37,087 research outputs found
Syntactic Structures and Code Parameters
We assign binary and ternary error-correcting codes to the data of syntactic
structures of world languages and we study the distribution of code points in
the space of code parameters. We show that, while most codes populate the lower
region approximating a superposition of Thomae functions, there is a
substantial presence of codes above the Gilbert-Varshamov bound and even above
the asymptotic bound and the Plotkin bound. We investigate the dynamics induced
on the space of code parameters by spin glass models of language change, and
show that, in the presence of entailment relations between syntactic parameters
the dynamics can sometimes improve the code. For large sets of languages and
syntactic data, one can gain information on the spin glass dynamics from the
induced dynamics in the space of code parameters.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX, 12 png figure
Principles and Parameters: a coding theory perspective
We propose an approach to Longobardi's parametric comparison method (PCM) via
the theory of error-correcting codes. One associates to a collection of
languages to be analyzed with the PCM a binary (or ternary) code with one code
words for each language in the family and each word consisting of the binary
values of the syntactic parameters of the language, with the ternary case
allowing for an additional parameter state that takes into account phenomena of
entailment of parameters. The code parameters of the resulting code can be
compared with some classical bounds in coding theory: the asymptotic bound, the
Gilbert-Varshamov bound, etc. The position of the code parameters with respect
to some of these bounds provides quantitative information on the variability of
syntactic parameters within and across historical-linguistic families. While
computations carried out for languages belonging to the same family yield codes
below the GV curve, comparisons across different historical families can give
examples of isolated codes lying above the asymptotic bound.Comment: 11 pages, LaTe
A framework for deriving semantic web services
Web service-based development represents an emerging approach for the development of distributed information systems. Web services have been mainly applied by software practitioners as a means to modularize system functionality that can be offered across a network (e.g., intranet and/or the Internet). Although web services have been
predominantly developed as a technical solution for integrating software systems, there is a more business-oriented aspect that developers and enterprises need to deal with in order to benefit from the full potential of web services in an electronic market. This ‘ignored’ aspect is the representation of the semantics underlying the services themselves as well as the ‘things’ that the services manage. Currently languages like the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) provide the syntactic means to describe web services, but
lack in providing a semantic underpinning. In order to harvest all the benefits of web services technology, a framework has been developed for deriving business semantics from syntactic descriptions of web services. The benefits of such a framework are two-fold. Firstly, the framework provides a way to gradually construct domain ontologies from previously defined technical services. Secondly, the framework enables the
migration of syntactically defined web services toward semantic web services. The study follows a design research approach which (1) identifies the problem area and its relevance from an industrial case study and previous research, (2) develops the
framework as a design artifact and (3) evaluates the application of the framework through a relevant scenario
From chunks to function-argument structure : a similarity-based approach
Chunk parsing has focused on the recognition of partial constituent structures at the level of individual chunks. Little attention has been paid to the question of how such partial analyses can be combined into larger structures for complete utterances. Such larger structures are not only desirable for a deeper syntactic analysis. They also constitute a necessary prerequisite for assigning function-argument structure. The present paper offers a similaritybased algorithm for assigning functional labels such as subject, object, head, complement, etc. to complete syntactic structures on the basis of prechunked input. The evaluation of the algorithm has concentrated on measuring the quality of functional labels. It was performed on a German and an English treebank using two different annotation schemes at the level of function argument structure. The results of 89.73% correct functional labels for German and 90.40%for English validate the general approach
A derivational rephrasing experiment for question answering
In Knowledge Management, variations in information expressions have proven a
real challenge. In particular, classical semantic relations (e.g. synonymy) do
not connect words with different parts-of-speech. The method proposed tries to
address this issue. It consists in building a derivational resource from a
morphological derivation tool together with derivational guidelines from a
dictionary in order to store only correct derivatives. This resource, combined
with a syntactic parser, a semantic disambiguator and some derivational
patterns, helps to reformulate an original sentence while keeping the initial
meaning in a convincing manner This approach has been evaluated in three
different ways: the precision of the derivatives produced from a lemma; its
ability to provide well-formed reformulations from an original sentence,
preserving the initial meaning; its impact on the results coping with a real
issue, ie a question answering task . The evaluation of this approach through a
question answering system shows the pros and cons of this system, while
foreshadowing some interesting future developments
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