Articles

The topic of the paper is the problem how to define case relations by semantic predicates. A general principle is out- lined, which renders it possible to "calculate" case relations for a given representation of a (verb-)sememe by means of expressions. This principle is based on an assignment of case …...

This paper is part of an enterprise whose aim is to represent linguistic knowledge in the form of a molecular machine (a dynamic network). That is, the molecules of the network not only store, but also send, receive, and process information. It is claimed that such a network can be …...

That at least some syntax is necessary to support semantic process- ing is fairly obvious. To know exactly how much syntax is needed, however, and how and when to apply it, is still an open and crucial, albeit old, question. This paper discusses the solutions used in a semantic analyser …...

This work concerns integration between syntax and semantics. Syntactic and semantic activities rely on separate bodies of knowledges. Integration is obtained by exploiting the isomorphism between grammatical relations (among immediate constitu~ errs) and conceptual relations, thanks to a limited set of formal mapping rules. Syntactic analysis does not construct all …...

This paper presents a format for representing the linguistic form of utterances, called situation schemata, which is rooted in the situation semantics of Barwise and Perry. A treatment of locative prepositional phrases is given, thus illustrating the generation of the situation schemata and their interpretation in situation semantics....

A framework for a structured representation of semantic knowledge (e.g. word-senses) has been defined at the IBM Scientific Center of Roma, as part of a project on Italian Text Understanding. This representation, based on the conceptual graphs formalism [SOW84], expresses deep knowledge (pragmatic) on word-senses. The knowledge base data structure …...

Acquiring information systems specifications from natural language description is presented as a problem class that requires a different treatment of semantics when compared with other applied NL systems such as database and operating system interfaces. Within this problem class, the specific task of obtaining explicit conceptual data models from natural …...

An environment built around WEDNESDAY 2, a chart based parser is introduced. The environment is in particular oriented towards exploring dynamic aspects of parsing. It includses a number of specialized tools that consent an easy, graphics-based interaction with the parser. It is shown in particular how a combination of the …...

Currently several grammatical formalisms converge towards being declarative and towards utilizing context-free phrase-structure grammar as a back- bone, e.g. LFG and PATR-II. Typically the pro- cessing of these formalisms is organized within a chart-parsing framework. The declarative charac- ter of the formalisms makes it important to decide upon an overall …...

This paper assesses two new approaches to deterministic parsing with respect to the analysis of unbounded dependencies (UDs). UDs in English are highly locally (and often globally) ambiguous. Several researchers have argued that the difficulty of UDs undermines the programme of deterministic parsing. However, their conclusion is based on critiques …...

In this paper we present an efficient context-free (CF) bottom-up, non deterministic parser. It is an extension of the ICA (Immediate Constituent Analysis) parser proposed by Grishman (1976), and its major improvements are described. It has been designed to run Augmented Phrase-Structure Grammars (APSG) and performs semantic interpretation in parallel …...

Intelligent problem solving systems must be able to ex- press their results in a coherent and flexible manner. One way this can be done is by eztemporaneous elaboration, the method of language production that underlies more skilled tasks such as explanation. This paper outlines a computa- tional model for extemporaneous …...

We distinguish three main, overlapping activities in an advice-giving dialogue: problem formulation, resolution, and explanation. This paper focuses on a problem for- mulation activity in a dialogue module which interacts on one side with an expert problem solver for financial investing and on the other side with a natural language …...

Referent identification in human conversation is performed both by describing the objects in question and by pointing at them. Up till now, only the linguis- tic component could be simulated in dialog systems. But recently, technical innovations have made it possible to 'point' at the objects on a display as …...

This paper reports work on the design of a natural language interface with a limited dialogue capability. It is argued that (i) The interpretation of the input is preferably represented as a structure of Discourse Object Descriptions (DODs); (ii) The DODs must be determined on the basis of different types …...

In this paper we address the problem of choosing the best solution(s) from a set of interpretations of the same object (in our case a segment of text). A notion of preference is stated, based on pairwise comparisons of complete interpretations in order to obtain a partial order among the …...

A project of machine translation of Czech computer manuals into Russian is described, presenting first a description of the overall system structure and concentrating then mainly on input text preparation and a parsing algorithm based on bottom-up parser programmed in Colmerauer's Q-systems....

At our institute a speech understanding and dialog system is developed. As an example we model an information system for timetables and other information about intercity trains. In understanding spoken utterances, additional problems arise due to pronunciation variabilities and vagueness of the word recognition process. Experiments so far have also …...

A novel approach to the problem of text understanding is presented, which exploits a distributed processing concept, where knowledge from different sources comes into play in the course of comprehension. In the paper the rationale of advocating such an approach and the.advantages in following it are discussed. A proto- type …...

A tool is described which helps in the creation, extension and updating of lexical knowledge bases (LKBs). Two levels of representation are distinguished: a static storage level and a dynamic knowledge level. The latter is an object-oriented environment containing linguis- tic and lexicographic knowledge. At the knowledge level, constructors and …...