The implementation of a computational grammar of French using the Grammar Development Environment

The design and implementation of a large-coverage computational grammar of French is described. This grammar is compared to a comprehensive computational grammar of English which was implemented using the same computer workbench. Although many similarities may be observed in the two grammars, there are important structural d i f ferences which can be traced back to features specific to the F~'ench language, notably agreement and cliticization. 1 I n t r o d u c t i o n We present a large-coverage computational grammar of French (CGF) 1 and discuss some implementation aspects of' this grammar by comparing it to the Alvey Natural Language Tools Grmm mar (ANLT Grammar) (Grover et al., 1.993) which wins also implemented using the Grammar Development Environment (GDE) (Bogm'aev et al., 1988). The grammar of French was implemented as part of a larger project, the goals of which are the development and application of Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG) (Gazdar et al., 1985) in general and the design and implementat ion of a comprehensive computational grammar for French in particular. In this paper, we highlight the many similarities between the two grammars but especially differences due to phenomena particular to French. This leads to a description of the major structural differences between tile two grammars. We shall not justify the reasons for our choice of GPSG but will simply point out that GPSG is a formal theory which is unification-based and hence well-suited for computational linguistics. The Grammar Development Environment is a computer workbench for the development and evaluation of computational grammars of natural 1This resem'ch is flmded by SSHRCC (40-93-0607) and by FCAR (95ERl198) language which are described in a style close to that of GPSG. It embodies a modified version of GPSC which is easier to implement than its theoretical counterpart. The GDE was developed as part of the Alvey Natural Language Tools project in the UK. 2 C o m p a r i s o n o f t h e t w o