nltk 3.2__zip → 3.3__zip

{nltk-3.2 → nltk-3.3}/nltk/corpus/reader/nombank.py

@@ -1,421 +1,421 @@
-# Natural Language Toolkit: NomBank Corpus Reader
-#
-# Copyright (C) 2001-2015 NLTK Project
-# Authors: Paul Bedaride <paul.bedaride@gmail.com>
-#          Edward Loper <edloper@gmail.com>
-# URL: <http://nltk.org/>
-# For license information, see LICENSE.TXT
-
-from __future__ import unicode_literals
-
-from nltk.tree import Tree
-from xml.etree import ElementTree
-from nltk.internals import raise_unorderable_types
-from nltk.compat import total_ordering, python_2_unicode_compatible, string_types
-
-from nltk.corpus.reader.util import *
-from nltk.corpus.reader.api import *
-
-class NombankCorpusReader(CorpusReader):
-    """
-    Corpus reader for the nombank corpus, which augments the Penn
-    Treebank with information about the predicate argument structure
-    of every noun instance.  The corpus consists of two parts: the
-    predicate-argument annotations themselves, and a set of "frameset
-    files" which define the argument labels used by the annotations,
-    on a per-noun basis.  Each "frameset file" contains one or more
-    predicates, such as ``'turn'`` or ``'turn_on'``, each of which is
-    divided into coarse-grained word senses called "rolesets".  For
-    each "roleset", the frameset file provides descriptions of the
-    argument roles, along with examples.
-    """
-    def __init__(self, root, nomfile, framefiles='',
-                 nounsfile=None, parse_fileid_xform=None,
-                 parse_corpus=None, encoding='utf8'):
-        """
-        :param root: The root directory for this corpus.
-        :param nomfile: The name of the file containing the predicate-
-            argument annotations (relative to ``root``).
-        :param framefiles: A list or regexp specifying the frameset
-            fileids for this corpus.
-        :param parse_fileid_xform: A transform that should be applied
-            to the fileids in this corpus.  This should be a function
-            of one argument (a fileid) that returns a string (the new
-            fileid).
-        :param parse_corpus: The corpus containing the parse trees
-            corresponding to this corpus.  These parse trees are
-            necessary to resolve the tree pointers used by nombank.
-        """
-        # If framefiles is specified as a regexp, expand it.
-        if isinstance(framefiles, string_types):
-            framefiles = find_corpus_fileids(root, framefiles)
-        framefiles = list(framefiles)
-        # Initialze the corpus reader.
-        CorpusReader.__init__(self, root, [nomfile, nounsfile] + framefiles,
-                              encoding)
-
-        # Record our frame fileids & nom file.
-        self._nomfile = nomfile
-        self._framefiles = framefiles
-        self._nounsfile = nounsfile
-        self._parse_fileid_xform = parse_fileid_xform
-        self._parse_corpus = parse_corpus
-
-    def raw(self, fileids=None):
-        """
-        :return: the text contents of the given fileids, as a single string.
-        """
-        if fileids is None: fileids = self._fileids
-        elif isinstance(fileids, compat.string_types): fileids = [fileids]
-        return concat([self.open(f).read() for f in fileids])
-
-    def instances(self, baseform=None):
-        """
-        :return: a corpus view that acts as a list of
-        ``NombankInstance`` objects, one for each noun in the corpus.
-        """
-        kwargs = {}
-        if baseform is not None:
-            kwargs['instance_filter'] = lambda inst: inst.baseform==baseform
-        return StreamBackedCorpusView(self.abspath(self._nomfile),
-                                      lambda stream: self._read_instance_block(stream, **kwargs),
-                                      encoding=self.encoding(self._nomfile))
-
-    def lines(self):
-        """
-        :return: a corpus view that acts as a list of strings, one for
-        each line in the predicate-argument annotation file.
-        """
-        return StreamBackedCorpusView(self.abspath(self._nomfile),
-                                      read_line_block,
-                                      encoding=self.encoding(self._nomfile))
-
-    def roleset(self, roleset_id):
-        """
-        :return: the xml description for the given roleset.
-        """
-        baseform = roleset_id.split('.')[0]
-        baseform = baseform.replace('perc-sign','%')
-        baseform = baseform.replace('oneslashonezero', '1/10').replace('1/10','1-slash-10')
-        framefile = 'frames/%s.xml' % baseform
-        if framefile not in self._framefiles:
-            raise ValueError('Frameset file for %s not found' %
-                             roleset_id)
-
-        # n.b.: The encoding for XML fileids is specified by the file
-        # itself; so we ignore self._encoding here.
-        etree = ElementTree.parse(self.abspath(framefile).open()).getroot()
-        for roleset in etree.findall('predicate/roleset'):
-            if roleset.attrib['id'] == roleset_id:
-                return roleset
-        else:
-            raise ValueError('Roleset %s not found in %s' %
-                             (roleset_id, framefile))
-
-    def rolesets(self, baseform=None):
-        """
-        :return: list of xml descriptions for rolesets.
-        """
-        if baseform is not None:
-            framefile = 'frames/%s.xml' % baseform
-            if framefile not in self._framefiles:
-                raise ValueError('Frameset file for %s not found' %
-                                 baseform)
-            framefiles = [framefile]
-        else:
-            framefiles = self._framefiles
-
-        rsets = []
-        for framefile in framefiles:
-            # n.b.: The encoding for XML fileids is specified by the file
-            # itself; so we ignore self._encoding here.
-            etree = ElementTree.parse(self.abspath(framefile).open()).getroot()
-            rsets.append(etree.findall('predicate/roleset'))
-        return LazyConcatenation(rsets)
-
-    def nouns(self):
-        """
-        :return: a corpus view that acts as a list of all noun lemmas
-        in this corpus (from the nombank.1.0.words file).
-        """
-        return StreamBackedCorpusView(self.abspath(self._nounsfile),
-                                      read_line_block,
-                                      encoding=self.encoding(self._nounsfile))
-
-    def _read_instance_block(self, stream, instance_filter=lambda inst: True):
-        block = []
-
-        # Read 100 at a time.
-        for i in range(100):
-            line = stream.readline().strip()
-            if line:
-                inst = NombankInstance.parse(
-                    line, self._parse_fileid_xform,
-                    self._parse_corpus)
-                if instance_filter(inst):
-                    block.append(inst)
-
-        return block
-
-######################################################################
-#{ Nombank Instance & related datatypes
-######################################################################
-
-@python_2_unicode_compatible
-class NombankInstance(object):
-
-    def __init__(self, fileid, sentnum, wordnum, baseform, sensenumber,
-                 predicate, predid, arguments, parse_corpus=None):
-
-        self.fileid = fileid
-        """The name of the file containing the parse tree for this
-        instance's sentence."""
-
-        self.sentnum = sentnum
-        """The sentence number of this sentence within ``fileid``.
-        Indexing starts from zero."""
-
-        self.wordnum = wordnum
-        """The word number of this instance's predicate within its
-        containing sentence.  Word numbers are indexed starting from
-        zero, and include traces and other empty parse elements."""
-
-        self.baseform = baseform
-        """The baseform of the predicate."""
-
-        self.sensenumber = sensenumber
-        """The sense number of the predicate."""
-
-        self.predicate = predicate
-        """A ``NombankTreePointer`` indicating the position of this
-        instance's predicate within its containing sentence."""
-
-        self.predid = predid
-        """Identifier of the predicate."""
-
-        self.arguments = tuple(arguments)
-        """A list of tuples (argloc, argid), specifying the location
-        and identifier for each of the predicate's argument in the
-        containing sentence.  Argument identifiers are strings such as
-        ``'ARG0'`` or ``'ARGM-TMP'``.  This list does *not* contain
-        the predicate."""
-
-        self.parse_corpus = parse_corpus
-        """A corpus reader for the parse trees corresponding to the
-        instances in this nombank corpus."""
-
-    @property
-    def roleset(self):
-        """The name of the roleset used by this instance's predicate.
-        Use ``nombank.roleset() <NombankCorpusReader.roleset>`` to
-        look up information about the roleset."""
-        r = self.baseform.replace('%', 'perc-sign')
-        r = r.replace('1/10', '1-slash-10').replace('1-slash-10', 'oneslashonezero')
-        return '%s.%s'%(r, self.sensenumber)
-
-    def __repr__(self):
-        return ('<NombankInstance: %s, sent %s, word %s>' %
-                (self.fileid, self.sentnum, self.wordnum))
-
-    def __str__(self):
-        s = '%s %s %s %s %s' % (self.fileid, self.sentnum, self.wordnum,
-                                self.baseform, self.sensenumber)
-        items = self.arguments + ((self.predicate, 'rel'),)
-        for (argloc, argid) in sorted(items):
-            s += ' %s-%s' % (argloc, argid)
-        return s
-
-    def _get_tree(self):
-        if self.parse_corpus is None: return None
-        if self.fileid not in self.parse_corpus.fileids(): return None
-        return self.parse_corpus.parsed_sents(self.fileid)[self.sentnum]
-    tree = property(_get_tree, doc="""
-        The parse tree corresponding to this instance, or None if
-        the corresponding tree is not available.""")
-
-    @staticmethod
-    def parse(s, parse_fileid_xform=None, parse_corpus=None):
-        pieces = s.split()
-        if len(pieces) < 6:
-            raise ValueError('Badly formatted nombank line: %r' % s)
-
-        # Divide the line into its basic pieces.
-        (fileid, sentnum, wordnum,
-          baseform, sensenumber) = pieces[:5]
-
-        args = pieces[5:]
-        rel = [args.pop(i) for i,p in enumerate(args) if '-rel' in p]
-        if len(rel) != 1:
-            raise ValueError('Badly formatted nombank line: %r' % s)
-
-        # Apply the fileid selector, if any.
-        if parse_fileid_xform is not None:
-            fileid = parse_fileid_xform(fileid)
-
-        # Convert sentence & word numbers to ints.
-        sentnum = int(sentnum)
-        wordnum = int(wordnum)
-
-        # Parse the predicate location.
-
-        predloc, predid = rel[0].split('-', 1)
-        predicate = NombankTreePointer.parse(predloc)
-
-        # Parse the arguments.
-        arguments = []
-        for arg in args:
-            argloc, argid = arg.split('-', 1)
-            arguments.append( (NombankTreePointer.parse(argloc), argid) )
-
-        # Put it all together.
-        return NombankInstance(fileid, sentnum, wordnum, baseform, sensenumber,
-                               predicate, predid, arguments, parse_corpus)
-
-class NombankPointer(object):
-    """
-    A pointer used by nombank to identify one or more constituents in
-    a parse tree.  ``NombankPointer`` is an abstract base class with
-    three concrete subclasses:
-
-    - ``NombankTreePointer`` is used to point to single constituents.
-    - ``NombankSplitTreePointer`` is used to point to 'split'
-      constituents, which consist of a sequence of two or more
-      ``NombankTreePointer`` pointers.
-    - ``NombankChainTreePointer`` is used to point to entire trace
-      chains in a tree.  It consists of a sequence of pieces, which
-      can be ``NombankTreePointer`` or ``NombankSplitTreePointer`` pointers.
-    """
-    def __init__(self):
-        if self.__class__ == NombankPointer:
-            raise NotImplementedError()
-
-@python_2_unicode_compatible
-class NombankChainTreePointer(NombankPointer):
-    def __init__(self, pieces):
-        self.pieces = pieces
-        """A list of the pieces that make up this chain.  Elements may
-           be either ``NombankSplitTreePointer`` or
-           ``NombankTreePointer`` pointers."""
-
-    def __str__(self):
-        return '*'.join('%s' % p for p in self.pieces)
-    def __repr__(self):
-        return '<NombankChainTreePointer: %s>' % self
-    def select(self, tree):
-        if tree is None: raise ValueError('Parse tree not avaialable')
-        return Tree('*CHAIN*', [p.select(tree) for p in self.pieces])
-
-@python_2_unicode_compatible
-class NombankSplitTreePointer(NombankPointer):
-    def __init__(self, pieces):
-        self.pieces = pieces
-        """A list of the pieces that make up this chain.  Elements are
-           all ``NombankTreePointer`` pointers."""
-
-    def __str__(self):
-        return ','.join('%s' % p for p in self.pieces)
-    def __repr__(self):
-        return '<NombankSplitTreePointer: %s>' % self
-    def select(self, tree):
-        if tree is None: raise ValueError('Parse tree not avaialable')
-        return Tree('*SPLIT*', [p.select(tree) for p in self.pieces])
-
-@total_ordering
-@python_2_unicode_compatible
-class NombankTreePointer(NombankPointer):
-    """
-    wordnum:height*wordnum:height*...
-    wordnum:height,
-
-    """
-    def __init__(self, wordnum, height):
-        self.wordnum = wordnum
-        self.height = height
-
-    @staticmethod
-    def parse(s):
-        # Deal with chains (xx*yy*zz)
-        pieces = s.split('*')
-        if len(pieces) > 1:
-            return NombankChainTreePointer([NombankTreePointer.parse(elt)
-                                              for elt in pieces])
-
-        # Deal with split args (xx,yy,zz)
-        pieces = s.split(',')
-        if len(pieces) > 1:
-            return NombankSplitTreePointer([NombankTreePointer.parse(elt)
-                                             for elt in pieces])
-
-        # Deal with normal pointers.
-        pieces = s.split(':')
-        if len(pieces) != 2: raise ValueError('bad nombank pointer %r' % s)
-        return NombankTreePointer(int(pieces[0]), int(pieces[1]))
-
-    def __str__(self):
-        return '%s:%s' % (self.wordnum, self.height)
-
-    def __repr__(self):
-        return 'NombankTreePointer(%d, %d)' % (self.wordnum, self.height)
-
-    def __eq__(self, other):
-        while isinstance(other, (NombankChainTreePointer,
-                                 NombankSplitTreePointer)):
-            other = other.pieces[0]
-
-        if not isinstance(other, NombankTreePointer):
-            return self is other
-
-        return (self.wordnum == other.wordnum and self.height == other.height)
-
-    def __ne__(self, other):
-        return not self == other
-
-    def __lt__(self, other):
-        while isinstance(other, (NombankChainTreePointer,
-                                 NombankSplitTreePointer)):
-            other = other.pieces[0]
-
-        if not isinstance(other, NombankTreePointer):
-            return id(self) < id(other)
-
-        return (self.wordnum, -self.height) < (other.wordnum, -other.height)
-
-    def select(self, tree):
-        if tree is None: raise ValueError('Parse tree not avaialable')
-        return tree[self.treepos(tree)]
-
-    def treepos(self, tree):
-        """
-        Convert this pointer to a standard 'tree position' pointer,
-        given that it points to the given tree.
-        """
-        if tree is None: raise ValueError('Parse tree not avaialable')
-        stack = [tree]
-        treepos = []
-
-        wordnum = 0
-        while True:
-            #print treepos
-            #print stack[-1]
-            # tree node:
-            if isinstance(stack[-1], Tree):
-                # Select the next child.
-                if len(treepos) < len(stack):
-                    treepos.append(0)
-                else:
-                    treepos[-1] += 1
-                # Update the stack.
-                if treepos[-1] < len(stack[-1]):
-                    stack.append(stack[-1][treepos[-1]])
-                else:
-                    # End of node's child list: pop up a level.
-                    stack.pop()
-                    treepos.pop()
-            # word node:
-            else:
-                if wordnum == self.wordnum:
-                    return tuple(treepos[:len(treepos)-self.height-1])
-                else:
-                    wordnum += 1
-                    stack.pop()
-
+# Natural Language Toolkit: NomBank Corpus Reader
+#
+# Copyright (C) 2001-2018 NLTK Project
+# Authors: Paul Bedaride <paul.bedaride@gmail.com>
+#          Edward Loper <edloper@gmail.com>
+# URL: <http://nltk.org/>
+# For license information, see LICENSE.TXT
+
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+from xml.etree import ElementTree
+from functools import total_ordering
+
+from six import string_types
+
+from nltk.tree import Tree
+from nltk.internals import raise_unorderable_types
+from nltk.compat import python_2_unicode_compatible
+
+from nltk.corpus.reader.util import *
+from nltk.corpus.reader.api import *
+
+class NombankCorpusReader(CorpusReader):
+    """
+    Corpus reader for the nombank corpus, which augments the Penn
+    Treebank with information about the predicate argument structure
+    of every noun instance.  The corpus consists of two parts: the
+    predicate-argument annotations themselves, and a set of "frameset
+    files" which define the argument labels used by the annotations,
+    on a per-noun basis.  Each "frameset file" contains one or more
+    predicates, such as ``'turn'`` or ``'turn_on'``, each of which is
+    divided into coarse-grained word senses called "rolesets".  For
+    each "roleset", the frameset file provides descriptions of the
+    argument roles, along with examples.
+    """
+    def __init__(self, root, nomfile, framefiles='',
+                 nounsfile=None, parse_fileid_xform=None,
+                 parse_corpus=None, encoding='utf8'):
+        """
+        :param root: The root directory for this corpus.
+        :param nomfile: The name of the file containing the predicate-
+            argument annotations (relative to ``root``).
+        :param framefiles: A list or regexp specifying the frameset
+            fileids for this corpus.
+        :param parse_fileid_xform: A transform that should be applied
+            to the fileids in this corpus.  This should be a function
+            of one argument (a fileid) that returns a string (the new
+            fileid).
+        :param parse_corpus: The corpus containing the parse trees
+            corresponding to this corpus.  These parse trees are
+            necessary to resolve the tree pointers used by nombank.
+        """
+        # If framefiles is specified as a regexp, expand it.
+        if isinstance(framefiles, string_types):
+            framefiles = find_corpus_fileids(root, framefiles)
+        framefiles = list(framefiles)
+        # Initialze the corpus reader.
+        CorpusReader.__init__(self, root, [nomfile, nounsfile] + framefiles,
+                              encoding)
+
+        # Record our frame fileids & nom file.
+        self._nomfile = nomfile
+        self._framefiles = framefiles
+        self._nounsfile = nounsfile
+        self._parse_fileid_xform = parse_fileid_xform
+        self._parse_corpus = parse_corpus
+
+    def raw(self, fileids=None):
+        """
+        :return: the text contents of the given fileids, as a single string.
+        """
+        if fileids is None: fileids = self._fileids
+        elif isinstance(fileids, string_types): fileids = [fileids]
+        return concat([self.open(f).read() for f in fileids])
+
+    def instances(self, baseform=None):
+        """
+        :return: a corpus view that acts as a list of
+        ``NombankInstance`` objects, one for each noun in the corpus.
+        """
+        kwargs = {}
+        if baseform is not None:
+            kwargs['instance_filter'] = lambda inst: inst.baseform==baseform
+        return StreamBackedCorpusView(self.abspath(self._nomfile),
+                                      lambda stream: self._read_instance_block(stream, **kwargs),
+                                      encoding=self.encoding(self._nomfile))
+
+    def lines(self):
+        """
+        :return: a corpus view that acts as a list of strings, one for
+        each line in the predicate-argument annotation file.
+        """
+        return StreamBackedCorpusView(self.abspath(self._nomfile),
+                                      read_line_block,
+                                      encoding=self.encoding(self._nomfile))
+
+    def roleset(self, roleset_id):
+        """
+        :return: the xml description for the given roleset.
+        """
+        baseform = roleset_id.split('.')[0]
+        baseform = baseform.replace('perc-sign','%')
+        baseform = baseform.replace('oneslashonezero', '1/10').replace('1/10','1-slash-10')
+        framefile = 'frames/%s.xml' % baseform
+        if framefile not in self._framefiles:
+            raise ValueError('Frameset file for %s not found' %
+                             roleset_id)
+
+        # n.b.: The encoding for XML fileids is specified by the file
+        # itself; so we ignore self._encoding here.
+        etree = ElementTree.parse(self.abspath(framefile).open()).getroot()
+        for roleset in etree.findall('predicate/roleset'):
+            if roleset.attrib['id'] == roleset_id:
+                return roleset
+        raise ValueError('Roleset %s not found in %s' % (roleset_id, framefile))
+
+    def rolesets(self, baseform=None):
+        """
+        :return: list of xml descriptions for rolesets.
+        """
+        if baseform is not None:
+            framefile = 'frames/%s.xml' % baseform
+            if framefile not in self._framefiles:
+                raise ValueError('Frameset file for %s not found' %
+                                 baseform)
+            framefiles = [framefile]
+        else:
+            framefiles = self._framefiles
+
+        rsets = []
+        for framefile in framefiles:
+            # n.b.: The encoding for XML fileids is specified by the file
+            # itself; so we ignore self._encoding here.
+            etree = ElementTree.parse(self.abspath(framefile).open()).getroot()
+            rsets.append(etree.findall('predicate/roleset'))
+        return LazyConcatenation(rsets)
+
+    def nouns(self):
+        """
+        :return: a corpus view that acts as a list of all noun lemmas
+        in this corpus (from the nombank.1.0.words file).
+        """
+        return StreamBackedCorpusView(self.abspath(self._nounsfile),
+                                      read_line_block,
+                                      encoding=self.encoding(self._nounsfile))
+
+    def _read_instance_block(self, stream, instance_filter=lambda inst: True):
+        block = []
+
+        # Read 100 at a time.
+        for i in range(100):
+            line = stream.readline().strip()
+            if line:
+                inst = NombankInstance.parse(
+                    line, self._parse_fileid_xform,
+                    self._parse_corpus)
+                if instance_filter(inst):
+                    block.append(inst)
+
+        return block
+
+######################################################################
+#{ Nombank Instance & related datatypes
+######################################################################
+
+@python_2_unicode_compatible
+class NombankInstance(object):
+
+    def __init__(self, fileid, sentnum, wordnum, baseform, sensenumber,
+                 predicate, predid, arguments, parse_corpus=None):
+
+        self.fileid = fileid
+        """The name of the file containing the parse tree for this
+        instance's sentence."""
+
+        self.sentnum = sentnum
+        """The sentence number of this sentence within ``fileid``.
+        Indexing starts from zero."""
+
+        self.wordnum = wordnum
+        """The word number of this instance's predicate within its
+        containing sentence.  Word numbers are indexed starting from
+        zero, and include traces and other empty parse elements."""
+
+        self.baseform = baseform
+        """The baseform of the predicate."""
+
+        self.sensenumber = sensenumber
+        """The sense number of the predicate."""
+
+        self.predicate = predicate
+        """A ``NombankTreePointer`` indicating the position of this
+        instance's predicate within its containing sentence."""
+
+        self.predid = predid
+        """Identifier of the predicate."""
+
+        self.arguments = tuple(arguments)
+        """A list of tuples (argloc, argid), specifying the location
+        and identifier for each of the predicate's argument in the
+        containing sentence.  Argument identifiers are strings such as
+        ``'ARG0'`` or ``'ARGM-TMP'``.  This list does *not* contain
+        the predicate."""
+
+        self.parse_corpus = parse_corpus
+        """A corpus reader for the parse trees corresponding to the
+        instances in this nombank corpus."""
+
+    @property
+    def roleset(self):
+        """The name of the roleset used by this instance's predicate.
+        Use ``nombank.roleset() <NombankCorpusReader.roleset>`` to
+        look up information about the roleset."""
+        r = self.baseform.replace('%', 'perc-sign')
+        r = r.replace('1/10', '1-slash-10').replace('1-slash-10', 'oneslashonezero')
+        return '%s.%s'%(r, self.sensenumber)
+
+    def __repr__(self):
+        return ('<NombankInstance: %s, sent %s, word %s>' %
+                (self.fileid, self.sentnum, self.wordnum))
+
+    def __str__(self):
+        s = '%s %s %s %s %s' % (self.fileid, self.sentnum, self.wordnum,
+                                self.baseform, self.sensenumber)
+        items = self.arguments + ((self.predicate, 'rel'),)
+        for (argloc, argid) in sorted(items):
+            s += ' %s-%s' % (argloc, argid)
+        return s
+
+    def _get_tree(self):
+        if self.parse_corpus is None: return None
+        if self.fileid not in self.parse_corpus.fileids(): return None
+        return self.parse_corpus.parsed_sents(self.fileid)[self.sentnum]
+    tree = property(_get_tree, doc="""
+        The parse tree corresponding to this instance, or None if
+        the corresponding tree is not available.""")
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def parse(s, parse_fileid_xform=None, parse_corpus=None):
+        pieces = s.split()
+        if len(pieces) < 6:
+            raise ValueError('Badly formatted nombank line: %r' % s)
+
+        # Divide the line into its basic pieces.
+        (fileid, sentnum, wordnum,
+          baseform, sensenumber) = pieces[:5]
+
+        args = pieces[5:]
+        rel = [args.pop(i) for i,p in enumerate(args) if '-rel' in p]
+        if len(rel) != 1:
+            raise ValueError('Badly formatted nombank line: %r' % s)
+
+        # Apply the fileid selector, if any.
+        if parse_fileid_xform is not None:
+            fileid = parse_fileid_xform(fileid)
+
+        # Convert sentence & word numbers to ints.
+        sentnum = int(sentnum)
+        wordnum = int(wordnum)
+
+        # Parse the predicate location.
+
+        predloc, predid = rel[0].split('-', 1)
+        predicate = NombankTreePointer.parse(predloc)
+
+        # Parse the arguments.
+        arguments = []
+        for arg in args:
+            argloc, argid = arg.split('-', 1)
+            arguments.append( (NombankTreePointer.parse(argloc), argid) )
+
+        # Put it all together.
+        return NombankInstance(fileid, sentnum, wordnum, baseform, sensenumber,
+                               predicate, predid, arguments, parse_corpus)
+
+class NombankPointer(object):
+    """
+    A pointer used by nombank to identify one or more constituents in
+    a parse tree.  ``NombankPointer`` is an abstract base class with
+    three concrete subclasses:
+
+    - ``NombankTreePointer`` is used to point to single constituents.
+    - ``NombankSplitTreePointer`` is used to point to 'split'
+      constituents, which consist of a sequence of two or more
+      ``NombankTreePointer`` pointers.
+    - ``NombankChainTreePointer`` is used to point to entire trace
+      chains in a tree.  It consists of a sequence of pieces, which
+      can be ``NombankTreePointer`` or ``NombankSplitTreePointer`` pointers.
+    """
+    def __init__(self):
+        if self.__class__ == NombankPointer:
+            raise NotImplementedError()
+
+@python_2_unicode_compatible
+class NombankChainTreePointer(NombankPointer):
+    def __init__(self, pieces):
+        self.pieces = pieces
+        """A list of the pieces that make up this chain.  Elements may
+           be either ``NombankSplitTreePointer`` or
+           ``NombankTreePointer`` pointers."""
+
+    def __str__(self):
+        return '*'.join('%s' % p for p in self.pieces)
+    def __repr__(self):
+        return '<NombankChainTreePointer: %s>' % self
+    def select(self, tree):
+        if tree is None: raise ValueError('Parse tree not avaialable')
+        return Tree('*CHAIN*', [p.select(tree) for p in self.pieces])
+
+@python_2_unicode_compatible
+class NombankSplitTreePointer(NombankPointer):
+    def __init__(self, pieces):
+        self.pieces = pieces
+        """A list of the pieces that make up this chain.  Elements are
+           all ``NombankTreePointer`` pointers."""
+
+    def __str__(self):
+        return ','.join('%s' % p for p in self.pieces)
+    def __repr__(self):
+        return '<NombankSplitTreePointer: %s>' % self
+    def select(self, tree):
+        if tree is None: raise ValueError('Parse tree not avaialable')
+        return Tree('*SPLIT*', [p.select(tree) for p in self.pieces])
+
+@total_ordering
+@python_2_unicode_compatible
+class NombankTreePointer(NombankPointer):
+    """
+    wordnum:height*wordnum:height*...
+    wordnum:height,
+
+    """
+    def __init__(self, wordnum, height):
+        self.wordnum = wordnum
+        self.height = height
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def parse(s):
+        # Deal with chains (xx*yy*zz)
+        pieces = s.split('*')
+        if len(pieces) > 1:
+            return NombankChainTreePointer([NombankTreePointer.parse(elt)
+                                              for elt in pieces])
+
+        # Deal with split args (xx,yy,zz)
+        pieces = s.split(',')
+        if len(pieces) > 1:
+            return NombankSplitTreePointer([NombankTreePointer.parse(elt)
+                                             for elt in pieces])
+
+        # Deal with normal pointers.
+        pieces = s.split(':')
+        if len(pieces) != 2: raise ValueError('bad nombank pointer %r' % s)
+        return NombankTreePointer(int(pieces[0]), int(pieces[1]))
+
+    def __str__(self):
+        return '%s:%s' % (self.wordnum, self.height)
+
+    def __repr__(self):
+        return 'NombankTreePointer(%d, %d)' % (self.wordnum, self.height)
+
+    def __eq__(self, other):
+        while isinstance(other, (NombankChainTreePointer,
+                                 NombankSplitTreePointer)):
+            other = other.pieces[0]
+
+        if not isinstance(other, NombankTreePointer):
+            return self is other
+
+        return (self.wordnum == other.wordnum and self.height == other.height)
+
+    def __ne__(self, other):
+        return not self == other
+
+    def __lt__(self, other):
+        while isinstance(other, (NombankChainTreePointer,
+                                 NombankSplitTreePointer)):
+            other = other.pieces[0]
+
+        if not isinstance(other, NombankTreePointer):
+            return id(self) < id(other)
+
+        return (self.wordnum, -self.height) < (other.wordnum, -other.height)
+
+    def select(self, tree):
+        if tree is None: raise ValueError('Parse tree not avaialable')
+        return tree[self.treepos(tree)]
+
+    def treepos(self, tree):
+        """
+        Convert this pointer to a standard 'tree position' pointer,
+        given that it points to the given tree.
+        """
+        if tree is None: raise ValueError('Parse tree not avaialable')
+        stack = [tree]
+        treepos = []
+
+        wordnum = 0
+        while True:
+            #print treepos
+            #print stack[-1]
+            # tree node:
+            if isinstance(stack[-1], Tree):
+                # Select the next child.
+                if len(treepos) < len(stack):
+                    treepos.append(0)
+                else:
+                    treepos[-1] += 1
+                # Update the stack.
+                if treepos[-1] < len(stack[-1]):
+                    stack.append(stack[-1][treepos[-1]])
+                else:
+                    # End of node's child list: pop up a level.
+                    stack.pop()
+                    treepos.pop()
+            # word node:
+            else:
+                if wordnum == self.wordnum:
+                    return tuple(treepos[:len(treepos)-self.height-1])
+                else:
+                    wordnum += 1
+                    stack.pop()