INSYST: An Automatic Inserter System for Hierarchical Lexica

When using hierarchical formalisms for lexical information, the need arises to insert (i.e. classify) lexical items into these hierarchies. This includes at least the following two situations: (1) testing generalizations when designing a lexical hierarchy; (2) transferring large numbers of lexical items from raw data files to a finished lexical hierarchy when using it to build a large lexicon. Lip until now, no automated system for these insertion tasks existed. INSYST (INserter SYSTem), we describe here, can efficiently insert lexical items under the appropriate nodes in hierarchies. It currently handles hierarchies specified in the DATR formalism (Evans and Gazdar 1989, 1990). The system uses a classification algorithm that maximizes the number of inherited features for each entry.