UIMA Ruta: Creating new annotations by combining existing annotation's features in plain Java

Question

I'm trying to convert the following logic into a UIMA Ruta Rule:

Sentence {->NewAnnotation} IF Sentence.part1 contains Constituent.label="VB" AND Sentence.part2 contains Constituent.label="VBZ"

In other words, I need to create a new annotation out of the entire Sentence and whose feature part1 (and part2 ) contains combinations/a sequence of specific posTags (Constituent.label).

At first, an intuitive answer for me was to use the CONTAINS condition along with a STRINGLIST (and config parameters) in the following manner:

STRINGLIST posList; //assuming it is declared
Sentence{-> NewAnnotation} <-{Sentence.part1{CONTAINS(posList, Constituent.label)};};

But it doesn't produce any annotations(yet it doesn't fail).

Then I considered the GETFEATURE action by storing the Sentence feature( Sentence.part1 ) in a string variable and using it separately(in the main rule). However, since GETFEATURE saves the feature in a STRING format so I cannot use it to produce annotations (since I need ANNOTATION type). Same happens with MATCHEDTEXT action.

I understand the rule a want to build is quite complex but I believe Ruta is the most suitable option for such tasks. So, can you please suggest me any ideas of how to deal with my problem?

Answer 1

As @PeterKluegl already stated, the solution to the original question would be:

Sentence{-> NewAnnotation} <-{Sentence.part1<-{Constituent.label=="VB";} %
                              Sentence.part2<-{Constituent.label=="VB";};};

Mind that this rule would work only if the Sentence features (ie part1 ) are annotations and not strings as it is in my case.

So, for potential interested people, I post also the solution approached in my case:

• Store Sentence features in separate annotations but keeping the link between the Sentence.part1 and its parent Sentence (this is possible in UIMA via parent pointers).

• Apply the following rule:

   String rutaRule = "STRING id;" + "STRING part1Id;" + "STRING part2Id;" + "Sentence{->GETFEATURE(\\"matchId\\", id)};" + "part1{->GETFEATURE(\\"parent\\", part1Id)};" + "part2{->GETFEATURE(\\"parent\\", part2Id)};" + "Sentence{AND(IF(id == part1Id), IF(id == part2Id))-> NewAnnotation} <-" + "{part1<-{Constituent.label == \\"VBD\\";} % " + "part2<-{Constituent.label == \\"MD\\" # Constituent.label == \\"VBN\\";};};"; Ruta.apply(cas,rutaRule);

Hope this can be of any help.