Research and development in natural language processing at BBN laboratories in the strategic computing program

Weischedel, Ralph; Scha, Remko; Walker, Edward T.; Ayuso, Damaris; Haas, Andrew; Hinrichs, Erhard; Ingria, Robert; Ramshaw, Lance; Shaked, Varda; Stallard, David

doi:10.3115/1077146.1077148

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Other than the caveat just discussed, the Janus meaning representation language WML (for World Model Language) (Hinrichs et al, 1987) meets all the other constraints for DE generation. WML is a higherorder intensional language that is based on a synthesis between the kind of language used in PHLIQA (Scha, 1976) and Montague's Intensional Logic (Montague, 1973).…”

Section: Generationmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…This is, to our knowledge, the first implementation of Webber's DE generation ideas. We designed the algorithms and structures necessary to generate discourse entities from our logical representation of the meaning of utterances, and from pointing gestures, and currently use them in Janus's (Weischedel et al, 1987, BSN, 1988 pronoun resolution component, which applies centering techniques (Grosz et al, 1983, Sidner 1981, Brennan et al 1987 to track and constrain references.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Discourse entities in Janus

Ayuso¹

1989

Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting on Association for Computational Linguistics -

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This paper addresses issues that arose in applying the model for discourse entity (DE) generation in B. Webber's work (1978, 1983) to an interactive multimodal interface. Her treatment was extended in 4 areas: (1)the notion of context dependence of DEs was formalized in an intensional logic, (2)the treatment of DEs for indefinite NPs was modified to use skolem functions, (3)the treatment of dependent quantifiers was generalized, and (4) DEs originating from non-linguistic sources, such as pointing actions, were taken into account. The discourse entities are used in intra-and extra-sentential pronoun resolution in BBN Janus.

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Section: Generationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discourse entities in Janus

Ayuso¹

1989

Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting on Association for Computational Linguistics -

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“…As implied in the graphical representation, the user's request, whatever its modality, is translated into an internal representation of the meaning of what the user needs. We initially explored a first-order logic for this purpose; however, in Janus [13] we have adopted an intensional logic [3,14] to investigate whether intensional logic offers more appropriate representations for applications more complex than databases, e.g., simulations and other calculations in hypothetical situations. From the statement of what the user needs, we next derive a statement of how to fulfill that need, an execution p/an composed of abstract commands.…”

Section: Scope Of the Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple underlying systems

Bobrow¹,

Resnik²,

Weischedel³

1990

Proceedings of the 28th Annual Meeting on Association for Computational Linguistics -

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A user may typically need to combine the strengths of more than one system in order to perform a task. In this paper, we describe a component of the Janus natural language interface that translates intensional logic expressions representing the meaning of a request into executable code for each application program, chooses which combination of application systems to use, and designs the transfer of data among them in order to provide an answer. The complete Janus natural language system has been ported to two large command and control decision support aids.

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“…IRUS-II(TM) IRUS-Iltm (Weischedel, et al 1987) is a robnst NL understanding system that interfaces to a variety of underlying systems, such as DB management systems, expert systems and other application programs. It is capable of handling a very wide range of English constructions including ill-folaned ones.…”

Section: The Understanding Componentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies for effective paraphrasing

Meteer¹,

Shaked²

1988

Proceedings of the 12th Conference on Computational Linguistics -

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AB S'll'RAC'I' in this paper we present a new dimension to paraphrasing text in which characteristics of the original text motivate strategies for effective pacaphrasing. Our system combines two existing robust components: the IRIJS-.II natural language underst~mding system and the SPOKESMAN generation system. We describe the architectur(: of the system and enhancements made to these components to facilitate paraphrasing. We particularly look at how levels of representation in these two systems are used by specialists in the paraphraser which define potential problems and paraphrasing strategies. Finally, we look at the role of paraphrasing in a cooperative dialog system. We will focus here on paraphrasing in the coutext of natural language interfaces and particularly on how multiple int::rpretations introduced by various kinds of ambiguity can be contrasted in paraphrases using both sentence structure and highlighting and folmating the text itself.

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Research and development in natural language processing at BBN laboratories in the strategic computing program

Cited by 4 publications

References 7 publications

Discourse entities in Janus

Discourse entities in Janus

Multiple underlying systems

Strategies for effective paraphrasing

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