AceConfiguration

ACE configuration file

This page documents various options in ACE's grammar-specific configuration file.

The ACE configuration file uses a TDL-like syntax; comments start with semicolons, and each other line looks like:

parameter := value.

The format of the value field varies depending on the parameter.

Values that are filesystem paths are always in double quotes and are relative to the configuration file's location.

Paths to other files:

version	path to a text file containing the grammar version within double quotes
grammar-top	path to a TDL file that includes the rest of the grammar
preprocessor	path to a .rpp file defining the REPP
preprocessor-modules	list of unquoted paths to REPP modules to enable
maxent-model	path to a .mem file for ranking
variable-property-mapping	path to the VPM definition for parsing/generating
input-vpm	path to the input VPM definition, when 'transfer' is set to 'enabled'
output-vpm	path to the output VPM definition, when 'transfer' is set to 'enabled'
parse-node-labels	path to a TDL file defining parse node labels (unused)
generation-ignore-signs	path to a file listing rule and lexeme names to disable for generation
generation-ignore-lexemes	path to a file listing more lexeme names to disable for generation
generation-ignore-rules	path to a file listing more rule names to disable for generation
generation-trigger-rules	path to an MTR file defining trigger rules for generation
generation-fixup-rules	path to an MTR file defining transfer rules to massage MRSes before generation
cleanup-rules	path to an MTR file defining transfer rules to massage MRSes read off of TFSes
idiom-rules	path to an MTR file defining idiom-checking rules for parsing
quickcheck-code	path to a text file defining the quickcheck skeleton
quickcheck-instance	name of an instance containing a PET-style quickcheck skeleton (not a string)
semantic-interface	path to a .smi file defining the SEMI
irregular-forms	list of unquoted paths to irregular form tables

Types

top-type	name of the type at the root of the type hierarchy
semarg-type	grammar-internal supertype of MRS variables
handle-type	SEMI type for MRS handles and holes
skolem-feature	feature name where skolem constants are put (defaults to INSTLOC)
list-type	type for lists
cons-type	type for non-empty lists
null-type	type for empty lists
diff-list-type	type for diff-lists
semantic-interface-top-type	the name of the type at the top of the SEMI type hierarchy

Paths within AVMs

orth-path	path to orthography list within a sign
lex-rels-path	path to list of EPs supplied by a lexeme
lex-carg-path	path to CARG of a lexeme's key relation (old, unused)
lex-pred-path	path to PRED of a lexeme's key relation (old, unused)
rule-rels-path	path to list of EPs supplied by a rule
semantics-path	path to the MRS structure of a sign
hook-path	path to the structure containing LTOP and INDEX inside an MRS TFS
label-path	path to the label string on a parse-node instance; default is "LNAME"
mrs-rels-list	path to the RELS list within an MRS structure; default is "RELS LIST"
mrs-hcons-list	path to the HCONS list within an MRS structure; default is "HCONS LIST"
mrs-icons-list	path to the ICONS list within an MRS structure (if enabled); default is "ICONS LIST"
icons-left	feature for the left side of an ICONS element; default is "IC-LEFT"
icons-right	feature for the right side of an ICONS element; default is "IC-RIGHT"
chart-dependencies	a (flat) list of pairs of quoted paths used for removing unwanted lexemes from the chart before parsing. a lexeme with a non-*top* value for the first path in a pair will only survive if there is another lexeme with a compatible value at the second path in the pair.

Token Mapping

token-mapping	enabled (normal) or disabled (legacy; not well supported)
token-type	type of a token feature structure
lexicon-tokens-path	path to the list of tokens that license a lexeme
lexicon-tokens-last-path	path to the LAST pointer for the diff-list-like token list
token-form-path	path within a token to the surface form string
token-from-path	path within a token to the CFROM (character start position) field
token-to-path	path within a token to the CTO (character end position) field
token-id-path	path within a token to the ID
token-postags-path	path within a token to the POS tag list
token-posprobs-path	path within a token to the POS tag probability list
lattice-mapping-input-path	path within a lattice mapping rule to the input list
lattice-mapping-output-path	path within a lattice mapping rule to the output list
lattice-mapping-context-path	path within a lattice mapping rule to the context list
lattice-mapping-position-path	path within a lattice mapping rule to the positional constraints

Miscellaneous Switches

index-accessibility-filtering	enabled or disabled. this significantly reduces generation time, but if important references to MRS variables are on the packing restrictor then it can cause generation to fail.
generalize-edge-top-types	enabled or disabled. sets the top-level type of all passive edges to sign, which results in significantly increased packing with some grammars. may or may not be a net win, considering additional failures in unpacking.
english-pos-tagger	enabled or disbled. runs the input through a built-in trigram HMM tagger (but you need to supply the training data) and records the results in the token structures.
simplify-lexicon	enabled or disabled. ERG-specific; attempts to represent the lexicon more compactly.
extra-erg-dag-stash	enabled or disabled. ERG-specific; keeps extra copies of some common GLB types DAGs on hand.
process-chart-dependencies-before-lexical-parsing	enabled or disabled. when enabled, chart reduction happens before lexical parsing (default is after lexical parsing).
enable-icons	enabled or disabled. Controls support for ICONS in MRSes.

General Configuration

transfer	enabled or disabled. defaults to disabled. when enabled, ACE processes transfer grammars instead of syntactic grammars. adjustment of several MRS configuration parameters may be necessary.
spanning-only-rules	list of rules to only allow in the spanning chart cell
fragment-only-rules	list of rules to only allow when fragment parsing is enabled
hyper-active-rules	list of rules for which hyperactive parsing should be used
deleted-daughters	list of features to delete on new passive edges
parsing-packing-restrictor	list of features to suppress until unpacking while parsing
generation-packing-restrictor	list of features to suppress until unpacking while generating
mrs-deleted-roles	list of features on internal MRS variable AVMs that should not be exported when presenting final MRSes (superceded by VPM?)
parsing-roots	list of root instances enabled for parsing
generation-roots	list of root instances enabled for generation
non-idiom-root	the name of an instance to check against all parsing results to see whether further idiom processing is required
generic-les-for-semantic-index	list of the names of the generic lexemes that can be used to provide an unknown relation in generation
ortho-max-rules	maximum length of a chain of orthographemic rules to allow in parsing
ortho-warn-on-max-rules	whether to print a warning when the limit of orthographemic rules is reached
freezer-megabytes	defaults to 256; make it bigger if you get a warning about it.
irregular-form-rule-suffix	a string to append to the rule names found in irregular form tables.
invent-ltop	enabled or disabled. if disabled, the MRS LTOP will be extracted from the grammar. otherwise, it will be invented as a new hole connected to the grammar-provided LTOP by a QEQ.