TomarValues

Background

Ever since we re-launched the public DELPH-IN web pages (in 2014), several of us (in the Standing Committee, and beyond) have felt we should try to produce a mission statement for DELPH-IN, i.e. a comparatively short, concise text that spells out the most important, high-level (defining, in a sense) aspects of the collaboration. Part of the motivation here can be to educate and motivate ourselves, another part can be ‘marketing’ value, i.e. utility in introducing the larger world to the DELPH-IN philosophy.

Candidate Values

DELPH-IN contributors are united by a shared set of values, beliefs, and goals, viz.

• linguistic precision: DELPH-IN continues the tradition of declarative (unification- or constraint-based) formal grammatical analysis, applied to a diverse range of languages, with deep roots in Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG).

• syntax and semantics: DELPH-IN studies syntactic structure and the composition of sentence meaning jointly, supporting underspecified logical-form semantic interface representations in the framework of Minimal Recursion Semantics (MRS).

• open-source collaboration: DELPH-IN develops and maintains a shared, open-source repository of interoperable tools and grammars, capitalizing on transparency of the development process, community involvement, and re-use.

• scalability and usability: DELPH-IN targets ‘realistic’ language data, facilitating the processing of running text; its resources are engineered to a degree that enables practical applications, including commercial ones.

• sustainability and interoperability: Some DELPH-IN grammars have been developed for more than two decades; its joint reference formalism enables sustained, incremental development over time and cross-component interoperability.

Comments by DELPH-IN Members

Way Forward

• Discuss at 2014 Business Meeting;
• Prepare complete draft and circulate;
• Adopt through Standing Committee; or
• Hold general vote among participants?