A Flexible XML-Based Regular Compiler for Creation and Conversion of Linguistic Resources

Finite-state devices are widely used to compactly model linguistic phenomena, whereas regular expressions are regarded as the adequate level of abstraction for thinking about finite-state languages. In this paper the authors present a flexible XML-based and Unicod-ecompatible regular compiler for creating, and integrating existing linguistic resources. The tool provides user-friendly graphical interface which enables the transparent control of the compilation process and allows for testing generated finite-state grammars with several diagnostic tools. Through the direct database connection, existing linguistic resources can be converted into user-definable finite-state representations.