3 research outputs found
Integrating Referring and Informing in NP Planning
Two of the functions of an NP are to refer
(identify a particular entity) and to inform
(provide new information about an entity).
While many NPs may serve only one of these
functions, some NPs conflate the functions, not
only referring but also providing new information
about the referent. For instance, this delicious
apple indicates not only which apple the
speaker is referring to, but also provides information as to the speaker's appreciation of the apple.
This paper describes an implemented NPplanning
system which integrates informing into
the referring expression generation process. The
integration involves allowing informing to influence decisions at each stage of the formation of the referring form, including: the selection of the form of the NP; the choice of the head of a common NP; the choice of the Deictic in common NPs; the choice of restrictive modifiers, and the inclusion of non-referring modifiers. The system is domain-independent, and is presently functioning within a full text generation system
The Role of the Gricean Maxims in the Generation of Referring Expressions
Grice's maxims of conversation [Grice 1975] are framed as directives to be followed by a speaker of the language. This paper argues that, when considered from the point of view of natural language generation, such a characterisation is rather misleading, and that the desired behaviour falls out quite naturally if we view language generation as a goal-oriented process. We argue this position with particular regard to the generation of referring expressions