Machine humour: An implemented model of puns

Institute for Communicating and Collaborative SystemsThis thesis describes a formal model of a subtype of humour, and the implementation of that model in a program that generates jokes of that subtype. Although there is a great deal of literature on humour in general, very little formal work has been done on puns, and none has been implemented. All current linguistic theories of humour are over-general and not falsifiable. Our model, which is specific, formal, implemented and evaluated, makes a significant contribution to the field. Punning riddles are our chosen subtype of verbal humour, for several reasons. They are very common, they exhibit certain regular structures and mechanisms, and they have been studied previously by linguists. Our model is based on our extensive analysis of large numbers of punning riddles, taken from children's joke books. The implementation of the model, JAPE (Joke Analysis and Production Engine), generates punning riddles, from a humour independent lexicon. Pun generation requires much less world knowledge than pun comprehension, making it feasible for implementation. To support our claim that all of JAPE's output is punning riddles, we conducted an evaluatory experiment. We took JAPE texts, human-generated texts, nonsense non-jokes and sensible non-jokes, and asked joke experts to evaluate them. For joke experts, we used 8-11 year old children, since psychological research suggests that this age group enjoys, and can recognize, punning riddles better than other age groups. The results showed that JAPE's output texts are, in fact, recognizably jokes. The evaluation showed that our model adequately describes a significant subtype of verbal humour. We believe that this model can now be expanded to cover puns in general, as well as other types of linguistic humour

Survey of the State of the Art in Natural Language Generation: Core tasks, applications and evaluation

This paper surveys the current state of the art in Natural Language Generation (NLG), defined as the task of generating text or speech from non-linguistic input. A survey of NLG is timely in view of the changes that the field has undergone over the past decade or so, especially in relation to new (usually data-driven) methods, as well as new applications of NLG technology. This survey therefore aims to (a) give an up-to-date synthesis of research on the core tasks in NLG and the architectures adopted in which such tasks are organised; (b) highlight a number of relatively recent research topics that have arisen partly as a result of growing synergies between NLG and other areas of artificial intelligence; (c) draw attention to the challenges in NLG evaluation, relating them to similar challenges faced in other areas of Natural Language Processing, with an emphasis on different evaluation methods and the relationships between them.Comment: Published in Journal of AI Research (JAIR), volume 61, pp 75-170. 118 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

Describing Verbally Expressed Humour

Proceedings of AISB Symposium on Creative and Cultural Aspects and Applications of AI and Cognitive ScienceIn pursuit of the long-term goal of developing a general theory of humour, it is reasonable to study certain limited forms of humorous artefact in detail. One obvious class of humour to consider is verbally expressed humour, and in particular jokes. We propose a methodology for exploring this subarea. The central idea is to devise detailed symbolic descriptions of the internal linguistic structure of classes of jokes, at a suitable level of abstraction. These descriptions are intended to make explicit the semantic and pragmatic factors (broadly interpreted) that are relevant to the humorous effect of the subclass of joke in question, and also to contribute an accumulation of analysed data over which more general theorising may occur. An analogy is drawn with established practice in linguistics

Wake Rites: the Ancient Irish Rituals of Finnegans Wake .

The complex of rites, rituals, and mythic reenactments known in Irish mythology as the Rites of Tara provides an interpretive model for James Joyce\u27s Finnegans Wake. Using information and theories pertaining to the Rites of Tara obtained from sources used by James Joyce, a comparison of the Rites of Tara with Finnegans Wake reveals important correlates related to chronology, characters, architectonics, themes, and defining characteristics. The three separate chronological events presented by Wakean scholars as possible dates for the events in the Wake---Easter, an unnamed pagan festival, and the Vernal Equinox---converged on a single day at the Rites of Tara. The model of the Rites of Tara can thus resolve the controversy over the date and occasion of Finnegans Wake. The dramatis personae of Finnegans Wake---the Sigla Group---are nearly identical in names, number, and functions to the ritual functionaries conducting the Rites of Tara. The larger structure of Finnegans Wake---the Viconian cycle of Religion, Marriage, Wake and Ricorso---correlates with the major events of the Rites of Tara, which cluster around the same four Viconian components. The individual episodes in Finnegans Wake have their analogues in the distinctive rites, rituals, and performances that collectively constitute the Rites of Tara. The great themes of Finnegans Wake---the Celtic Triangle, the superannuation of the father, the manifestation of antinomial forces as a cosmic pattern of existence, cyclical renewal as a property of both the human soul and the seasons---are identical to the religious principles expressed through the Rites of Tara. The three most distinctive characteristics of Finnegans Wake---its origin in the dream of Old Finn, its microcosmic qualities, and most significantly, its language---all have their important analogues in the Rites of Tara. Collectively, these parallels between the Rites of Tara and Finnegans Wake indicate a deliberate and comprehensive mythic structure underlying Finnegans Wake based closely on the paradigms of the pre-Christian religion of Ireland. Current assessments of Finnegans Wake have identified no underlying structure to Finnegans Wake. The critical interpretations of Finnegans Wake are, at present, built in large part upon this current assessment. The interpretive model provided by the Rites of Tara, however, strongly reinforces James Joyce\u27s own assessment of Finnegans Wake as the sacred canon of a new (or renewed) religion

A Flexible Integrated Architecture For Generating Poetic Texts

Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium on Natural Language Processing (SNLP 2000)In this paper we describe a flexible approach to natural language generation that employs a stochastic hillclimbing search algorithm and an integrated architecture. We then discuss the benefits of this approach over existing, informative, goal-driven generation systems. We choose the generation of poetry as our research task domain, as it is a prime example of natural language that demands the degree of flexibility provided by our approach. Finally, we report and discuss results of our preliminary implementation work

Real-time generation and adaptation of social companion robot behaviors

Social robots will be part of our future homes. They will assist us in everyday tasks, entertain us, and provide helpful advice. However, the technology still faces challenges that must be overcome to equip the machine with social competencies and make it a socially intelligent and accepted housemate. An essential skill of every social robot is verbal and non-verbal communication. In contrast to voice assistants, smartphones, and smart home technology, which are already part of many people's lives today, social robots have an embodiment that raises expectations towards the machine. Their anthropomorphic or zoomorphic appearance suggests they can communicate naturally with speech, gestures, or facial expressions and understand corresponding human behaviors. In addition, robots also need to consider individual users' preferences: everybody is shaped by their culture, social norms, and life experiences, resulting in different expectations towards communication with a robot. However, robots do not have human intuition - they must be equipped with the corresponding algorithmic solutions to these problems. This thesis investigates the use of reinforcement learning to adapt the robot's verbal and non-verbal communication to the user's needs and preferences. Such non-functional adaptation of the robot's behaviors primarily aims to improve the user experience and the robot's perceived social intelligence. The literature has not yet provided a holistic view of the overall challenge: real-time adaptation requires control over the robot's multimodal behavior generation, an understanding of human feedback, and an algorithmic basis for machine learning. Thus, this thesis develops a conceptual framework for designing real-time non-functional social robot behavior adaptation with reinforcement learning. It provides a higher-level view from the system designer's perspective and guidance from the start to the end. It illustrates the process of modeling, simulating, and evaluating such adaptation processes. Specifically, it guides the integration of human feedback and social signals to equip the machine with social awareness. The conceptual framework is put into practice for several use cases, resulting in technical proofs of concept and research prototypes. They are evaluated in the lab and in in-situ studies. These approaches address typical activities in domestic environments, focussing on the robot's expression of personality, persona, politeness, and humor. Within this scope, the robot adapts its spoken utterances, prosody, and animations based on human explicit or implicit feedback.Soziale Roboter werden Teil unseres zukünftigen Zuhauses sein. Sie werden uns bei alltäglichen Aufgaben unterstützen, uns unterhalten und uns mit hilfreichen Ratschlägen versorgen. Noch gibt es allerdings technische Herausforderungen, die zunächst überwunden werden müssen, um die Maschine mit sozialen Kompetenzen auszustatten und zu einem sozial intelligenten und akzeptierten Mitbewohner zu machen. Eine wesentliche Fähigkeit eines jeden sozialen Roboters ist die verbale und nonverbale Kommunikation. Im Gegensatz zu Sprachassistenten, Smartphones und Smart-Home-Technologien, die bereits heute Teil des Lebens vieler Menschen sind, haben soziale Roboter eine Verkörperung, die Erwartungen an die Maschine weckt. Ihr anthropomorphes oder zoomorphes Aussehen legt nahe, dass sie in der Lage sind, auf natürliche Weise mit Sprache, Gestik oder Mimik zu kommunizieren, aber auch entsprechende menschliche Kommunikation zu verstehen. Darüber hinaus müssen Roboter auch die individuellen Vorlieben der Benutzer berücksichtigen. So ist jeder Mensch von seiner Kultur, sozialen Normen und eigenen Lebenserfahrungen geprägt, was zu unterschiedlichen Erwartungen an die Kommunikation mit einem Roboter führt. Roboter haben jedoch keine menschliche Intuition - sie müssen mit entsprechenden Algorithmen für diese Probleme ausgestattet werden. In dieser Arbeit wird der Einsatz von bestärkendem Lernen untersucht, um die verbale und nonverbale Kommunikation des Roboters an die Bedürfnisse und Vorlieben des Benutzers anzupassen. Eine solche nicht-funktionale Anpassung des Roboterverhaltens zielt in erster Linie darauf ab, das Benutzererlebnis und die wahrgenommene soziale Intelligenz des Roboters zu verbessern. Die Literatur bietet bisher keine ganzheitliche Sicht auf diese Herausforderung: Echtzeitanpassung erfordert die Kontrolle über die multimodale Verhaltenserzeugung des Roboters, ein Verständnis des menschlichen Feedbacks und eine algorithmische Basis für maschinelles Lernen. Daher wird in dieser Arbeit ein konzeptioneller Rahmen für die Gestaltung von nicht-funktionaler Anpassung der Kommunikation sozialer Roboter mit bestärkendem Lernen entwickelt. Er bietet eine übergeordnete Sichtweise aus der Perspektive des Systemdesigners und eine Anleitung vom Anfang bis zum Ende. Er veranschaulicht den Prozess der Modellierung, Simulation und Evaluierung solcher Anpassungsprozesse. Insbesondere wird auf die Integration von menschlichem Feedback und sozialen Signalen eingegangen, um die Maschine mit sozialem Bewusstsein auszustatten. Der konzeptionelle Rahmen wird für mehrere Anwendungsfälle in die Praxis umgesetzt, was zu technischen Konzeptnachweisen und Forschungsprototypen führt, die in Labor- und In-situ-Studien evaluiert werden. Diese Ansätze befassen sich mit typischen Aktivitäten in häuslichen Umgebungen, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf dem Ausdruck der Persönlichkeit, dem Persona, der Höflichkeit und dem Humor des Roboters liegt. In diesem Rahmen passt der Roboter seine Sprache, Prosodie, und Animationen auf Basis expliziten oder impliziten menschlichen Feedbacks an

Linguistic-based Patterns for Figurative Language Processing: The Case of Humor Recognition and Irony Detection

El lenguaje figurado representa una de las tareas más difíciles del procesamiento del lenguaje natural. A diferencia del lenguaje literal, el lenguaje figurado hace uso de recursos lingüísticos tales como la ironía, el humor, el sarcasmo, la metáfora, la analogía, entre otros, para comunicar significados indirectos que la mayoría de las veces no son interpretables sólo en términos de información sintáctica o semántica. Por el contrario, el lenguaje figurado refleja patrones del pensamiento que adquieren significado pleno en contextos comunicativos y sociales, lo cual hace que tanto su representación lingüística, así como su procesamiento computacional, se vuelvan tareas por demás complejas. En este contexto, en esta tesis de doctorado se aborda una problemática relacionada con el procesamiento del lenguaje figurado a partir de patrones lingüísticos. En particular, nuestros esfuerzos se centran en la creación de un sistema capaz de detectar automáticamente instancias de humor e ironía en textos extraídos de medios sociales. Nuestra hipótesis principal se basa en la premisa de que el lenguaje refleja patrones de conceptualización; es decir, al estudiar el lenguaje, estudiamos tales patrones. Por tanto, al analizar estos dos dominios del lenguaje figurado, pretendemos dar argumentos respecto a cómo la gente los concibe, y sobre todo, a cómo esa concepción hace que tanto humor como ironía sean verbalizados de una forma particular en diversos medios sociales. En este contexto, uno de nuestros mayores intereses es demostrar cómo el conocimiento que proviene del análisis de diferentes niveles de estudio lingüístico puede representar un conjunto de patrones relevantes para identificar automáticamente usos figurados del lenguaje. Cabe destacar que contrario a la mayoría de aproximaciones que se han enfocado en el estudio del lenguaje figurado, en nuestra investigación no buscamos dar argumentos basados únicamente en ejemplos prototípicos, sino en textos cuyas característicasReyes Pérez, A. (2012). Linguistic-based Patterns for Figurative Language Processing: The Case of Humor Recognition and Irony Detection [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/16692Palanci