simplenlg.framework

Class NLGModule

java.lang.Object

simplenlg.framework.NLGModule

Direct Known Subclasses:

Aggregator, HTMLFormatter, MorphologyProcessor, MorphologyRules, NewAggregator, OrthographyProcessor, Realiser, SyntaxProcessor, TextFormatter

public abstract class NLGModule
extends Object

NLGModule is the base class that all processing modules extend from. This is abstract and cannot therefore be instantiated itself. The supplied processing modules that come pre-packaged in SimpleNLG can be found within their appropriate packages.

All processing modules perform realisation on a tree of NLGElements. The modules can alter the tree in whichever way they wish. For example, the syntax processor replaces phrase elements with list elements consisting of inflected words while the morphology processor replaces inflected words with string elements.

N.B. the use of module, processing module and processor is interchangeable. They all mean an instance of this class.

Version:

4.0

Author:

D. Westwater, University of Aberdeen.

Field Summary

Fields

Modifier and Type	Field and Description
protected Lexicon	lexicon The lexicon that is to be used by this module.

Constructor Summary

Constructors

Constructor and Description
NLGModule()

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
Lexicon	getLexicon() Retrieves the lexicon currently being used by this module.
abstract void	initialise() Performs one-time initialisation of the module.
abstract List<NLGElement>	realise(List<NLGElement> elements) Realises a List of NLGElements usually by iteratively calling the realise(NLGElement) method on each element in the list and adding the result into a new a List
abstract NLGElement	realise(NLGElement element) Realises the given element.
void	setLexicon(Lexicon newLexicon) Sets the lexicon to be used by this module.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Field Detail

lexicon

protected Lexicon lexicon

The lexicon that is to be used by this module.

Constructor Detail

NLGModule

public NLGModule()

Method Detail

initialise

public abstract void initialise()

Performs one-time initialisation of the module.

realise

public abstract NLGElement realise(NLGElement element)

Realises the given element. This call is usually recursive as the call processes the child elements of the given element.

Parameters:

element - the NLGElement to be realised.

Returns:

the NLGElement representing the realised state. This may be the initial element in a changed form or be a completely new element.

realise

public abstract List<NLGElement> realise(List<NLGElement> elements)

Realises a List of NLGElements usually by iteratively calling the realise(NLGElement) method on each element in the list and adding the result into a new a List

Parameters:

elements - the List of NLGElements to be realised.

Returns:

the List of realised NLGElements.

setLexicon

public void setLexicon(Lexicon newLexicon)

Sets the lexicon to be used by this module. Passing in null will remove the existing lexicon and no lexicon will be used.

Parameters:

newLexicon - the new Lexicon to be used.

getLexicon

public Lexicon getLexicon()

Retrieves the lexicon currently being used by this module.

Returns:

the Lexicon in use. This will be null if there is currently no lexicon associated with this module.