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From: marcel@uiucdcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: ~400 English verbs of <= 7 words - (nf)
Message-ID: <3444@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Oct-83 20:31:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.3444
Posted: Wed Oct 26 20:31:21 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Oct-83 07:51:03 EDT
Lines: 59

#N:uiucdcs:19000027:000:2203
uiucdcs!marcel    Oct 26 17:30:00 1983

	I was recently experimenting with the amazing variety of English verb
forms, so as to generate a grammar for them. I generated (automatically) all
the verb combinations obtainable by stringing together all the verb PAIRS I
knew of, including special combinations like `am going to' `used to'
`have/has/had to'; auxiliary verbs (other than have & be, namely will/should/
must/can etc); and emphatics (I do like ..). This gave approximately 4000
feasible verb combinations of 7 words or less. Using my judgment about which
combinations `made sense', while deliberately erring on the generous side,
I reduced the number -- to nearly 400 verb forms! Suffice it to say that I
could not have generated a complete grammar for them without automatic help,
for both the generation and the analysis.

	For feedback's sake I include the grammar. It does not include adverbs
or negatives. On the other hand, the grammar does allow some verbs that don't
make much sense, such as  `I was having to have to try'. But for a first pass
at automatic grammar synthesis it's at least interesting. I can provide copies
of the 400 verb forms on request. (NB: participial verb forms, such as might
begin a participial phrase, can be matched by the PED and PING rules, but I
did not include them in my examples set).

	In the grammar below, for `is' read also am/are (ie conjugated present
of `to be'); for `was' read also `were'; similarly for `does' and `has'.
Also, `aux' means any one of will/shall/should/might/could/must/can/may etc;
`inf' means any verb infinitive; `pastpart' means any past participle;
`prespart' means any present participle. Capitalized names represent
production-names.


	VERB ==>   aux() PRES  |
		   {did} used TO  |
		   [ did | does ] [ have TO | inf() ]  |
		   [ is | was ] [ PING | TO | pastpart() ]  |
		   [ has | had ] [ PED | TO ]

	TO   ==>  to PRES

	PRES ==>  inf()  |
		  have TO  |
		  have PED  |
		  be pastpart()  |
		  be PING

	PING ==>  going TO  |
		  having TO  |
		  being pastpart()  |
		  prespart()

	PED  ==>  pastpart()  |
		  had TO  |
		  been PING  |
		  been pastpart()

						Marcel Schoppers
						U of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign
						pur-ee!uiucdcs!marcel
~