TreeForm : explaining and exploring grammar through syntax trees

Donald Derrick, Daniel Archambault

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Linguists studying grammar often describe their models using a syntax tree. Drawing a syntax tree involves the depiction of a rooted tree with additional syntactic features using specific domain conventions. TreeForm assists users in developing syntax trees, complete with movement lines, coreference, and feature association, in order to explore their syntactic theories and explain them to their colleagues. It is a drag-and-drop alternative to LaTeX and labelled bracket notation tools already available, which many linguists find difficult to use. We compare the output of TreeForm to those existing tools and show that it is able to better respect the conventions of the domain. We assess how easily linguists learn to use TreeForm through a series of cognitive walkthroughs. Our reviews find that TreeForm is a viable alternative to existing tools.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)53-66
    Number of pages14
    JournalLiterary and Linguistic Computing
    Volume25
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2010

    Keywords

    • grammar
    • syntax

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'TreeForm : explaining and exploring grammar through syntax trees'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this