In this recipe, we'll cover two more rules for chunking. A MergeRule class can merge two chunks together based on the end of the first chunk and the beginning of the second chunk. A SplitRule class will split a chunk into two chunks based on the specified split pattern.
A SplitRule class is specified with two opposing curly braces surrounded by a pattern on either side. To split a chunk after a noun, you would do <NN.*>}{<.*>. A MergeRule class is specified by flipping the curly braces, and will join chunks where the end of the first chunk matches the left pattern and the beginning of the next chunk matches the right pattern. To merge two chunks where the first ends with a noun and the second begins with a noun, you'd use <NN.*>{}<NN.*>.