How Can I Parse a Document and Replace the Content to Change Context from 1st or 2nd Person to 3rd Person?

Question

Basically I need some text like:

• I have an ice cream cone.
• You are in trouble.
• You need a bath.

And change it from 1st or 2nd person to 3rd person.

• He has an ice cream cone.
• He is in trouble.
• He needs a bath.

I've started a js app, but it's super simple at the moment.

Before I waste time reinventing the wheel, I figured I'd ask: Is anyone aware of any 3rd party libraries that do this sort of thing? If not, does anyone have any advice or guidance to offer to help me get something going?

Answer 1

I don't know of any libraries that do this out-of-the-box, but I've used Nodebox Linguistics, which has a verb conjugation module, to implement some of this functionality myself. To expand on Benoit's comment, English verb conjugation is mostly simple, but there are a lot of nuanced exceptions, especially when changing tense.