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A Useful Grammar Checker?

Posted by Cliff on from the what-set-of-rules-do-you-use dept.

burtdub asks: "With the amount of raw text data available, there seems to be no shortage of ambitious language projects on the horizon, from Universal Language Translators to Junk Email Filtering. However, the mess that is the English language still seems to elude commercial attempts while being relatively ignored by the open source community. What would it take to make a useful, functional grammar checker?"

8 of 503 comments (clear)

  1. Simple enough. by FireballX301 · · Score: 4, Funny

    All you need is my 7th grade English teacher staring over your shoulder all day.

    That'll get you twisted into shape real good.

    1. Re:Simple enough. by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 3, Funny

      My missus does that all the time and when I showed her the original reply I had written she corrected me on that, then went away and banged her head on the wall because she realised what I was posting about.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
  2. Re:AI by tktk · · Score: 3, Funny
    Artificial stupidity can also be used to simulate bad English.

    What's the point in having artificial stupidity when we have natural stupidity in abundance?

  3. Bask in it! by TheTranceFan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ahhh the irony of asking Slashdot how to build a grammar checker!

  4. best solution: by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Funny

    1. break text source into a handful of slashdot comments, and submit each comment

    2. wait for the inevitable uppity howling condescending grammar nazi to response to whatever grammatical errors exist, however slight or unimportant

    3. reassemble text source and apply grammar nazis' edits

    voila! grammar checking via redundant network of distributed grammar nazis (tm)

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    1. Re:best solution: by the+phantom · · Score: 5, Funny

      there should be a comma between 'uppity' and 'howling'
      there should be a comma between 'howling' and 'condescending'
      'response' should be 'respond'
      'voila' should be capitalized
      should read: 'via [a|the] redundant' OR 'via redundant networks'
      there should be a period after '(tm)'

      --
      Rhapsody in Numbers
  5. Re:What would it take? by the+phantom · · Score: 5, Funny

    A linguistics professor is giving a lecture. He explains that in English, prescriptive grammar dictates that a double negative creates a positive, for instance "I ain't got no money" would parse as "I have money." He then goes on to explain that in many languages, a double negative creates a more emphatic negative, for instance, in Russian "U menya nyet nichyevo" (literally, "By me is not had nothing") uses two negative phrases to create a stronger negative. Furthermore, the prof explains, in most languages, using two positives will create a more emphatic positive, or at the very least, will not change the meaning of a phrase, for instance "Yes, I have bananas" is fundamentally the same as "I have bananas." However, the proffessor concludes, in no language does a double positive create a negative.

    A student, in the back of the class, muttering under his breath, was heard to utter "Yeah, right."

    --
    Rhapsody in Numbers
  6. Re:adjective-noun order in French (BANGS) by geminidomino · · Score: 3, Funny

    A man's shirt is a feminine object, and a woman's blouse is a masculine object? Why?!

    Hey, anything that wants to be pressed against boobies all day can be assumed to be masculine. :)