LkbRpc

Background

As of late 2010, the LKB sports an XML-RPC interface to select functionality. Initially, this add-on module is only available in the so-called LOGON tree (see the LogonTop page for background) and limited to quite a small number of functions, viz. those needed to enable an on-going PhD project on incremental parsing.

Interface Functions

Following is a semi-formal summary of the available XML-RPC interface. In terms of data types, integer corresponds to <I4> and string to <STRING>.

• chart.create → integer

  Many of the interface functions either create or operate on so-called chart edges, essentially a representation of a tree fragment, where the daughters (if any), in turn, are represented as edges. This function creates a new chart object, which can subsequently serve as the (per-client) storage for chart edges. Return values greater than zero indicate success (and constitute valid chart handles for subsequent calls).

• grammar.instantiate-lexical-entry ( integer chart, string surface, string entity ) → integer

  Instantiates the lexical entry named entity, specializing its orthography to surface, and stores a new edge in chart.

• grammar.instantiate-rule ( integer chart, string entity ) → integer

  Instantiates the grammar rule name entity and stores a new edge in chart.

• chart.combine ( integer chart, integer mother, integer child, integer index ) → integer

  Combines chart edges mother and child, by unifying the feature structure of child into the argument position of mother indicated by index (where argument positions are zero-based); when successful, stores a new edge in chart. A return value of zero indicates unification failure.

• chart.release ( integer chart ) → integer

  Release the storage associated to chart, including all edges recorded there. Upon successful completion (indicated by a zero return value), chart is no longer a valid handle, nor are any edge handles contained in chart.