Abstracts of Current Literature

ASTRACTS OF CURRENT LITERATURE Selected Dissertation Abstracts Related to Computational Linguistics Compiled by Susanne M. Humphrey and Bob Krovetz, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD 20209 The following are citations selected by title and abstract as being related to computational linguistics, resulting from a computer search, using the BRS Information Technologies retrieval service, of the Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI) data base produced by University Microfilms International. Given are title author institution, degree, year, and, if available, number of pages the subject category chosen by the author of the dissertation the DAI order number and availability tag Citations are sorted first by DAI subject category and second by author. Unless otherwise specified, paper or micro- form copies of dissertations may be ordered from University Microfilms International Dissertation Copies Post Office Box 1764 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 telephone for U.S. (except Michigan, Hawaii, Alaska): 1-800-521-3042 for Canada: 1-800-268-6090. Price lists and other ordering and shipping information are in the introduction to the published DAI. The "Unavailable" tag indicates that copies are unavailable from University Microfilms International. An alternate source for copies is sometimes provided at the end of the abstract. NOTICE: The dissertation titles and abstracts contained herein are published with permission of University Micro- films International, publishers of Dissertation Abstracts International (copyright 1985 by University Microfilms Inter- national), and may not be reproduced without their prior permission. Semantic Interpretation Against Ambiguity Graeme John Hirst Brown University, Ph.D., 1984, 331 pp. Computer Science ADG84-22435 Available We describe a new approach to semantic interpretation in natural language understanding, and mechanisms for both lexical and structural disambiguation that work in concert with the semantic interpreter. Traditionally, translation from the parse tree of a sentence to a seman- tic representation (such as frames or procedural semantics) has always been the most ad hoc part of natural language understanding systems. However, recent advances in linguistics, most notably the system of formal semantics known as Montague semantics, suggest ways of putting semantic interpretation onto a cleaner and firmer foundation. Absity, the system we describe, is a Montague-inspired semantic inter- preter. Like Montague formalisms, our semantics is compositional by design and is strongly typed, with semantic rules in one-to-one correspond- ence with the meaning-affecting rules of a Marcus parser. We have replaced the Montague semantic objects - functors and truth conditions - with elements of the frame language Frail. Absity's partial results are always well-formed Frail objects. A semantic interpreter must be able to provide feedback to the parser to help it handle structural ambiguities. In Absity, this is done by the "Semantic Enquiry Desk", a process that answers the parser's questions on semantic preferences. Disambiguation of word senses and of case slots is done by a set of procedures, one per word or slot, each of which deter- mines its correct sense in cooperation with the others. A partially disam- biguated procedure's remaining possibilities are well-formed Frail objects that can be seen and used by other processes, including the Semantic Enquiry Desk, just as a person can …

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