Using Terminological Knowledge Representation Languages to Manage Linguistic Resources

Using Terminological Knowledge Representation Languages to Manage Linguistic Resources Pamela W. Jordan Intelligent Systems Program University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh PA 15260 jordan@isp.pitt.edu Abstract I examine how terminological languages can be used to manage linguistic data dur- ing NL research and development. In par- ticular, I consider the lexical semantics task of characterizing semantic verb classes and show how the language can be extended to flag inconsistencies in verb class definitions, identify the need for new verb classes, and identify appropriate linguistic hypotheses for a new verb's behavior. 1 Introduction Problems with consistency and completeness can arise when writing a wide-coverage grammar or an- alyzing lexical data since both tasks involve working with large amounts of data. Since terminological knowledge representation languages have been valu- able for managing data in other applications such as a software information system that manages a large knowledge base of plans (Devanbu and Lit- man, 1991), it is worthwhile considering how these languages can be used in linguistic data management tasks. In addition to inheritance, terminological sys- tems provide a criterial semantics for links and auto- matic classification which inserts a new concept into a taxonomy so that it directly links to concepts more general than it and more specific than it (Woods and Schmolze, 1992). Terminological languages have been used in NLP applications for lexical representation (Burkert, 1995), and grammar representation (Brachman and Schmolze, 1991), and to assist in the acquisition and maintenance of domain specific lexical seman- tics knowledge (Ayuso et al., 1987). Here I explore additional linguistic data management tasks. In par- ticular I examine how a terminological language such as Classic (Brachman et al., 1991) can assist a lexi- cal semanticist with the management of verb classes. In conclusion, I discuss ways in which terminological languages can be used during grammar writing. Consider the tasks that confront a lexical seman- ticist. The regular participation of verbs belonging to a particular semantic class in a limited number of syntactic alternations is crucial in lexical seman- tics. A popular research direction assumes that the syntactic behavior of a verb is systematically influ- enced by its meaning (Levin, 1993; Hale and Keyser, 1987) and that any set of verbs whose members pat- tern together with respect to syntactic alternations should form a semantically coherent class (Levin, 1993). Once such a class is identified, the mean- ing component that the member verbs share can be identified. This gives further insight into lexical rep- resentation for the words in the class (Levin, 1993). Terminological languages can support three im- portant functions in this domain. First, the process of representing the system in a taxonomic logic can serve as a check on the rigor and precision of the original account. Once the account is represented, the terminological system can flag inconsistencies. Second, the classifier can identify an existing verb class that might explain an unassigned verb's be- havior. That is, given a set of syntactically ana- lyzed sentences that exemplify the syntactic alterna- tions allowed and disallowed for …

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