Lingustics::Verbs::Verbvector::VerbvectorGenerator

This is, what I hope will become a burgeoning array of tools for those interested in languages and linguistics. Any given language’s conjugation can be seen as a vector, an intersection of several aspects that singularly identify the correct grammatical choice for a given utterance.

In Latin, for example, this is defined by voice, mood, tense, number, and person. Other languages have a more- or less-specific vector. The function of this module, therefore, is to make the exhaustive generation of these vectors simple.

Usage

Usage is performed by passing a DSL into the module. The module then returns a module based on the language parameter. This resultant module can be mixed-in to your class (say, LanguageVerb) to define all the possible method calls (for playing nice with responds_to in case LanguageVerb uses metaprogramming in its responses)

DSL

Initial attempts at producing a verb tense generator wound up producing an incredibly confusing snarl of eval statments and other oddities and wound up neither being specific enough to be easily used nor portable enough to be generally helpful.

The DSL is simple and recognizes the following statements:

language :LanguageName block

The first statement. It takes a block that will be further processed and which contains other defining statements for the :Language. The only accepted argument is a symbol for the Language name.

all_vectors :position block

This defines an aspect common to all vectors. Aspects are defined in an anonymous hash included in the block. The :position symbol is not presently used but instead stacks from left to right. This may have reason to change.

Inside the block one gives the aspect as a symbol and then gives an array containing the valid specifications for that aspect.

Example:

{
 :voice =>  %w(active passive),
 :mood  =>  %w(indicative subjunctive imperative)
}

vectors_that Regexp block

This defines an aspect common to all vectors. Aspects are defined in an anonymous hash included in the block. Thus for all existing vectors in the vector stack that match the Regexp, this aspect/specification will be added

{
  :tense  => %w(present imperfect future
                perfect pastperfect futureperfect)
}

exception (:remove|:add), :branch block

Languages are not perfectly rational in their combinations. Occasionally you may need to manually add a vector or, more likely, prune a vector.

Example

Taken from the test/ directory

Lingustics::Verbs::Verbvector::VerbvectorGenerator.new do
   language :Latin do
     all_vectors :start_with do
        {
         :voice =>  %w(active passive),
         :mood  =>  %w(indicative subjunctive imperative)
        }
     end
     vectors_that /.*_indicative_mood/ do
       {
         :tense  => %w(present imperfect future
                       perfect pastperfect futureperfect)
       }
     end
     vectors_that /.*_subjunctive_mood/ do
       {
         :tense => %w(present imperfect 
                       perfect pastperfect)
       }
     end
     vectors_that /.*_imperative_mood/ do
       {
         :tense => %w(present)
       }
     end
     all_vectors :end_with do
       {
         :number => %w(singular plural),
         :person => %w(first second third)
       }
     end
     exception :remove, :passive_voice_imperative_mood_present_tense
   end
 end

Author

Steven G. Harms

sgharms/VerbvectorGenerator