Articles

Finding simple, non-recursive, base noun phrases is an important subtask for many natural language processing applications. While previous empirical methods for base NP identification have been rather complex, this paper instead proposes a very simple algorithm that is tailored to the relative simplicity of the task. In particular, we present …...

One of the most exciting recent directions in machine learning is the discovery that the combination of multiple classifiers often results in significantly better performance than what can be achieved with a single classifier. In this paper, we first show that the errors made from three different state of the …...

It seems obvious that a successful model of natural language would incorporate a great deal of both linguistic and world knowledge. Interestingly, state of the art language models for speech recognition are based on a very crude linguistic model, namely conditioning the probability of a word on a small fixed …...

A logical recasting ol' Binding Theory is perIbmaed as an efilmncing step for the purpose (>fits l'ull and lean declarative lmplementation. A new insight on sentential anaphoric processes is presented whmh may suegestively be captured by fhe slogan binding co'hglitions are the e[/ect of phase qtumtificatio, on the uniw'rs'e ofdiscourkb …...

In relatively free word order languages, grammat- ical functions are intricately related to case mark- ing. Assuming an ordered representation of the predicate-argument structure, this work proposes a Combinatory Categorial Grammar formulation of relating surface case cues to categories and types for conectly placing the arguments in the predicate- argument …...

Bilingual news article alignment methods based on multi-lingual information retrieval have been shown to be successful for the automatic production of so-called noisy-parallel corpora. In this paper we compare the use of machine translation (MT) to the commonly used dictionary term lookup (DTL) method for Renter news article aligmnent in …...

A large spoken dialogue translation system imposes both engineering and linguistic constraints on the way in which linguistic information is communi- cated between modules. We describe the design and use of interface terms, whose formal, functional and communicative role has been tested in a sequence of integrated systems and which …...

In this paper we present an algorithm to an- chor floating quantifiers in Japanese, a language in which quantificational nouns and numeral- classifier combinations can appear separated from the noun phrase they quantify. The algo- rithm differentiates degree and event modifiers from nouns that quantify noun phrases. It then finds …...

We show how the DOP model can be used for fast and robust processing of spoken input in a practical spoken dialogue system called OVIS. OVIS, Openbaar Vervoer Informatie Systeem ("Public Transport Infor- mation System"), is a Dutch spoken language infor- mation system which operates over ordinary telephone lines. The …...

Wc develop a l)ata-Oricntcd Parsing (DOP) model based on the syntactic representations of Lexical- f;unctional Grammar (LFG). We start by sum- marizing the original DOP model for tree represen- tations and then show how it can be extended with corresponding functional structures. The resulting LFG-DOP model triggers a new, corpus-based …...

In this article, we apply to natural language parsing and tagging the device of trigger- pair predictors, previously employed exclu- sively within the field of language mod- elling for speech recognition. Given the task of predicting the correct rule to as- sociate with a parse-tree node, or the cor- recl …...

This paper proposes decoupling the dependency tree fl'om word order, such that surface ordering is not determined by traversing the dependency tree. We develop the notion of a word order do- main structure, which is linked but structurally dissimilar to the syntactic dependency tree. The proposal results in a lexicalized, …...

The problem of parsing ambiguous structures concerns (i) their representation and (ii) the spec- ification of mechanisms allowing to delay and control their evaluation. We first propose to use a particular kind of disjunctions called controlled disjunctions: these formulae allows the represen- tation and the implementation of specific con- straints …...

We present core aspects of a fully implemented generation component in a multilingual speech- to-speech dialogue translation system. Its de- sign was particularly influenced by the neces- sity of real-time processing and usability for multiple languages and domains. We devel- oped a general kernel system comprising a mi- croplanning and …...

']'his paper examines the phenomenon of conso- nant spreading in Arabic stems. Each spread- ing involves a local surface copying of an un- derlying consonant, and, in certain phonologi~ cal contexts, spreading alternates productively with consonant lengthening (or gemination). The mOrl)hophonemic triggers of spreading lit in the patterns or even …...

Redundancy is a good thing, at least in a learn- ing process. To be a good teacher you must say what you are going to say, say it, then say what you have just said. Well, three times is better than one. To acquire and learn knowl- edge from text …...

The lexical acquisition system presented in this pa- per increlnenlally updates linguistic properties of un- known words inferred lrom their surrounding con- lexI by parsing senlences wilh an liPSG gramnmr for Gerlmm. We employ a gradual, infornmtion- based concept of "tlnknowntless" providing a uni- form treatment for the range oi …...

Semantic relationships among words and phrases are often marked by explicit syntactic or lexical clues that help recognize such rela~ tionships in texts. Within complex nominals, however, few overt clues are available. Sys- tems that analyze such nominals must com- pensate for the lack of surface clues with other information. …...

FrameNet is a three-year NSF-supported project in corpus-based computational lexicog- raphy, now in its second year (NSF IRI-9618838, "Tools for Lexicon Building"). The project's key features are (a) a commitment to corpus evidence for semantic and syntactic generaliza- tions, and (b) the representation of the valences of its target words …...

We present an approach to anaphora resolution based on a focusing algorithm, and implemented within an existing MUC (Message Understand- ing Conference) Information Extraction system, allowing quantitative evaluation against a sub- stantial corpus of annotated real-world texts. Extensions to the basic focusing mechanism can be easily tested, resulting in refinements …...