Systemic Grammar In Computation: The Nigel Case

Abstract : Systemic grammar, the framework developed by M.A.K. Halliday and others, has been used successfully in the service of computational linguistic tasks, both in generation and in parsing. Currently a large computational systemic grammar of English, the Nigel grammar, is being developed for text generation. This report uses this grammar for an examination of what the design properties of systemic grammar are that make it attractive for text generation. In particular, the functional character of the grammar and its organization around the notion of choice are presented. The generation of one example is discussed. (Author)