Sublanguage grammers in science information processing

This paper presents the results of an investigation into information structures in natural language science texts. A novel hypothesis was tested; namely, that the literature of a science subfield has characteristic restrictions on lanugage usage which can be used to develop information formats for text sentences in the subfield. The formats provide a standard representation of the specific types of information found in sentences of subfield articles, though a priori semantic categories are not used. The method of sublanguage grammars for obtaining information formats is described. Illustrations are drawn from a sublanguage grammar written for a subfield of pharmacology. Parts of the procedure are computerized or are being implemented.