The PAPPI System: A Principle-Based Parser


	Announcing the first public release of PAPPI, a Prolog-based
	natural language parser for theories in the Principles-and-
	Parameters framework. PAPPI is designed to run on Sun Sparc-
	stations with Quintus Prolog. The PAPPI system includes:

	* An X-Window system-based user interface to the 
	  underlying Prolog-based parser.

	* A sample implementation of classic GB-theory, based
	  on theory described in Lasnik and Uriagereka's textbook
	  "A Course in GB Syntax". The implementation also includes
	  sets of example sentences and sample parameterization for
	  six languages. Currently, these are English, Japanese, 
	  Dutch, French, Spanish and German. (This software was
	  recently demoed at COLING '94.)

	PAPPI is a parser that is designed to be a high-level research
	tool for experimenting with and learning about linguistic
	theory. This release represents just one possible instantiation 
	within the Principles-and-Parameters framework. Users are
	encouraged to experiment with and modify the sample principles. 

	The PAPPI system represents code written to support research
	work. It is still very much under development.	Alternate 
	theories (and more sophisticated parsing models) will be made
	publically available at a later	stage. Upcoming releases may
	also support other platforms and may not need Quintus Prolog.

	This is free software developed	at the NEC Research Institute,
	Inc., an institute for conducting long-term, fundamental
	research in computer and physical sciences. Comments and
	suggestions for improvement to the system will be gratefully
	accepted! I would like to also hear from those interested in
	extending the system. The PAPPI project also welcomes unencumbered
	software contributions, including (but not limited to) support
	for additional languages, theory and debugging tools.

	The system is available for anonymous ftp as:

		external.nj.nec.com:/pub/sandiway/Pappi-2.0X.tar.Z

	[Note: X is an alphabetic character denoting the current 
	 minor release.]

	A .gz compressed version of the same tar file is also 
	available as:

		external.nj.nec.com:/pub/sandiway/Pappi-2.0X.tar.gz

	This version is recommended for those for those installations
	having GNU compress.

	Current requirements:

		Sun Sparcstation
		SunOS 4.1.3 or 5.3 (aka Solaris 2.3)
		Quintus Prolog 3.1.4 or 3.1.1 (June 1992)
		Approx. 35MB of disk space (55-70MB to install)
	
	Contact address:

		Dr. Sandiway Fong
		NEC Research Institute, Inc.
		Princeton NJ 08540
		USA 
		Email: sandiway@research.nj.nec.com
		Fax: (609) 951-2482