7. Enumerations
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In
medical documents where conciseness is of highest value there is an abundance
of enumerations. The entities to be enumerated range from simple adjectives
(used attributively or selectionally) to elliptic main clauses or even
entire sentences. The function Enum
is given one or two lists of such phrases and the type of enumeration specified
by type(:neutral,
:emphasize or :telegraphic)
andpolarity(:positive,
:negative or
:mixed) parameters. The output of this function varies with
the grammatical type of the entities. Noun phrases, for instance, are enumerated
differently from adverbials or elliptic simple sentences. Given e.g. the
attributive adjectives A, B
(C, D)
and varying parameters for
type and polarity, Enum
could return:
„A und
B“, „A, B und C“ , „A sowie B“, „Sowohl A als auch B und C“, „A, B, C“,
„weder A, B noch C“, „weder A oder B noch C“, „nicht nur nicht A oder B,
sondern auch weder C noch D“, „A, B, nicht C“, „A und B, nicht C“, „zwar
A und B, nicht aber C oder D“, „zwar A aber weder B noch C oder D“,...
(“A
and B“,“A, B and C”, “A as well as B”, “A as well as B and C”, “A, B, C”,
“neither A, B nor C”, “neither A nor B or C”, “not only neither A nor B
but also neither C nor D”, “A, B, not C”, “A and B, not C”, “A and B but
not C”, “A and B but neither C nor D”,…)
Of
course, generating an enumeration requires more than simply placing respective
determiners between the arguments. Complications may arise from the status
of negations. Considering again adjectives or adverbials these can be negated
not only by using “not” but also by an “un-“ or “in-“ prefix but then the
use of “neither” or “nor” is no longer correct. On the other hand, the
adjectives may already carry such a negating prefix so that the negation
would amount to removing it. In a similar way it can be appropriate to
select the antonym (if there is any) instead of the negated form.
Another
source of problems is the question which components of the phrases are
to be left out in the enumeration. Consider for instance the sentence pre-form
(Main-Clause
:subject (noun-phrase :noun “Schmerz”
:pronoun
:definite)
:predicate
“ausstrahlen”
:attribute
(Enum :positive :neutral
((noun-phrase
:noun “Schulter“
:pronoun
:definite)
(noun-phrase
:noun “Arm“
:adjective
“links“
:pronoun
:definite))))
(“Schmerz”=”pain”,
“ausstrahlen”=”to radiate”, “Schulter”=“shoulder“, „Arm“=arm“, „links“=“left“)
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