12 – Multiple subjects, objects and complements

A sentence can have multiple subjects, objects and complements but not multiple verbs (although a future version of SimpleNLG might include this functionality). Multiple elements can be added with a CoordinatedPhraseElement:

    SPhraseSpec sentence = nlgFactory.createClause();

    NPPhraseSpec subject1 = nlgFactory.createNounPhrase("Mary");
    NPPhraseSpec subject2 = nlgFactory.createNounPhrase("der Hund");

    CoordinatedPhraseElement c = nlgFactory.createCoordinatedPhrase();
    c.addCoordinate(subject1);
    c.addCoordinate(subject2);

    VPPhraseSpec verb = nlgFactory.createVerbPhrase("laufen");

    sentence.setSubject(c);
    sentence.setVerb(verb);

    String output = realiser.realiseSentence(sentence);
    System.out.println(output);

SimpleNLG German outputs:

    Mary und der Hund laufen.

Automatically, "und" was added and the verb set to plural.

Analogously, several objects can be added by using a CoordinatedPhraseElement.

The conjunction "und" can be changed, if necessary, for example to "oder" by setting the conjunction to the coordinated phrase:

        c.setFeature(Feature.CONJUNCTION, "or");