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Talking mobs - Grammar Documentation

Updated  November 30, 2006

Questions & Answers Future Functionality Grammar Documentation

1. Format of the grammar files: Ancillary bits

The grammar used by the mobs is found in the .txt files in the subdirectory grammar/  of the source directory.  (Note that the grammar files used by the live game are  actually in live/lib/data/grammar, but the "cpmud" script copies the current grammar files from the source directory over the in-game ones - so only edit the files in  the source directory, otherwise you'll lose your changes next cpmud!). 

 

There are a few special symbols used in these files:

 

      [word]           means that "word" is optional and can be omitted

      (word|other)     means that either "word" or "other" in this position will

                       match this whatever-it-is

      <tag>            indicates a tag.  More on tags below.  This is NOT a word

                       that the phrase must match

      *alias*          indicates an alias.  Aliases are defined at one point in

                       questions.txt

      (*alias*)        is the more usual way aliases appear

      {extended-alias} used for aliases with multiple forms

      #comment         # must be the first character on the line; this is how you

                       make comments

      $m etc.          pronouns; follow the usual system for act_c commands in the

                       code.  $m = him/her, $e = he/she, $s = his/her, $n = the full

                       name of the person.  Capital versions indicate the second person

                       mentioned, if any.

      $1, $2, etc.     string arguments; these are generated by the special code for

                       each question

First come the "ignore" lines.  They indicate a word that should be ignored in all communications coming from you.  Even if it's ignored, this word may carry flavor, which you indicate on the ignore line with a tag.  For example,

      ignore please <polite>

This line means that any uses of the word "please" are stripped out of your speech, but if you say something with a "please" in it, what you said acquires the <polite> tag which may affect how the monster responds.  These are in ignore.txt.

   Next come the "transform" lines.  These indicate a single word that should

   be transformed into one or more words.  You should only include "transform"

   lines when something will ABSOLUTELY ALWAYS obey the given transform.  For

   example,

      transform I'm I am

   means that "I'm" always gets parsed as "I am".  This is safe because there

   isn't anything else the speaker might mean by "I'm".  These are found in

   synonyms.txt.  Note that transforms and ignores and such-like are only

   applied to parsing questions, they aren't applied to responses, which come

   out as written.

   Next come the honorifics.  Words classified as honorifics are coupled with

   the names of a mob to make an address.  Addresses can occur anywhere in a

   string uttered by the speaker (you) and are important to starting and

   ending conversations, as well as politeness.  Honorifics can have arbitrary

   tags plus some special tags:

      - <male> and <female> honorifics are insulting to mobs of the opposite

        gender  

      - <familiar> honorifics are very informal and may offend strangers.

   An example:

      honorific dude <familiar> <male>

   This example would mean that if you say

      Dude!  Do you know where I can find some good fishing?

   The mob would interpret the "Dude!" as an address.  The list of honorifics

   is in honorifics.txt.

   After the honorifics come aliases.  By convention alias names always start

   and end with *, like "*bad*".  Aliases are a shorthand form for something

   longer.  For example

      alias *see* see|run into|encounter|spot|notice

   means that if I say (*see*) somewhere later in the file, I really mean

   (see|run into|encounter|spot|notice).  Try to give aliases short, clear

   names.

   There can also be more complex aliases with multiple forms defined.  These

   are called extended aliases and are present in the aliases.txt file just

   after the regular aliases.  An extended alias is defined with the

   "extended_alias" keyword, and has a name like an alias.  It is defined

   like this:

      extended_alias {I-don't-know}

         form [I] (dunno|don't know)

         form [I have] no (idea/clue)

   That means any time the string {I-don't-know} is encountered elsewhere,

   it can expand to any of: "dunno", "don't know", "I dunno", "I don't know",

   "I have no idea", etc.  The curly brackets {} are required around the

   identifier.

   Both aliases and extended aliases are in the file aliases.txt in the grammar/

   directory.

   Next we shall examine the decorations.  Decorations are chunks of text that

   might be present before any question, like "Do you know" or "I wonder". 

   Decorations can have associated tags; there is one special

   decoration tag, <inverse>, which means that a following question might be

   in an inverse form.  For example, the question "where can I go fishing" has

   an inverse form "where I can go fishing", as in "I wonder where I can go

   fishing".

   Also, the tag <question> means that this decoration can only apply to

   questions, not to statements.  Example decoration line:

      decoration (might|would|do) you [happen to] know <polite> <inverse> <question>

   This decoration catches such verbiage as

      "do you know"

      "might you happen to know"

      "would you happen to know"

   and only admits inverse forms, and only admits questions.  Decorations are

   only allowed at the beginning of a question or statement.  There may be more

   than one decoration in an utterance; in that case the tags accumulate.  Two

   inverse tags from two inverse-ing decorations do not cancel out.  Decorations

   are found in the file opening_phrases.txt.

   Next after the decorations come the phrases.  Phrases are much like

   decorations, except that they can occur anywhere in the question and each

   question only allows certain phrases.  Meaning-wise, phrases are more

   specific than decorations: decorations are just filler, but phrases

   generally carry some meaning, although cparse tends to ignore the meaning

   of the phrase and treats them as filler too.

   A phrase, like a question or statement, can have multiple forms.  Each

   phrase has a number; phrases are referred to later in the questions.txt

   file by number.  Each phrase number must be unique.  For example 

      phrase 6 easily

         form (calmly|coolly|easily|effortlessly)

         form with the greatest of ease

   means that any of "calmly", "coolly", "easily", "effortlessly", or