Probabilistic Refinement Algorithms for the Generation of Referring Expressions

We propose an algorithm for the generation of referring expressions (REs) that adapts the approach of Areces et al. (2008, 2011) to include overspecification and probabilities learned from corpora. After introducing the algorithm, we discuss how probabilities required as input can be computed for any given domain for which a suitable corpus of REs is available, and how the probabilities can be adjusted for new scenes in the domain using a machine learning approach. We exemplify how to compute probabilities over the GRE3D7 corpus of Viethen (2011). The resulting algorithm is able to generate different referring expressions for the same target with a frequency similar to that observed in corpora. We empirically evaluate the new algorithm over the GRE3D7 corpus, and show that the probability distribution of the generated referring expressions matches the one found in the corpus with high accuracy