A Hierarchy of Linguistic Programming Objects

In the paper, the general structure of some programming objects useful in linguistic analysis is suggested. The structure of the most abstract linguistic object is discussed; such an object can serve as the root of the hierarchy of linguistic objects. We suggest that this abstract linguistic object be a linguistic sign. Two possible methods for hierarchy of linguistic programming objects construction are discussed (with parameters and with inheritance). Also discussed is the structure of signifier, syntactics, and semantics objects, that are properties of a linguistic sign. Syntactics and semantics should be defined through the most common linguistic structures that naturally appear in linguistic algorithms, namely, a string, tree, and network. This is determined by the relations between linguistic signs in language. As an example, a simple program that uses the discussed object hierarchy to perform sentence and paragraph detection for ASCII text with tables is described.