Курсовая работа: Algorithmic recognition of the Verb

Next, the ending -ly of the Adverb separately is found in List No 9 and this gives enough reason to send it to the NG (No 64):

Separately =NG

Now we come to a difficult word again, because rented can be either a Verb or an Adjective, or even Participle 1st. Since its ending -ted is found in List No 8, rented is sent to instructions No 128-164 for further analysis as a special case. With instructions No 144 and 145 the algorithm chooses to recognize rented as a Participle (1st) and to attribute it to the NG:

Rented = NG

Next comes living. At first it also seems to be a special case (since it can be Noun, Gerund, Verb - as part of a Compound Tense - Adjective or Participle). Instruction No 69 establishes that this word ends in -ing and No 70 sends it for further analysis to instructions No 246-303. Almost towards the end (instructions No 300 and 301), the algorithm decides to attribute living to the acknowledging that it is a Present Participle. If the program were more precise, it would be able also to say that living is an Adjective used as an attribute.The last word in this sequence is quarters. The way it ends very much resembles a verbal ending (3rd person singular). Will the algorithm make a mistake this time? Instruction No 67 recognizes that the ending -s is ambiguous and sends quarters to instructions No 165 245 for more detailed analysis. Then the word passes unsuccessfully (unrecognized) through many instructions till it finally reaches instruction No 233, where it is evidenced that quarters is followed by a Punctuation Mark and this serves as sufficient reason to attribute it to the NG:

Quarters = NG

Finally, our algorithmic analysis of the above sentence ends with commendable results: no error.However, in the long run we would expect errors to appear, mainly when we deal with Verbs, but these are not likely to exceed 2 per cent. For example, an error can be detected in the following sample sentence:.Not only has his poetic fame - as was inevitable - been overshadowed by that of Shakespeare but he was long believed to have entertained and to have taken frequent opportunities oj expressing a malign jealousy oj one both greater and more successful than himself.

This sentence is divided into VG and NG in the following manner:

Text Word Group

Not VG

Only NG

Has VG

His poetic fame NG

As NG

Was VG

Inevitable NG

Been overshadowed VG

By that of Shakespeare NG

But he NG

Was long believed to have entertained VG

And NG

To have taken VG

Frequent opportunities of expressing NG

A malign jealousy of one both greater NG

And NG

More successful than himself. NG

As is seen in the above example, the word long was wrongly attributed to the VG (according to our specifications laid down as a starting point for the algorithm it should belong to the NG).The reader, if he or she has enough patience, can put to the test many sentences in the way described above (following the algorithmic instructions), to prove for himself (herself) the accuracy of our description.Though this is a description designed for computer use (to be turned into a computer software program), nevertheless it will surely be quite interesting for a moment or two to put ourselves on a par with the computer in order to understand better how it works. Of course, that is not the way we would do the job. Our knowledge of grammar is far superior, and we understand the meaning of the sentence while the computer does not. The information used by the computer is extremely limited, only that presented in the instructions (operations) and in the Lists.Further on we will try to give the computer more information (Algorithm No 3 and the algorithms in Part 2) and correspondingly increase our requirements.

Conclusion

• Most of the procedures to determine the nominal or verbal nature of the wordform, depending on its context, are based on the phrasal and syntactic structures present in the Sentence (for example, instructions 11 and 12, 67 and 68, 85, etc.), i.e. structures such as Preposition + Article + Noun; will (shall) + be + (Adverb) + Participle; to + be + (not) + Participle 2nd + to + Verb; -ing + Possessive Pronoun + Noun, etc. (the words in brackets represent alternatives).