Writing a parser the right way?

[Steven Bethard]

Christopher Subich wrote:
> beza1e1 wrote:
> 
>> Well, a declarative sentence is essentially subject-predicate-object,
>> while a question is predicate-subject-object. This is important in
>> further processing. So perhaps i should code this order into the
>> classes? I need to think a little bit more about this.
> 
> A question is subject-predicate-object?
> 
> That was unknown by me.
> 
> Honestly, if you're trying a general English parser, good luck.

I second that.  Have you read any of the natural language processing 
reasearch in this area?  There are a variety of English parsers already 
available?  Googling for "charniak parser" or "collins parser" should 
get you something.  I believe Dan Bikel has one too.  Those are trained 
on Wall Street Journal text.  You might also look into Minipar, which is 
rule-based and not as WSJ specific.

STeVe