Development of an automatic grammar checker for Yoruba word processing using Government and Binding Theory

Grammar checkers have been developed for well-resourced languages such as French, German and English. However, there is a dearth of automatic grammar checkers for African languages including Standard Yoruba (SY) and consequently no standard software application. This study developed a software system for Yoruba grammar checking. Requirements for a Yoruba grammar checking system were investigated by gathering information on Yoruba syntax from Textbooks and Journals. Based on the information gathered, a computational model was formulated using the theoretical framework of Government and Binding (GB). The formulated system was designed using the Context Free Grammar Tool in Automata Theory. The system was implemented using the Python programming language version 3.5 and Natural Language Tool kit (NLTK). The system was tested for accuracy using a total of three hundred sentences. In detecting grammatically correct and incorrect sentences, an accuracy of 86.67%, 88.89% and 88.89% were achieved for simple, complex and compound sentences respectively. The grammar checker has been able to function as an automatic grammatical error checker of Yoruba digital text. Its implementation in software applications has the potential to increase the quality of Yorub ' a word processing. Also, the dictionary of words created can be used in other areas of human language processing.