Any English Majors?

[lpxxfaintxx]

Just wondering if anyone here is an English Major and knows an extensive amount on the grammar and structure of the English language. It will be for an upcoming project of mine.

[kds]

Uh, not an English major, but I did get a 33 on the English part of the ACT. Dunno if that helps, lemme know if it does.

[lpxxfaintxx]

Well, I need a long-term partner that can really break down the structuring of the English language for our possible future programmers. Take a look here.

I'm in negotiation with the owner of www.copypasta.com Coming Soon! for the domain. He's asking for $500, but I really need a new computer to actually get work done, so I might not be able to get the domain 'till a few months.

[dt]

Computer-based analysis of language is an academic research field (computer linguistics). Someone who is into that would be your best bet.

[kds]

Originally Posted by lpxxfaintxx

Well, I need a long-term partner that can really break down the structuring of the English language for our possible future programmers. Take a look here.

I'm in negotiation with the owner of www.copypasta.com Coming Soon! for the domain. He's asking for $500, but I really need a new computer to actually get work done, so I might not be able to get the domain 'till a few months.

Oh damn, that's probably way over my head, sorry.

[Poon]

At first, I thought that this was in the wrong section. This sounds like a very interesting project. Is it for school? Either way good luck.

[ScAreCroW]

I remember this project. Isn't it for making a copy pasted essay/article become non-plagiarized?

And as you can see, I would not be the one for this job, sadly.

[Otaku]

Well...my mom is, but I dunno how much help she would be. XD. I got a high score on the reading part of the SAT, so...what would work be like?

[AgentGOD]

Right when I read the thread title, I was thinking.. NickolaySTEL.

[Raistlin]

This is something I have a lot of experience in (rewriting text in an automated fashion). I already have a set of rules for this that I put together in a rules engine of sorts for a past project. It performed flawlessly for my uses and could probably be expanded upon for yours.

Slight necropost here, but I didn't notice the thread until now.

[lpxxfaintxx]

Ooh, interesting. More info please?

[Raistlin]

Originally Posted by lpxxfaintxx

Ooh, interesting. More info please?

Instead of breaking down and analyzing the content and structure of the text a la computer linguistics, I wrote a long set of individual rules that were applied to the text. I was delighted with how well it worked. A very basic example is a rule that rewrites phrases like "left or right" to read "right or left" (not that phrase specifically - all phrases of that nature). Another basic example is a rule that rewrites sentences like "If your dog is barking tonight, I'm going to call the police" to read "I'm going to call the police if your dog is barking tonight" (not that sentence specifically - all sentences of that nature). Another example is reasonable use of synonyms - I have many rules for that.

I'm not saying it is easy - it's not. But now that I've done the work, I have it as a basis for any future project.

[Titan]

I'm not an English major because, honestly, there is no need to major in it to either write well or comprehend English language structure. Over time, I've read/half-read almost every book on English grammar and style at my local library, as well as a myriad of public domain books on the Internet. My English teachers rarely find grammatical mistakes in my papers; when they do, it is usually something I would have caught if I had proofread.

I know two English majors that say ending a sentence with a preposition is wrong. It is a very wrong conception by grammarians trying to impose Latin rules; good English writers have been placing prepositions at the end of sentences throughout the 500 year history of Modern English. Here's a few:

Jonson (Catiline, 1611):
The bodies that those souls were frighted from.
Bunyan (Pilgram's Progress, 1678):
Now, thought he, I see the dangers that Mistrust and Timorous were driven back by.
Shakespeare's famous soliloquy:
To die, to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to.

I have other examples, but despite the evidence, there is no shortage of English majors who think it wrong.

dt mentioned computational linguistics, which would be a useful field in which to find someone. But that could be difficult; to my knowledge, linguistics is a small field itself, so I'm sure computational linguistics is even smaller. Computational linguistics is also very complex.

I see two options for your project: replacing words with synonyms, which is very easy; and rearranging sentence syntax, which is very hard. For the former, just make a list of interchangeable synonyms (e.g. from my first paragraph: comprehend/understand and many/a myriad of). It is worth considering your opportunity cost for the latter.

I hope some of that was helpful.

[Raistlin]

Rearranging sentence syntax isn't all that hard for a lot of sentence types. The trick is in compiling a list of these that is long enough to create a thorough enough overall rewrite (along with your synonym replacements).

[lpxxfaintxx]

Originally Posted by Raistlin

Instead of breaking down and analyzing the content and structure of the text a la computer linguistics, I wrote a long set of individual rules that were applied to the text. I was delighted with how well it worked. A very basic example is a rule that rewrites phrases like "left or right