Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Open Source Grammar Checkers?

Posted by Cliff on from the checked-grammar-this-is dept.

DaveBarr asks: "Maybe I'm more sensitive to this than most, but after continuing to see "it's" instead of "its" and "loose" instead of "lose" everywhere in the media and on web sites of supposedly reputable origin, I began to wonder. Are there any Open Source projects trying to develop a reliable grammar checker -- one that would catch these common foibles? Are all these algorithms proprietary? Are there any University research projects which could be used as a basis for even a halfway-decent grammar checker?"

2 of 17 comments (clear)

  1. GNU/FSF has one by severett · · Score: 2

    There is a program called diction.

    This is a GNU program still in development. It's available at:
    this link

    I've played with diction and it's not bad, not great but not bad. :)

  2. Parsing English (or any other language) by Greg+Merchan · · Score: 2

    Frankly, I'm suprised that I haven't seen a program that understands a spoken human language. The rules are codified in millions of textbooks and semantics should be parsable from WordNet, the OED or various other sources. And there are plenty of 'M-x doctor'-like programs that try to emulate conversation; and some of them, like megahal, can 'learn' well enough to fool some people.

    I've even played with coding a C library that reads like English without proper writing mechanics. A natural language interpreter shouldn't be too hard, though it would be time consuming and would probably not produce a substantial return on investment to a financial sponsor.

    I am inclined to think that the problem is ideological. There are so many disagreements among philosophers, linguists, and computer scientists as to the meaning of 'The cows are brown.' that unless one person is sufficiently savvy of all three and some other disciplines, no consensus or plan will ever be implemented.