ASF+SDF parsing tools applied to ELAN

This paper describes the development of a new elan parser using asdf parsing technology. asdf and elan are two modern rule-based systems. Both systems have their own features and application domains, however, both formalism have user-defined syntax for defining rewrite rules. The asdf Meta-Environment uses powerful and efficient generic parsing tools, whereas the elan parser is based on an Earley parser. Furthermore, the elan syntax is ``hard-wired'' in the parser, which makes adaptations of the syntax cumbersome. The use of asdf parsing technology makes the elan syntax more open and adaptable, however, some features of the elan syntax makes the development of a parser a challenging problem.