waashk/dblp huggingface dataset:
generating coherent argumentative paragraphs. we address the problem of generating a coherent paragraph presenting arguments for a conclusion in a text generation system. existing text planning techniques are not appropriate for this task for two main reasons: they do not explain how arguments can be linked together in a linear presentation order and they do not explain how the rhetorical function of a proposition affects its wording.we present a mechanism to generate argumentative paragraphs where argumentative relations constrain not only the rhetorical structure of the paragraph, but also the surface form of each proposition. in our approach, a text planner relies on a set of specific argumentative relations to extract information from the knowledge base, to map it to scalar and context dependent evaluations and to organize it into chains of arguments. the same information used for planning is also used by the surface realization component to perform lexical choice at all the levels of the clause (connectives, main verb, adverbial adjuncts, adjectives and determiners). the mechanism is implemented in the advisor ii system using fuf, an extended functional unification formalism.
generating connectives. we present an implemented procedure to select an appropriate connective to link two propositions, which is part of a large text generation system. each connective is defined as a set of constraints between features of the propositions it connects. our focus has been to identify pragmatic features that can be produced by a deep generator to provide a simple representation of connectives. using these features, we can account for a variety of connective usages, and we can distinguish between similar connectives. we describe how a surface generator can produce complex sentences when given these features in input. the selection procedure is implemented as part of a large functional unification grammar.
language identification in unknown signals. this paper describes algorithms and software developed to characterise and detect generic intelligent language-like features in an input signal, using natural language learning techniques: looking for characteristic statistical "language-signatures" in test corpora. as a first step towards such species-independent language-detection, we present a suite of programs to analyse digital representations of a range of data, and use the results to extrapolate whether or not there are language-like structures which distinguish this data from other sources, such as music, images, and white noise. we assume that generic species-independent communication can be detected by concentrating on localised patterns and rhythms, identifying segments at the level of characters, words and phrases, without necessarily having to "understand" the content.we assume that a language-like signal will be encoded symbolically, i.e. some kind of character-stream. our language-detection algorithm for symbolic input uses a number of statistical clues: data compression ratio, "chunking" to find character bit-length and boundaries, and matching against a zipfian type-token distribution for "letters" and "words". we do not claim extensive (let alone exhaustive) empirical evidence that our language-detection clues are "correct"; the only real test will come when the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence finds true alien signals. if and when true seti signals are found, the first step to interpretation is to identify the language-like features, using techniques like the above. our current research goal is to apply natural language learning techniques to the identification of "higher-level" grammatical and semantic structure in a linguistic signal.
a phrase structure grammar of the arabic language. a lot of work has been done in the field of natural language processing (nlp) for arabic. few researchers have tried hard to apply on arabic the methods of computational linguistics, as for example, definite clause grammar (dcg) [1] and augmented transition networks (atn) [2]. because there is not a modern linguistic model for arabic grammar within the frame of computational linguistics, the results achieved are not comparable with that achieved on english.in this paper, we represent the phrase structures covering arabic. they are completely different from english.
organizing linguistic knowledge for multilingual generation. we propose an architecture for the organisation of linguistic knowledge which allows to (1) separately formulate generalizations for different types of linguistic information, and (2) state interrelations between partial information belonging to different levels of description. we use typed feature structures for encoding linguistic knowledge. we show the application of this representational device for the architecture of linguistic knowledge sources for multilingual generation. as an example, we describe the use of interacting collocational and syntactic constraints in the generation of french and german sentences.
typed unification grammars. we introduce tfs, a computer formalism in the class of logic formalisms which integrates a powerful type system. its basic data structures are typed feature structures. the type system encourages an object-oriented approach to linguistic description by providing a multiple inheritance mechanism and an inference mechanism which allows the specification of relations between levels of linguistic description defined as classes of objects. we illustrate this approach starting from a very simple dcg, and show how to make use of the typing system to enforce general constraints and modularize linguistic descriptions, and how further abstraction leads to a hpsg-like grammar.
knowledge integration in a robust and efficient morpho-syntactic analyser for french. we present a morpho-syntactic analyzer for french which is capable of automatically detecting and of correcting (automatically or with user help) spelling mistakes, agreement errors and certain frequently encountered syntactic errors. emphasizing the specific language knowledge that is used, we describe the major subtasks of this analyzer: word categorization by dictionary look-up and spelling correction, construction of a parse tree or of a forest of parse trees, correction of syntactic and morphological errors by processing the parse tree. the spelling corrector module is designed to help correct the spelling mistakes of a french novice, as opposed to those of an experienced typist. the syntax analysis module is driven by an empirical grammar for french and is based on the work of tomita. the presentation is based on the design and implementation of a prototype of the system which is written in lisp for the macintosh computer.
the implementation of a computational grammar of french using the grammar development environment. the design and implementation of a large-coverage computational grammar of french is described. this grammar is compared to a comprehensive computational grammar of english which was implemented using the same computer workbench. although many similarities may be observed in the two grammars, there are important structural differences which can be traced back to features specific to the french language, notably agreement and eliticization.
decomposition of japanese sentences into normal forms based on human linguistic process. a diversity and a flexibility of language expression forms are awkward problems for the machine processing of language, such as translation, indexing and question-answering. this paper presents a method of decomposing japanese sentences appearing in the patent documents on "pulse network", into normal forms. first, the linguistic information is analysed and classified based on the human linguistic process. then, predicate functions, phrase functions and operators are introduced as the normal forms. finally, the decomposing procedure and some experimental results are shown.
lexical functional grammar in speech recognition. the syntax component of the speech recognition system ikaros is described. the usefulness of a probabiefistic lexical functional grammar both for constraining bottom-up hypotheses and top-down predicting is shown.
indexation de textes: l'apprentissage des concepts. in technical fields, many documents go unread due to a lack of awareness of their existence. a system which indexes texts can find all relevant texts in response to a query. the problem is to establish the indexation. at present, advanced full text systems automatically index texts on the complete thesaurus with computed weights. another way of doing this can be a person choosing the set of relevant concepts. this second solution is better but more costly and dependent on the classification choices made by the operator.to meet these problems, ana (auomatic natural acquisition) had been developed. this system automatically extracts relevant concepts from free texts to produce a semantic network. it does not rely on grammar or lexicon but, instead, is based on an original statistical method.this research brings about two developments: on one hand the system is also capable of extracting the simple grammatical structures it encounters, most often in order to improve its performance, and on the other hand this will lead to an automatic definition of semantic classes of concepts, in order to structure the network.
bottom-up earley deduction. we propose a botto - up variant of earley deduction. bottom-up deduction is preferable to top-down deduction because it allows incremental processing (even for head-driven grammars), it is data-driven, no subsumption check is needed, and preference values attached to lexical items can be used to guide best-first search. we discuss the scanning step for bottom-up earley deduction and indexing schemes that help avoid useless deduction steps.
an integrated system for morphological analysis of the slovene language. the paper presents an integrated environment for morphological analysis of word-forms of the slovene language. the system consists of a lexicon input and maintenance module, a lexicon output module, for accessing lexical word forms, a two-level rule compiler and a two-level morphological analysis/synthesis unit. the basic paradigms and lexical alternations of word forms are handled by the lexicon system, while the two-level component takes care of phonologically induced alternations.
centering theory and the italian pronominal system. in this paper, i give an account, in terms of centering theory [gjw86], of some phenomena of pronominalization in italian, in particular the use of the null or the overt pronoun in subject position. after a general introduction to the italian pronominal system, i will review centering, and then show how the original rules given in [gjw86] have to be extended or modified. finally, i will show that centering does not account for two phenomena: first, the functional role of an utterance may override the predictions of centering; second, a null subject can be used to refer to a whole discourse segment. this later phenomenon should ideally be explained in the same terms that the other phenomena in volving null subject are.
the discourse functions of italian subjects: a centering approach. this paper examines the discourse functions that different types of subjects perform in italian within the centering framework (grosz et al., 1995). i build on my previous work (di eugenio, 1990) that accounted for the alternation of null and strong pronouns in subject position. i extend my previous analysis in several ways: for example, i refine the notion of continue and discuss the centering functions of full nps.
a logical formalism for the representation of determiners. determiners play an important role in conveying the meaning of an utterance, but they have often been disregarded, perhaps because it seemed more important to devise methods to grasp the global meaning of a sentence, even if not in a precise way. another problem with determiners is their inherent ambiguity.in this paper we propose a logical formalism, which, among other things, is suitable for representing determiners without forcing a particular interpretation when their meaning is still not clear.
on the interpretation of natural language instructions. in this paper, we discuss the approach we take to the interpretation of instructions. instructions describe actions related to each other and to other goals the agent may have; our claim is that the agent must actively compute the actions that s/he has to perform, not simply "extract" their descriptions from the input.we will start by discussing some inferences that are necessary to understand instructions, and we will draw some conclusions about action representation formalisms and inference processes. we will discuss our approach, which includes an action representation formalism based on conceptual structures [jac90], and the construction of the structure of the agent's intentions. we will conclude with an example that shows why such representations help us in analyzing instructions.
compiling a partition-based two-level formalism. this paper describes an algorithm for the compilation of a two (or more) level orthographic or phonological rule notation into finite state transducers. the notation is an alternative to the standard one deriving from koskenniemi's work: it is believed to have some practical descriptive advantages, and is quite widely used, but has a different interpretation. efficient interpreters exist for the notation, but until now it has not been clear how to compile to equivalent automata in a transparent way. the present paper shows how to do this, using some of the conceptual tools provided by kaplan and kay's regular relations calculus.
the analysis of tense and aspect in eurotra. this paper presents a framework for the model-theoretic analysis of tense and aspect forms in discourse. it has been developed for eurotra, the mt project of the european community, and has been applied to the nine eurotra languages: english, german, dutch, danish, greek, italian, french, spanish and portuguese.the paper consists of six parts. the first presents the problem of translating tense and aspect forms and indicates the type of solution i envisage. the second contains a formalism for the representation of time meanings. the third and the fourth present a theory of tense and aspect respectively. the fifth discusses the issue of compositionality and the sixth is about the use of the system in the eurotra framework.
interpretation of nominal compounds: combining domain-independent and domain-specific information. a domain independent model is proposed for the automated interpretation of nominal compounds in english. this model is meant to account for productive rules of interpretation which are inferred from the morpho-syntactic and semantic characteristics of the nominal constituents. in particular, we make extensive use of pustejovsky's principles concerning the predicative information associated with nominals. we argue that it is necessary to draw a line between generalizable semantic principles and domain-specific semantic information. we explain this distinction and we show how this model may be applied to the interpretation of compounds in real texts, provided that complementary semantic information are retrieved.
boosting variant recognition with light semantics. a reasonably simple, domain-independent, large-scale approach of lexical semantics to paraphrase recognition is presented in this paper. it relies on the enrichment of morphosyntactic rules and the addition of four boolean syntactico-semantic features to a set of 1,023 words. it results in a significant enhancement of precision of 30% with a slight decrease in recall of 10%.
particle homonymy and machine translation. the purpose of this contribution is to formulate ways in which the homonymy of socalled 'model particles' and their etymons can be handled. our aim is to show that not only a strategy for this type of homonymy can be worked out, but also a formalization of information beyond propositional content can be introduced with a view to its mt application.
thales: a software package for plane geometry constructions with a natural language interface. thales is a software package for plane geometry constructions, supplied with a natural language interface. using thales requires no knowledge of a programming language. the interface is capable of processing practically all kinds of instructions within the subset of plane geometry english. the "static semantic" module has been generated on the basis of a high-level attribute specification. transportability, modifiability and generality -- the key issues of natural language interface design -- are investigated in the project note. the notion of specifiability is introduced to replace the three features mentioned above.
a self-learning system for the chinese characters. we are prototyping a system for the self-learning of chinese characters, presently on a macintosh computer. the interactive information base provides the learner with basic universal properties of the characters (morphology, intrinsic meaning), extended with a quite comprehensive set of language- dependent aspects (phonetics, extended semantics, contextual or pragmatic attributes). the user is intended to have a professional or cultural non-academic motivation. the system allows to experiment on heisig's proposal involving the separation of chinese characters learning (or japanese kanji) from that of the language. a prototype under hypercard may be demonstrated on a subset of about 200 characters.
towards linguistic knowledge discovery assistants: application to learning lexical properties of chinese characters. it is highly desirable that users of systems which include nlp-based components, ranging from grammar - checkers to mt systems, can access the underlying linguistic knowledge base in a natural and gratifying way. our research aims at developing such linguistic discovery assistant by merging hyperdocuments, data base management systems and interpretive adaptive interfaces.we have followed a stepwise approach to the idea in the context of the discovery and learning of lexical properties of chinese characters, by developing several prototypes. we see this system as a facet of a broader based including dictionary knowledge.
lexical accommodation in machine-mediated interactions. we report results of lexical accommodation studies involving three different interpretion settings: human-human monolingual; human-interpreted bilingual; and machine-interpreted bilingual. we found significant accommodation in all three conversational settings, with the highest rate in the human-interpreted settings. there is evidence for long-range mutual accommodation in that setting, as compared to short-range accommodation in the machine-interpreted setting. motivations discussed in the accommodation literature, including speakers' concern for social standing and communicational efficiency, are examined in the light of the results obtained. finally, we draw implications for the design of multimedia human-computer interfaces.
the automatic creation of lexical entries for a multilingual mt system. in this paper, we describe a method of extracting information from an on-line resource for the construction of lexical entries for a multi-lingual, interlingual mt system (ultra). we have been able to automatically generate lexical entries for interlingual concepts corresponding to nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. although several features of these entries continue to be supplied manually we have greatly decreased the time required to generate each entry and see this as a promising method for the creation of large-scale lexicons.
collative semantics. this paper introduces collative semantics (cs), a new domain-independent semantics for natural language processing (nlp) which addresses the problems of lexical ambiguity, metonymy, various semantic relations (conventional relations, redundant relations, contradictory relations, metaphorical relations and severely anomalous relations) and the introduction of new information. we explain the two techniques cs uses for matching together knowledge structures (kss) and why semantic vectors, which record the results of such matches, are informative enough to tell apart semantic relations and be the basis for lexical disambiguation.
metonymy and metaphor: what's the difference. a computational approach to metonymy and metaphor is proposed that distinguishes between them, literalness, and anomaly. the approach supports lakoff and johnson's (1980) views that metonymy and metaphor are quite different phenomena, that in metonymy an entity stands for another, whereas in metaphor an entity is viewed as another.
demonstration of genesys: a very large, semantically based systemic functional generator. this paper provides background material to the demonstration to be given at coling '90 of the genesys component of the communal system. a presenter of such a demonstration should say (1) what the system is good for; (2) why it is good for it; and (3) what makes it different from alternative systems. the system to be demonstrated is just a part (though the single most important part) of a much more complex system, and some of the answers to the questions must be related to the overall system. so i shall describe that first, and then the generator itself.
non-sentential utterances: grammar and dialogue dynamics in corpus annotation. dialogue is full of intuitively complete utterances that are not sentential in their outward form, most prototypically the "short answers" used to respond to queries. as is well known, processing such non-sentential utterances (nsus) is a difficult problem on both theoretical and computational grounds. in this paper we present a corpus-based study of nsus. we propose a comprehensive, theoretically grounded classification of nsus in dialogue based on a sub-portion of the british national corpus (bnc). the study suggests that the interpretation of nsus is amenable to resolution using a relatively intricate grammar combined with an utterance dynamics approach. that is, a strategy that keeps track of a highly structured dialogue record of entities that get introduced into context as a result of utterances. complex, domain-based reasoning is not, on the whole, very much in evidence.