Using pattern-action rules for the generation of GPSG structures from separate semantic representations

In many tactical NL generators the semantic input structure is taken for granted. In this paper, a new approach to multilingual, tactical generation is presented that keeps the syntax separate from the semantics. This allows for the system to be directly adapted to application-dependent representations. In the case at hand, the semantics is specifically designed for sentence-semantic transfer in a machine translation system. The syntax formalism used is Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG). The mapping from semantic onto syntactic structures is performed by a set of pattern-action rules. Each rule matches a piece of the input structure and guides the GPSG structure-building process by telling it which syntax rule(s) to apply. The scope of each pattern-action rule is strictly local, the actions are primitive, and rules can not call each other. These restrictions render the production rule approach both highly modular and transparent

A portable natural language interface from Arabic to SQL.

In recent years, natural language interface systems have been built based on the Front End and the Back End architecture which gives a guarantee of modularity and portability to the system as a whole. An Arabic Front End has been built that takes an input sentence, producing syntactic and semantic representations, which it maps into First Order Logic. Expressing the meaning of the user's question in terms of high level world concepts makes the natural language interface independent of the database structure. It is then easier to port the interface Front End to a database for a different domain. The syntactic treatments are based on Generalised Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG) whereas the semantics are expressed in formal semantics theory. The focus is mainly to provide syntactic and semantic analyses for Arabic queries based on correct Arabic linguistic principles. The proposed treatments are proved and tested by building a prototype system. The prototype is implemented using one of the existing systems called Squirrel. An Arabic morphological analyser is also proposed and implemented to distinguish between two types of morphemes: internal morphemes which are a part of the word's pattern, and external morphemes which are independent words attached to the word but which are not part of the word's pattern. So, the system focuses on the extraction of morphemes from the various inflexions or forms of any Arabic word

JTEC panel report on machine translation in Japan

The goal of this report is to provide an overview of the state of the art of machine translation (MT) in Japan and to provide a comparison between Japanese and Western technology in this area. The term 'machine translation' as used here, includes both the science and technology required for automating the translation of text from one human language to another. Machine translation is viewed in Japan as an important strategic technology that is expected to play a key role in Japan's increasing participation in the world economy. MT is seen in Japan as important both for assimilating information into Japanese as well as for disseminating Japanese information throughout the world. Most of the MT systems now available in Japan are transfer-based systems. The majority of them exploit a case-frame representation of the source text as the basis of the transfer process. There is a gradual movement toward the use of deeper semantic representations, and some groups are beginning to look at interlingua-based systems

A cognitive analysis of event structure

Events occupy a central place in natural language. Accordingly, an understanding of them is crucial if one is to have any kind of a theoretically well-motivated account of natural language understanding and generation. It is proposed here that speakers create a cognitive structure for each discourse and process it as they introduce sentences into the discourse. The structure for each sentence depends systematically on its tense, aspect and the situation type; its effect on the discourse also depends on the structures of the sentences that precede it. It is also argued that the perfective aspect introduces the structure of the given event in its entirety. The progressive, by contrast, introduces only the core of the structure of the given event excluding, in particular, its preparatory processes and resultant state. Similarly, the perfect and the perfective can be distinguished on the basis of the temporal schemata they introduce. While the perfective presents the event as complete, the perfect presents it as complete and closed; i.e., the perfect prevents succeeding discourse from being interpreted as falling during the given event. This is surprising since the perfect is otherwise simply the combination of the perfective and a tense. This paper also provides a key motivation for distinguishing between the preparatory processes and the preliminary stages of an event. This observation, which is crucial in distinguishing between the perfective and the progressive has not been made in the literature

Integrated knowledge acquisition for lathe production planning : a picture gallery

Diese Bildergalerie veranschaulicht den Einsatz der im ARC-TEC Projekt entwickelten integrativen Wissensakquisitionsmethode. Geleitet durch ein Modell der Expertise, wird das Wissen zur Fertigungsplanung für Drehteile aus Texten, Fallsammlungen und Expertenurteilen akquiriert. Drei aufeinander abgestimmte Tools unterstützen die Erhebung, Dokumentation, Überprüfung und Formalisierung des relevanten Wissens.This picture gallery illustrates the application of the integrated knowledge acquisition procedure which was developed in the ARC-TEC project. Guided by a model of expertise, the knowledge for lathe production planning is acquired from texts, previously solved cases, and expert memories. Three coordinated tools support the elicitation, documentation, verification and formalization of the relevant knowledge

Verzeichnis von Softwarekomponenten für natürlichsprachliche Systeme : Ergebnisse einer Umfrage im Rahmen der VERBMOBIL-Vorbereitung

Das DFKI (Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz) wurde vom BMFT (Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie) mit der Durchführung einer Umfrage zu existierenden Software-Komponenten im Bereich Verarbeitung natürlicher Sprache beauftragt (413 - 4001 - 01 IV 201). Das Ziel der Umfrage war die Erstellung einer Übersicht von in Deutschland verfügbaren Software-Komponenten, die im Bereich der natürlichsprachlichen Systeme für das Projekt VERBMOBIL relevant sein könnten. Das Ergebnis dieser Umfrage liegt nun vor. Zur Durchführung der Umfrage wurde ein Fragebogen erstellt, der im März 1992 über die News-Gruppe mod-ki verbreitet und außerdem an ca. 400 Adressen geschickt wurde (Mitglieder der Gesellschaft für Informatik e. V. FA 1.3 1 "Natürliche Sprache", Mitglieder der DGfS, Sektion Computerlinguistik). Das Verzeichnis ist auf in Deutschland entwickelte Software beschränkt und enthält akademische, kommerzielle und geschützte Software, wobei jeweils angegeben ist, unter welchen Bedingungen die Komponenten erhältlich sind

Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar

Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) is a constraint-based or declarative approach to linguistic knowledge, which analyses all descriptive levels (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics) with feature value pairs, structure sharing, and relational constraints. In syntax it assumes that expressions have a single relatively simple constituent structure. This volume provides a state-of-the-art introduction to the framework. Various chapters discuss basic assumptions and formal foundations, describe the evolution of the framework, and go into the details of the main syntactic phenomena. Further chapters are devoted to non-syntactic levels of description. The book also considers related fields and research areas (gesture, sign languages, computational linguistics) and includes chapters comparing HPSG with other frameworks (Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Construction Grammar, Dependency Grammar, and Minimalism)

Verzeichnis von Softwarekomponenten für natürlichsprachliche Systeme : Ergebnisse einer Umfrage im Rahmen der VERBMOBIL-Vorbereitung

Das DFKI (Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz) wurde vom BMFT (Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie) mit der Durchführung einer Umfrage zu existierenden Software-Komponenten im Bereich Verarbeitung natürlicher Sprache beauftragt (413 - 4001 - 01 IV 201). Das Ziel der Umfrage war die Erstellung einer Übersicht von in Deutschland verfügbaren Software-Komponenten, die im Bereich der natürlichsprachlichen Systeme für das Projekt VERBMOBIL relevant sein könnten. Das Ergebnis dieser Umfrage liegt nun vor. Zur Durchführung der Umfrage wurde ein Fragebogen erstellt, der im März 1992 über die News-Gruppe mod-ki verbreitet und außerdem an ca. 400 Adressen geschickt wurde (Mitglieder der Gesellschaft für Informatik e. V. FA 1.3 1 "Natürliche Sprache", Mitglieder der DGfS, Sektion Computerlinguistik). Das Verzeichnis ist auf in Deutschland entwickelte Software beschränkt und enthält akademische, kommerzielle und geschützte Software, wobei jeweils angegeben ist, unter welchen Bedingungen die Komponenten erhältlich sind