--- title: "Parsing Akkadian Verbs with Prolog — Macks 2002" description: "A Prolog system that parses and generates finite Akkadian verb forms, with optional accusative, dative and ventive… 5 references, cited by 7 papers here." authors: ["Aaron Macks"] year: 2002 venue: "Proceedings of the ACL-02 Workshop on Computational Approaches to Semitic Languages" source: "https://aclanthology.org/W02-0501/" doi: "10.3115/1118637.1118638" licence: "CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (ACL Anthology, before 2016)" licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/" summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/macks-2002-parsing-akkadian-verbs-prolog/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/macks-2002-parsing-akkadian-verbs-prolog/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [2002](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2002/) / Parsing Akkadian Verbs with Prolog # Parsing Akkadian Verbs with Prolog **Authors:** Aaron Macks · **Year:** 2002 · **Venue:** Proceedings of the ACL-02 Workshop on Computational Approaches to Semitic Languages **Link:** [aclanthology.org/W02-0501](https://aclanthology.org/W02-0501/) · library `aclbulk-2002-macks-parsing-akkadian-verbs-prolog` · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) — summary only [**6** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W1964309581) OpenAlex, 2026-10-14 · [**7** citations in our library](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/macks-2002-parsing-akkadian-verbs-prolog/cited-by/) of the 140,884 papers whose bibliographies we read · [Proceedings of the ACL-02 Workshop on Computational Approaches to Semitic Languages](https://aclanthology.org/volumes/W02-05/) · [licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) - [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/W02-0501/) - [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/W02-0501.pdf) - [DOI 10.3115/1118637.1118638](https://doi.org/10.3115/1118637.1118638) - [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W1964309581) **Authors (1)** 1. [Macks, Aaron](https://openalex.org/A5065043395) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0949-3545) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/2570508) · h 1 · 6 citations · 2 works Citations and author metrics: OpenAlex, 2026-10-14; authors with the same name are not always told apart. ## What it is about A Prolog system that parses and generates finite Akkadian verb forms, with optional accusative, dative and ventive suffixes, for the G, D and N stems. The grammar is written as definite clause grammar rules (about 200 per stem), and the same rules both parse and generate. Vowels are mostly ignored; where a vowel's length is unknown it can be given with an asterisk, and the system expands it to the three lengths, so one input returns several readings (the paper's example gives a G durative, an N preterite and an N durative). Each stem is tried with and without a suffix. In April 2002 the strong and singly weak triradical G, D and N stems were covered, behind a web interface that handled about ten forms per second. The author states that a two-stage rule approach was too intricate for weak verbs. No accuracy figures against a corpus are given. ## Ideas - I3. Parse the stem first, then run the object-suffix grammar on the remainder, with and without the suffix (the paper's two-pass method). For Hebrew verbs with pronominal objects this is the same two-pass design. ## For Mova - I1. A vowel wildcard for unpointed Hebrew input: where a vowel or its length is unknown, the segmenter enumerates the few possible vowels for that slot, not all strings. Add it to the unpointed mode of `tools/hbo` and report the number of pointings per token. - I2. Use the grammar both ways as a round-trip test: generate every form of a lexeme from the paradigm, parse each one back, and check that the lexeme and the features return. Run it on the Hebrew verb paradigms in `treebanks/hbo/ptnk`. I1 goes into the unpointed mode of `tools/hbo`. I2 is a round-trip test for [languages/hbo/06-verb.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/06-verb/). I3 goes into [languages/hbo/05-pronouns-particles.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/05-pronouns-particles/). The Akkadian grammar itself is not in Mova; the ideas are the method. ## Institutions [🎓**Brandeis University** Waltham · United States 27 works · 4,999 citations](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/brandeis-university/) Topics[Akkadian and cuneiform NLP](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/akkadian-cuneiform-nlp/) · [Semitic languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/semitic-languages/) ## Cite Cite as Aaron Macks. 2002. Parsing Akkadian Verbs with Prolog. Proceedings of the ACL-02 Workshop on Computational Approaches to Semitic Languages. The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.3115/1118637.1118638](https://doi.org/10.3115/1118637.1118638) ```bibtex @inproceedings{macks2002parsing, title = {{Parsing Akkadian Verbs with Prolog}}, author = {Aaron Macks}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACL-02 Workshop on Computational Approaches to Semitic Languages}, year = {2002}, doi = {10.3115/1118637.1118638}, url = {https://doi.org/10.3115/1118637.1118638} } ``` - [← previous Learning Domain-Specific Transfer Rules: An Experiment with Korean to English Translation](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/lavoie-2002-learning-domain-specific-transfer-rules/) - [next → A Machine Learning Approach to Automatic Functor Assignment in the Prague Dependency Treebank](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/zabokrtsky-2002-machine-learning-approach-automatic-functor/) - [↑ back to papers of 2002](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2002/) ## References 5 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. Buccellati, Giorgio. A Structural Grammar of Babylonian. Weisbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. 1996. Hall, Marty Guide to CGI Programming in Java. [http://www.apl.jhu.edu/~hall/java/CGI-with-Java.html](http://www.apl.jhu.edu/~hall/java/CGI-with-Java.html). 1998 Huehnergard, John. A Grammar of Akkadian. [↗](http://www.apl.jhu.edu/~hall/java/CGI-with-Java.html) 2. Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press. 1997. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Atlanta%2C+Georgia%3A+Scholars+Press%2E+1997%2E) 3. Kataja , Laura and K. Koskenniemi. 1988). [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Kataja+%2C+Laura+and+K%2E+Koskenniemi%2E+1988%29%2E) 4. “Finite-state description of Semitic morphology: a case study in Ancient Akkadian.” Proceedings of the International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING88), pages 313–315. Miller, Douglas B An Akkadian Handbook. Winona Lake, Ind. Eisenbrauns, 1996. Richardson, M. E. J. H a m m u r a b i ’ s Laws:Text, Translation and Glossary. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press. 2000. Von Soden, Wolfram and Werner R. Meyer. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%E2%80%9CFinite%2Dstate+description+of+Semitic+morphology%3A+a+case+study+in+Ancient+Akkadian%2E%E2%80%9D+Proceedings+of+the+International+Conference+on+Computational+Linguistics+%28COLING88%29%2C+pages+313%2D%2D315%2E+Miller%2C+Douglas) 5. Grundriss der Akkadischen Grammatik. Rome : Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblico. 1995. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Grundriss+der+Akkadischen+Grammatik%2E+Rome+%3A+Editrice+Pontificio+Istituto+Biblico%2E+1995%2E)