Dear all
Stimulated by Robert Muetzelfeldt's initiative to produce a grammar for CF
standard names based on the existing guidelines for construction of standard
names, I have done some work on deriving a comprehensive grammar of the
standard name table, described at
http://www.met.rdg.ac.uk/~jonathan/CF_metadata/13/standard_name_grammar.html
The grammar consists of a lexicon, which lists the phrases composing standard
names and assigns each one a phrasetype (scalar, medium, component, surface,
etc.), and a list of patterns which describe the syntax of standard names e.g.
tendency_of_atmosphere_water_vapor_content_due_to_advection
conforms to the pattern
(function_of) (layer) (scalar) due_to_(phenomenon)
In the web page I have described how I did the analysis. Attached to the web
page are the files which define the lexicon and the patterns for version 13 of
the standard name table (the present version), and two scripts for checking
and processing standard names using the grammar.
I don't know whether this will be useful, but I believe it could be. It ought
to make it easier to devise new names based on existing lexicon and syntax,
and to see how to extend the lexicon and syntax when necessary.
Cheers
Jonathan
Received on Mon May 03 2010 - 10:55:42 BST
