Transfer and Multi-Task Learning for Noun-Noun Compound Interpretation

In this paper, we empirically evaluate the utility of transfer and multi-task learning on a challenging semantic classification task: semantic interpretation of noun--noun compounds. Through a comprehensive series of experiments and in-depth error analysis, we show that transfer learning via parameter initialization and multi-task learning via parameter sharing can help a neural classification model generalize over a highly skewed distribution of relations. Further, we demonstrate how dual annotation with two distinct sets of relations over the same set of compounds can be exploited to improve the overall accuracy of a neural classifier and its F1 scores on the less frequent, but more difficult relations.Comment: EMNLP 2018: Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP

Parallel Distributed Grammar Engineering for Practical Applications

Based on a detailed case study of parallel grammar development distributed across two sites, we review some of the requirements for regression testing in grammar engineering, summarize our approach to systematic competence and performance profiling, and discuss our experience with grammar development for a commercial application. If possible, the workshop presentation will be organized around a software demonstration

German nominal syntax in HPSG - on syntactic categories and syntagmatic relations -

The German nominal group - even when reduced to the core inventory of nouns, determiners and attributive adjectives - is a morphologically and syntactically complex structure. In this paper it is suggested that a detailed understanding of the (morpho-) syntactic categories and the syntagmatic relations exhibited in the core nominal group is a prerequisite to an adequate analysis. It will be argued that the two fundamental syntagmatic relations holding within the nominal group, viz. GOVERNMENT and AGREEMENT, have to figure as theoretically primitive concepts in any reasonably detailed account of nominal structures. Explicating government and agreement relations and especially separating one from the other, will presuppose a sufficient inventory of formal descriptive devices in any particular theory of grammar. The paper is settled in the framework of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). Recent HPSG analyses for the German nominal group that have been put forth in [Pollard and Sag 1994] and [Netter 1994] are studied in detail contrasting them to (semi-) formal proposals from other linguistic frameworks; potential problems as weIl as some abstract joint properties of the two HPSG approaches are exemplified. Building on this comparison it is concluded that in exactly the linguistic stipulations shared by the two accounts, two important generalizations about the inherent structure \u27of the German nominal group are to be found. At the same time the [Pollard and Sag 1994] analysis is tentatively reformulated

The Grammar Matrix: An Open-Source Starter-Kit for the Rapid Development of Cross-Linguistically Consistent Broad-Coverage Precision Grammars

The grammar matrix is an open-source starter-kit for the development of broadcoverage HPSGs. By using a type hierarchy to represent cross-linguistic generalizations and providing compatibility with other open-source tools for grammar engineering, evaluation, parsing and generation, it facilitates not only quick start-up but also rapid growth towards the wide coverage necessary for robust natural language processing and the precision parses and semantic representations necessary for natural language understanding

COSMA - multi-participant NL interaction for appointment scheduling

We discuss the use of NL systems in the domain of appointment scheduling. Appointment scheduling is a problem faced daily by many people and organizations, and typically solved using communication in natural language. In general, cooperative interaction between several participants is required whose calendar data are distributed rather than centralized. In this distributed multi-agent environment, the use of NL systems makes it possible for machines and humans to cooperate in solving scheduling problems. We describe the COSMA (Cooperative Schedule Managament Agent) system, a secretarial assistant for appointment scheduling. A central part of COSMA is the reusable NL core system DISCO, which serves, in this application, as an NL interface between an appointment planning system and the human user. COSMA is fully implemented in Common Lisp and runs on Unix Workstations. Our experience with COSMA shows that it is a plausible and useful application for NL systems. However, the appointment planner was not designed for NL communication and thus makes strong assumptions about sequencing of domain actions and about the error-freeness of the communication. We suggest that further improvements of the overall COSMA functionality, especially with regard to flexibility and robustness, be based on a modified architecture

Towards large-scale language analysis in the cloud

This paper documents ongoing work within the Norwegian CLARINO project on building a Language Analysis Portal (LAP). The portal will provide an intuitive and easily accessible web interface to a centralized repository of a wide range of language technology tools, all installed on a high-performance computing cluster. Users will be able to compose and run workflows using an easy-to-use graphical interface, with multiple tools and resources chained together in potentially complex pipelines. Although the project aims to reach out to a diverse set of user groups, it particularly will facilitate use of language analysis in the social sciences, humanities, and other fields without strong computational traditions. While the development of the portal is still in its early stages, this paper documents ongoing work towards an already operable pilot in addition to providing an overview of long-term goals and visions. At the core of the current pilot implementation we find Galaxy, a web-based workflow management system initially developed for data-intensive research in genomics and bioinformatics; therefore, an important part of the work on the pilot is to adapt and evaluate Galaxy for the context of a language analysis portal. Emanuele Lapponi, Erik Velldal, Nikolay A. Vazov, Stephan Oepen (2013). Towards Large-Scale Language Analysis in the Cloud, Proceedings of the workshop on Nordic language research infrastructure at NODALIDA 2013, May 22-24, 2013, Oslo, Norway. NEALT Proceedings Series 20 http://www.ep.liu.se/ecp_article/index.en.aspx?issue=089;article=00

Natural language semantics and compiler technology

This paper recommends an approach to the implementation of semantic representation languages (SRLs) which exploits a parallelism between SRLs and programming languages (PLs). The design requirements of SRLs for natural language are similar to those of PLs in their goals. First, in both cases we seek modules in which both the surface representation (print form) and the underlying data structures are important. This requirement highlights the need for general tools allowing the printing and reading of expressions (data structures). Second, these modules need to cooperate with foreign modules, so that the importance of interface technology (compilation) is paramount; and third, both compilers and semantic modules need "inferential" facilities for transforming (simplifying) complex expressions in order to ease subsequent processing. But the most important parallel is the need in both fields for tools which are useful in combination with a variety of concrete languages -- general purpose parsers, printers, simplifiers (transformation facilities) and compilers. This arises in PL technology from (among other things) the need for experimentation in language design, which is again parallel to the case of SRLs. Using a compiler-based approach, we have implemented NLL, a public domain software package for computational natural language semantics. Several interfaces exist both for grammar modules and for applications, using a variety of interface technologies, including especially compilation. We review here a variety of NLL, applications, focusing on COSMA, an NL interface to a distributed appointment manager

Open-Source Machine Translation with DELPH-IN

The Deep Linguistic Processing with HPSG Initiative (DELH-IN) provides the infrastructure needed to produce open-source semantic transfer-based machine translation systems. We have made available a prototype Japanese-English machine translation system built from existing resources include parsers, generators, bidirectional grammars and a transfer engine

On Different Approaches to Syntactic Analysis Into Bi-Lexical Dependencies. An Empirical Comparison of Direct, PCFG-Based, and HPSG-Based Parsers

We compare three different approaches to parsing into syntactic, bi-lexical dependencies for English: a ‘direct’ data-driven dependency parser, a statistical phrase structure parser, and a hybrid, ‘deep’ grammar-driven parser. The analyses from the latter two are post-converted to bilexical dependencies. Through this ‘reduction’ of all three approaches to syntactic dependency parsers, we determine empirically what performance can be obtained for a common set of dependency types for English, across a broad variety of domains. In doing so, we observe what trade-offs apply along three dimensions, accuracy, efficiency, and resilience to domain variation. Our results suggest that the hand-built grammar in one of our parsers helps in both accuracy and cross-domain performance. Proceedings of The 13th International Conference on Parsing Technologies IWPT-2013