movement, the number of
propose and then we make an exhaustive list of syllables which affects on the creation of the
all the rules that specify their creation, as well as
3 Clitic pronoun
127
imperative forms, the active stem forms upon oper
which we create the passive stems, the formation Noun : Type = {s : Number => Case => Str ; g :
of the passive perfective participle, reduplication Gender} ;
patterns, internal augmentation phenomena. In
addition to the above, we needed to handle mkNoun_agori : (s: Str) -> Gender -> Noun =
various irregularities, which referred mainly to \agOri, g ->
the formation of the imperative or dependent let
forms, the passivization or not of the verb, the agori = mkStemNouns agOri;
occurrence of a participle, the formation of the in {
s = table { Sg => table {
active or passive simple past with the use of Nom | Acc | Vocative|CPrep P_se |CPrep PNul =>
ending forms borrowed from Ancient Greek. All agOri ;
the above parameters resulted in the creation of Gen |CPrep P_Dat=> mkGenSg agori} ;
26 main functions that handle the changes in the Pl => table {
inflected endings of the verbs, and 39 smaller Nom | Acc | Vocative|CPrep P_se |CPrep PNul =>
functions that are connected to the main mkNomPl agOri;
functions and help us handle the modifications Gen |CPrep P_Dat=> mkGen agOri}} ; g = g } ;
that the stem is subjected to, when conjugated.
Moreover, we must emphasize on the necessity mkStemNouns : Str -> Str = \s -> case s of {
to create a series of pattern matching functions c + v@(#stressedVowel) + x@(_ + _) =>c + unstress
that form and alter stems, for the production of v + x } ;
the passive perfective according to the active mkGenSg : Str -> Str = \s ->
perfective or imperfective, the passive imperative case s of
and the participles. A separate concrete module {x + "ος" => x + "οσς"; .............
was created in order to deal exclusively with the x + ("ι" | "σ") => x + "ιού"; };
complex MG verb morphology. Finally, as in the
case of personal pronouns, another alternation mkGen : Str -> Str = \s -> case s of {
appears in the formation of the possessive c + "άι" => c + "αγιών" ; .............
pronouns. Weak and emphatic forms of the c + v@(#stressedVowel) + x@(_ + _) + ("ι" | "σ")
possessive pronoun are both used in order to =>c + unstress v + x + "ιών" ; ............. } ;
express possession. The first one being the
stressedVowel : pattern Str = #("ά" | "ό" | "ί"| "έ" |
enclitic genitive form of the personal pronoun, "ή" | "ύ"| "ώ" | "εύ");
while the latter one, expressed via a combination
of the definite article, the adjective δικός dikós stress : Str -> Str = \x -> case x of {
“own” and the enclitic genitive form of the "α" => "ά" ;
personal pronoun. Both forms are assigned via "ο" => "ό" ; ........ };
two different functions, defined in the abstract MG Paradigms : Paradigms module
syntax: mkN = overload {
PossPron : Pron -> Quant ; mkN : (dentro : Str) -> N
PossNP : CN -> NP -> CN ; = \n -> lin N (regN n) ;
Table 1 presents an example of the main mkN : (s : Str) -> Gender -> N
procedure, based on which we created the noun = \n,g -> lin N (mkN1 n g) ;..................};
morphology and it is also representative of the
process that was followed in order to handle the mkN1 : Str -> Gender -> N = \x,g ->
morphology of the main declinable parts of case x of {................
c + ("ι"|"σ"|"όι"|"άι") => mkNoun_agori x g ;
speech. The example concerns the creation of ................ } ** {lock_N = <>} ;
nouns of neuter gender, ending in –ι, such as the
noun αγόρι agóri “boy”. Lexicon :abstract fun boy_N : N ;
Lexicon MG lin boy_N = mkN "αγόρι"
Common abstract grammar : categories Neut;
Cat N ; Lexicon English lin boy_N = mkN masculine
MG Resource grammar : Resource module (regN "boy") ;
Param Parsing into the abstract categories
Number = Sg | Pl ; Lang> parse –cat=N –lang=Gre “αγοριών”
Case = Nom | Gen | Acc | Vocative |CPrep Prepos; boy_N
Gender = Masc | Fem | Neut | Change;
Lang> parse –cat=N –lang=Eng “boys’”
128
boy_N Future and denoting whether the action
Generating the full inflectional paradigms expressed by the verb is viewed either as
Lang> linearize -lang=Gre -table boy_N occurring repeatedly, as a completed event, or as
s Sg Nom : αγόρι an event completed in the past, whose
s Sg Gen : αγοριού completion is relevant to some other point in
s Sg Acc : αγόρι time. Noun phrases (NP) represent the subject of
s Sg Vocative : αγόρι the sentence and thus, they appear in the
s Sg (CPrep P_se) : αγόρι nominative case, while agreement rules pass the
s Sg (CPrep PNul) : αγόρι grammatical features of the NP to the form of the
s Sg (CPrep P_Dat) : αγοριού verb. For the creation of the predication rule in
s Pl Nom : αγόρια our grammar, which forms a clause, we needed
s Pl Gen : αγοριών
s Pl Acc : αγόρια to take into consideration the presence of subject
s Pl Vocative : αγόρια NPs that present a negative connotation (i.e.
s Pl (CPrep P_se) : αγόρια κανένας kanénas “nobody”) and impose the use
s Pl (CPrep PNul) : αγόρια of a negative polarity in the clause. Accordingly,
s Pl (CPrep P_Dat) : αγοριών we are making a distinction between the different
Lang> linearize -lang=Eng -table boy_N moods, in order to assign the relevant particles
s Sg Nom : boy that introduce the clause and which also vary
s Sg Gen : boy's depending on the polarity. Interrogative
s Pl Nom : boys sentences do not defer from declarative
s Pl Gen : boys' sentences, in the sense that they use the exact
Table 1: The Noun Morphology same rules applied in declarations, while they are
4 Syntax simply characterized by the addition of the
The GF abstract syntax provides rules for all the question mark (;). Wh–questions are introduced
common phrase structures: noun phrases with an interrogative word which may be
(constructed of pronouns, proper nouns or indeclinable τι ti “what” or declinable for gender,
common nouns and their modifiers), adjectival number and case: ποιός-ποιά-ποιό poiós-poiá-
and verb phrases with their complements. The poió “who”. The selection of the appropriate
MG grammar covers all the above structures and gender of the interrogative word in our grammar
successfully correlates the language with the is a subject of interest. Whilst in most cases the
various languages included in the RGL. Due to masculine gender is used as an abstract gender
the fact that MG is a highly inflected language when introducing wh-questions, in particular
and given that the various morphological features contexts, when the gender of the subject under
express grammatical notations, the word order in question is known, the interrogative word should
a phrase is relatively free. Although all six be labeled by the gender of the known subject,
logical permutations of the major clausal without that implying that the use of the
constituents are usually considered masculine gender in such cases in considered
4 semantically incorrect. Relative clauses on the
grammatically correct (Tzanidaki, 1995), SVO other hand, present a more complex syntactic
remains the predominant word order. The structure and a number of possible alternations,
implemented rules in our grammar cover mainly as they are introduced by two main types of
the most common word order, unless the relative markers: the indeclinable ποσ pou “that,
syntactic mechanisms of the phrase itself require which” or the declinable relative pronoun ο
otherwise. οποίος o opoíos “which”. The MG grammar
4.1 Clauses provides both forms and utilizes the two different
relative markers, as the form alternates when its
The formation of the clause relies on a number of syntactic function in the relative clause requires a
parameters, namely the order, the tense, the genitive, or when it appears in a prepositional or
polarity and the mood. In main indicative clauses adverbial phrase. The antecedent of a relative
the tense defines the point of time of the verb in sentence might appear in the form not only of a
relation to the time of speaking. MG has 8 noun phrase but also of a sentence, as in the
tenses that are divided in three major categories: phrase “She sleeps, which is good”. When the
those that refer to the Present, the Past and the antecedent is sentential, the relative clause can be
introduced either with ποσ pou “that” or with the
4 Subject-Verb-Object relative pronoun ο οποίος o opoíos “which”,
129
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