DepPattern is also provided with a configuration file, called ``lexical_classes.conf'', containing word sets likely to be used in any rule. Let's see an example: instead of using directly in a rule all those possible lemmas considered as adverbial quantifiers, it is more economical to declare a lexical class, called for instance ``$Quant'', instanciated by the corresponding lexical units:
$Quant = very quite more less
$Quant is a lexical variable likeky to be used in whatever rule. For instance, the rule
AdjunctLeft : ADV<lemma:$Quant> ADJ
%
states that there is an adjunct dependency between an adverb belonging to the lexical class $Quant and any adjective at its right.
Any set of words, even a huge list learnt automatically from a corpus, can become a lexical class.
Pablo Gamallo
2009-09-14