2,373 research outputs found
One Homonym per Translation
The study of homonymy is vital to resolving fundamental problems in lexical
semantics. In this paper, we propose four hypotheses that characterize the
unique behavior of homonyms in the context of translations, discourses,
collocations, and sense clusters. We present a new annotated homonym resource
that allows us to test our hypotheses on existing WSD resources. The results of
the experiments provide strong empirical evidence for the hypotheses. This
study represents a step towards a computational method for distinguishing
between homonymy and polysemy, and constructing a definitive inventory of
coarse-grained senses.Comment: 8 pages, including reference
A Logic-based Approach for Recognizing Textual Entailment Supported by Ontological Background Knowledge
We present the architecture and the evaluation of a new system for
recognizing textual entailment (RTE). In RTE we want to identify automatically
the type of a logical relation between two input texts. In particular, we are
interested in proving the existence of an entailment between them. We conceive
our system as a modular environment allowing for a high-coverage syntactic and
semantic text analysis combined with logical inference. For the syntactic and
semantic analysis we combine a deep semantic analysis with a shallow one
supported by statistical models in order to increase the quality and the
accuracy of results. For RTE we use logical inference of first-order employing
model-theoretic techniques and automated reasoning tools. The inference is
supported with problem-relevant background knowledge extracted automatically
and on demand from external sources like, e.g., WordNet, YAGO, and OpenCyc, or
other, more experimental sources with, e.g., manually defined presupposition
resolutions, or with axiomatized general and common sense knowledge. The
results show that fine-grained and consistent knowledge coming from diverse
sources is a necessary condition determining the correctness and traceability
of results.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figure
Natural language processing and advanced information management
Integrating diverse information sources and application software in a principled and general manner will require a very capable advanced information management (AIM) system. In particular, such a system will need a comprehensive addressing scheme to locate the material in its docuverse. It will also need a natural language processing (NLP) system of great sophistication. It seems that the NLP system must serve three functions. First, it provides an natural language interface (NLI) for the users. Second, it serves as the core component that understands and makes use of the real-world interpretations (RWIs) contained in the docuverse. Third, it enables the reasoning specialists (RSs) to arrive at conclusions that can be transformed into procedures that will satisfy the users' requests. The best candidate for an intelligent agent that can satisfactorily make use of RSs and transform documents (TDs) appears to be an object oriented data base (OODB). OODBs have, apparently, an inherent capacity to use the large numbers of RSs and TDs that will be required by an AIM system and an inherent capacity to use them in an effective way
A Tableau Calculus for Pronoun Resolution
We present a tableau calculus for reasoning in fragments of natural language.
We focus on the problem of pronoun resolution and the way in which it
complicates automated theorem proving for natural language processing. A method
for explicitly manipulating contextual information during deduction is
proposed, where pronouns are resolved against this context during deduction. As
a result, pronoun resolution and deduction can be interleaved in such a way
that pronouns are only resolved if this is licensed by a deduction rule; this
helps us to avoid the combinatorial complexity of total pronoun disambiguation.Comment: 16 page
Semantic Types, Lexical Sorts and Classifiers
We propose a cognitively and linguistically motivated set of sorts for
lexical semantics in a compositional setting: the classifiers in languages that
do have such pronouns. These sorts are needed to include lexical considerations
in a semantical analyser such as Boxer or Grail. Indeed, all proposed lexical
extensions of usual Montague semantics to model restriction of selection,
felicitous and infelicitous copredication require a rich and refined type
system whose base types are the lexical sorts, the basis of the many-sorted
logic in which semantical representations of sentences are stated. However,
none of those approaches define precisely the actual base types or sorts to be
used in the lexicon. In this article, we shall discuss some of the options
commonly adopted by researchers in formal lexical semantics, and defend the
view that classifiers in the languages which have such pronouns are an
appealing solution, both linguistically and cognitively motivated
Disagreement dissected : vagueness as a source of ambiguity in nominal (co-)reference
Using a qualitative analysis of disagreements from a referentially annotated newspaper corpus, we show that, in coreference annotation, vague referents are prone to greater disagreement. We show how potentially problematic cases can be dealt with in a way that is practical even for larger-scale annotation, considering a real-world example from newspaper text
Attempto Controlled English (ACE)
Attempto Controlled English (ACE) allows domain specialists to interactively
formulate requirements specifications in domain concepts. ACE can be accurately
and efficiently processed by a computer, but is expressive enough to allow
natural usage. The Attempto system translates specification texts in ACE into
discourse representation structures and optionally into Prolog. Translated
specification texts are incrementally added to a knowledge base. This knowledge
base can be queried in ACE for verification, and it can be executed for
simulation, prototyping and validation of the specification.Comment: 13 pages, compressed, uuencoded Postscript, to be presented at CLAW
96, The First International Workshop on Controlled Language Applications,
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 26-27 March 199
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