ABSTRACT
In this paper, we employ the Government and Binding theory (GB) to present a system that analyzes the syntactic structure of some simple Arabic sentences structures. We consider different word orders in Arabic and show how they are derived. We include an analysis of Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), Verb-Object-Subject (VOS), Verb-Subject-Object (VSO), nominal sentences, nominal sentences with inna (or sisters), and question sentences. We use the analysis to develop syntactic rules for a fragment of Arabic, such that we include two sets of rules
(1)Â Â Â Â rules on sentences structures that do not account for case and
(2)Â Â Â Â rules on sentences structures that account for Noun Phrases (NPs) case. We present an implementation of the grammar rules in prolog. The results of testing the system t were reasonable with a high accuracy especially when the input sentences are tagged with identification of end cases.
Keywords—component; formatting; style; styling; insert (key words)
CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
I.      INTRODUCTION
Syntactic analysis is essential in Natural Language Processing (NLP). It is based on parsing sentences to identify their components. It plays an essential role in many applications, such as grammar checking, text generation and machine translation.
Parsing Arabic texts is challenging because Arabic language has rich morphology due to its highly inflectional nature, highly flexible word order and frequent use of clitics that are attached to words.
The emphasis in this paper is on the use of Government and Binding theory (GB) in analyzing the syntactic structure of some simple Arabic sentences' structures. We consider different word orders in Arabic and show how they are derived. We shall include an analysis of SVO, VOS, VSO, nominal sentences, nominal sentences with inna (or sisters), and question sentences. We use the analysis to develop syntactic rules for a fragment of Arabic, such that we include two sets of rules (1) rules on sentences structures that do not account for case and (2) rules on sentences structures that account for NPs case. We present an implementation of the grammar rules in prolog. Due to space limitation, we shall not present some important computational steps and we shall not present the structure of the lexicon needed to build the implemented system.
In section 2 we present a brief introduction to Arabic. In section 3 we discuss the notion of syntactic analysis. In section 4 we give a brief presentation of GB. In section 5 we present an analysis of some aspects of Arabic syntax. Sections 6 and 7 are dedicated to the parser and its implementation.
II.              BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO ARABIC
Arabic is a Semitic language that has a rich morphology and flexible word order. In this paper we are concerned with Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) version used in modern writing and understood by Arabic language speakers. Arabic grammar distinguishes between two types of sentences, verbal and nominal. Nominal sentences have two parts: a subject (أﺪﺘﺒﻣ) and a predicate (ﺮﺒﺧ). When the nominal sentence is about being, i.e. if...