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A computational grammar and lexicon for Maltese

A computational grammar and lexicon for Maltese

A computational grammar and lexicon for Maltese

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Chapter 4<br />

Conclusions<br />

This final chapter ends the thesis by highlighting the most major contributions of this work,<br />

together with its limitations. After a brief summary of related work in this field, we conclude<br />

with some directions <strong>for</strong> future work.<br />

4.1 Contributions<br />

All in all, the goals set out in the beginning of this thesis have all been met successfully. The<br />

main contributions of this work can be summarised as follows.<br />

1. The first <strong>computational</strong> <strong>grammar</strong> of <strong>Maltese</strong> covering both syntax <strong>and</strong> morphology, <strong>and</strong><br />

which is freely available as open-source software.<br />

2. A new language implementation <strong>for</strong> the GF Resource Grammar Library. <strong>Maltese</strong> is the<br />

28 th language to be added to the library, <strong>and</strong> the first complete implementation of a<br />

Semitic language. It is also the 11 th resource <strong>grammar</strong> to have a monolingual dictionary<br />

module.<br />

3. An online collection of digital lexical resources <strong>for</strong> <strong>Maltese</strong>, which is searchable in a unified<br />

way <strong>and</strong> whose contents is freely available. It is hoped that this collection plat<strong>for</strong>m<br />

can become the first complete full-<strong>for</strong>m <strong>computational</strong> <strong>lexicon</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Maltese</strong>.<br />

4.2 Limitations<br />

4.2.1 Grammar limitations<br />

Coverage<br />

Despite all the work put into the development of the resource <strong>grammar</strong>, there are a number of<br />

known limitations in terms of coverage of the <strong>Maltese</strong> language.<br />

• Interactions at word boundaries do not work perfectly. Some phenomena, such as the<br />

insertion of euphonic vowels with the definite article are incomplete, while others such<br />

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