Prolog: Sentence Parser Problem

Question

Hey guys,

Been sat here for hours now just staring at this code and have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I know what's happening from tracing the code through (it is going on an eternal loop when it hits verbPhrase). Any tips are more then welcome. Thank you.

% Knowledge-base
det(the).
det(a).

adjective(quick).
adjective(brown).
adjective(orange).
adjective(sweet).

noun(cat).
noun(mat).
noun(fox).
noun(cucumber).
noun(saw).
noun(mother).
noun(father).
noun(family).
noun(depression).

prep(on).
prep(with).

verb(sat).
verb(nibbled).
verb(ran).
verb(looked).
verb(is).
verb(has).

% Sentece Structures
sentence(Phrase) :-
       append(NounPhrase, VerbPhrase, Phrase),
       nounPhrase(NounPhrase),
       verbPhrase(VerbPhrase).

sentence(Phrase) :-
 verbPhrase(Phrase).

nounPhrase([]).

nounPhrase([Head | Tail]) :-
 det(Head),
 nounPhrase2(Tail).

nounPhrase(Phrase) :-
 nounPhrase2(Phrase).

nounPhrase(Phrase) :-
 append(NP, PP, Phrase),
 nounPhrase(NP),
 prepPhrase(PP).

nounPhrase2([]).

nounPhrase2(Word) :-
 noun(Word).

nounPhrase2([Head | Tail]) :-
 adjective(Head),
 nounPhrase2(Tail).

prepPhrase([]).

prepPhrase([Head | Tail]) :-
 prep(Head),
 nounPhrase(Tail).

verbPhrase([]).

verbPhrase(Word) :-
 verb(Word).

verbPhrase([Head | Tail]) :-
 verb(Head),
 nounPhrase(Tail).

verbPhrase(Phrase) :-
 append(VP, PP, Phrase),
 verbPhrase(VP),
 prepPhrase(PP).

Answer 1

I figured it out now after a bit of trolling the internet, so will answer it here if anyone else struggles with it.

The problem was that the append was creating an empty list. This list was passed as a parameter, then split again into two empty lists. And this was repeated over and over again. To stop this, everytime the append function is used, there must be a check if the lists are empty.

For example

verbPhrase(Phrase):-
append(VP, PP, Phrase),
VP \= [],
PP \= [],
verbPhrase(VP),
prepPhrase(PP).