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Showing papers on "Natural language published in 1970"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The use of augmented transition network grammars for the analysis of natural language sentences is described, and structure-building actions associated with the arcs of the grammar network allow for a powerful selectivity which can rule out meaningless analyses and take advantage of semantic information to guide the parsing.
Abstract: The use of augmented transition network grammars for the analysis of natural language sentences is described Structure-building actions associated with the arcs of the grammar network allow for the reordering, restructuring, and copying of constituents necessary to produce deep-structure representations of the type normally obtained from a transformational analysis, and conditions on the arcs allow for a powerful selectivity which can rule out meaningless analyses and take advantage of semantic information to guide the parsing The advantages of this model for natural language analysis are discussed in detail and illustrated by examples An implementation of an experimental parsing system for transition network grammars is briefly described

1,369 citations


Book ChapterDOI
01 Dec 1970-Synthese
TL;DR: Evidence is presented to show that the role of a generative grammar of a natural language is not merely to generate the grammatical sentences of that language, but also to relate them to their logical forms.
Abstract: Evidence is presented to show that the role of a generative grammar of a natural language is not merely to generate the grammatical sentences of that language, but also to relate them to their logical forms. The notion of logical form is to be made sense of in terms a ‘natural logic’, a logical for natural language, whose goals are to express all concepts capable of being expressed in natural language, to characterize all the valid inferences that can be made in natural language, and to mesh with adequate linguistic descriptions of all natural languages. The latter requirement imposes empirical linguistic constraints on natural logic. A number of examples are discussed.

408 citations


30 Jun 1970

390 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is concluded that at least minimally effective techniques have been devised for answering questions from natural language subsets in small scale experimental systems and that a useful paradigm has evolved to guide research efforts in the field.
Abstract: Recent experiments in programming natural language question-answering systems are reviewed to summarize the methods that have been developed for syntactic, semantic, and logical analysis of English strings. It is concluded that at least minimally effective techniques have been devised for answering questions from natural language subsets in small scale experimental systems and that a useful paradigm has evolved to guide research efforts in the field. Current approaches to semantic analysis and logical inference are seen to be effective beginnings but of questionable generality with respect either to subtle aspects of meaning or to applications over large subsets of English. Generalizing from current small-scale experiments to language-processing systems based on dictionaries with thousands of entries—with correspondingly large grammars and semantic systems—may entail a new order of complexity and require the invention and development of entirely different approaches to semantic analysis and question answering.

164 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
08 May 1970-Science
TL;DR: The experiment of teaching a young chimpanzee to use American sign language is an important advance on previous attempts to test the linguistic potential of primates, and offers evidence of a new kind.
Abstract: The experiment of teaching a young chimpanzee to use American sign language1 is an important advance on previous attempts to test the linguistic potential of primates. For the first time, a primate’s capacity for a language used by some humans has been clearly separated from his capacity for making the sounds of human speech. In the nature of things, this pioneer study has been made under special conditions, and (like any single study) cannot be assumed to be perfectly representative. Nevertheless, it does offer evidence of a new kind, in the light of which it is timely to reexamine the relation between human language and the signals that animals use or can learn to use.

123 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
James L. Flanagan1, C. H. Coker1, Lawrence R. Rabiner1, R. W. Schafer1, N. Umeda1 
TL;DR: The two methods described for giving voices to computers recognize the importance of economical storage of speech information and extensive vocabularies, and consequently are based on principles of speech synthesis, which generates connected speech from low-bit-rate representations of spoken words.
Abstract: The two methods described for giving voices to computers recognize the importance of economical storage of speech information and extensive vocabularies, and consequently are based on principles of speech synthesis. The first, formant synthesis, generates connected speech from low-bit-rate representations of spoken words. The second, text synthesis, produces connected speech solely from printed English text. For both methods the machine must contain stored knowledge of fundamental rules of language and acoustic constraints of human speech. Formant synthesis from an input information rate of about 1000 bits per second is demonstrated, as is text synthesis from a rate of about 75 bits per second. To give the reader an opportunity to evaluate some of the results described, a sample recording is available; see Appendix A for details.

106 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is concluded that the development of Protosynthex III into a practically useful system to work with large data bases is possible but will require changes in both the data structures and the algorithms used for question answering.
Abstract: The question-answering aspects of the Protosynthex III prototype language processing system are described and exemplified in detail. The system is written in LISP 1.5 and operates on the Q-32 time-sharing system. The system's data structures and their semantic organization, the deductive question-answering formalism of relational properties and complex-relation-forming operators, and the question-answering procedures which employ these features in their operation are all described and illustrated. Examples of the system's performance and of the limitations of its question-answering capability are presented and discussed. It is shown that the use of semantic information in deductive question answering greatly facilitates the process, and that a top-down procedure which works from question to answer enables effective use to be made of this information. It is concluded that the development of Protosynthex III into a practically useful system to work with large data bases is possible but will require changes in both the data structures and the algorithms used for question answering.

38 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Oct 1970-Synthese
TL;DR: A small working conference on the semantics of natural language in August of 1969 is organized, and a volume to encourage the active exchange of ideas among logicians, philosophers and linguists who are working on semantics for natural languages.
Abstract: The success of linguistics in treating natural languages as formal syntactic systems has aroused the interest of a number of linguists in a parallel or related development of semantics. For the most part quite independently, many philosophers and logicians have recently been applying formal semantic methods to structures increasingly like natural languages. While differences in training, method and vocabulary tend to veil the fact, philosophers and linguists are converging, it seems, on a common set of interrelated problems. Since philosophers and linguists are working on the same, or very similar, problems, it would obviously be instructive to compare notes. Inspired by this thought, we organized a small working conference on the semantics of natural language in August of 1969. The conference was sponsored by the Council for Philosophical Studies, and supported by the Council and the National Science Foundation. The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, California supplied a noble setting for our talks, and lent its efficient and friendly help in other ways. A number of the papers in this volume spring from talks given at that summer conference, or were written by people who were there; the rest are by people we wish could have been there. The purpose of the volume is the same as that of the conference: to encourage the active exchange of ideas among logicians, philosophers and linguists who are working on semantics for natural languages. We trust it will be agreed that there is more to this than the usual business of rubbing two or more disciplines together in the expectation of heat and the hope of light. In the present case, a common enterprise already exists; our aim is to make it a cooperative one. DONALD DAVIDSON GILBERT HARMAN

37 citations


Book ChapterDOI
01 Oct 1970-Synthese
TL;DR: According to most current theories the semantics of a natural language should be focussed quite sharply on to the task of describing literal meaning as mentioned in this paper, while the main task of explicating literal meaning proceeds.
Abstract: According to most current theories the semantics of a natural language should be focussed quite sharply on to the task of describing literal meanings. Metaphor, on this view, is either a pathological phenomenon that any account of normal language is right to disregard, or a rare and specialised extension of language, as in poetry, that can safely be left on one side for later analysis while the main task of explicating literal meaning proceeds. Yet this conception of semantics is false to the realities of the situation, in at least three respects. First, so far as synchronic linguistics is concerned, native speakers often move from literal to metaphorical speech, and back again, without any sense of strain or any bizarreness-reactions in their hearers. Consider, for example, a conversation in which the following sequences of sentences are uttered: Has the producer secured any new talent? Yes, Rosemary has swallowed his bait. or There is no fire burning in his belly. Yes, he is a rather uninteresting person.

35 citations



Book
01 Mar 1970


Book
01 Jan 1970
TL;DR: Mauthner and linguistic philosophy as discussed by the authors The psychological foundations of language, the nature of language and some linguistic concepts, Epistemology and language, logic and language 7. Critique of language 8. An application of the critique of language: intellectual historiography 9.
Abstract: Frontispiece Preface Abbreviations 1. Introduction 2. The psychological foundations 3. The nature of language 4. Some linguistic concepts 5. Epistemology and language 6. Logic and language 7. Critique of language 8. An application of the critique of language: intellectual historiography 9. Mauthner and linguistic philosophy Appendix: Life of Fritz Mauthner Bibliographical details of Mauthner's philosophical works Index.


Journal ArticleDOI
Robert B. Kane1
TL;DR: All mathematics textbooks are written in more than one language as mentioned in this paper and each contains portions in a natural language such as English, together with portions in one or more additional languages, such as Hindu Arabic numeration, various algebraic no-tational systems, the language of the sentential calculus, and the like The mix of these languages varies greatly from book to book, topic to topic, and level to level
Abstract: ALL mathematics textbooks are written in more than one language Each contains portions in a natural language, such as English, together with portions in one or more additional languages, such as Hindu Arabic numeration, various algebraic no tational systems, the language of the sentential calculus, and the like The mix of these languages varies greatly from book to book, topic to topic, and level to level The natural language component often is replete with translations from one of the other symbol systems Fox example, phrases such as if and only if, if then, A and are direct translations from the

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1970
TL;DR: In contrast to traditional interpretations, relations rather than elements were considered as the basic information in the language acquisition process as discussed by the authors, and the generality of such a process in regard to psycholinguistic, cognitive, and social performances was emphasized.
Abstract: In contrast to traditional interpretations, relations rather than elements were considered as the basic information in the language acquisition process. As relational information is acquired the child will engage simultaneously in two types of intellectual processes: (1) He will identify the elements (words) and abstract their meaning by intersecting various relations such as ZEBRA-ANIMAL; ZEBRA-STRIPEs; ZEBRA-AFRICA; ZEBRA-RUNs; etc. (2) He will recognize the free elements of relations intersecting at one or (more likely) several points as members of classes, such as “animals,” “toys,” “places,” “animated actions,” etc. In the main body of the paper research findings on the identification of both the elements and classes of the natural language were reviewed. A final section dealt with the more complex operations of combination and transformation: (1) Combinations either assemble several relations into long strings or–more important–combine classes. In discussing different types of combinations, such as those implying logical, spatial, or temporal orders, we touched upon the topic of logical syntax, syllogistic and analogical reasoning. (2) Transformations imply the reversal in the direction of one or more of the relations combined. The generality of such a process in regard to psycholinguistic, cognitive, and social performances was emphasized. Our interpretations need to be supplemented by discussions of extralingual and interlingual relations. The former relate objects, actions and emotions to labels. The latter connect terms across different language under bilingual conditions.

01 Jan 1970
TL;DR: The theoretical changes that have developed in conceptual dependency theory and their ramifications in computer analysis of natural language are presented and discussed in the context of a more powerful conceptual parser and a theory of language understanding.
Abstract: : The paper presents the theoretical changes that have developed in conceptual dependency theory and their ramifications in computer analysis of natural language. The major items of concern are: the elimination of reliance on 'grammar rules' for parsing with the emphasis given to conceptual rule based parsing; the development of a conceptual case system to account for the power of conceptualizations; the categorization of ACT's based on permissible conceptual cases and other criteria. These items are developed and discussed in the context of a more powerful conceptual parser and a theory of language understanding. (Author)

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper describes the above methods and gives an account of an experiment now in progress at the National Physical Laboratory, based on the observed repetition of words in natural texts.





Book
01 Jan 1970


01 Jan 1970
TL;DR: The linguist's concern with language is quite different from the educator s concern with education, and there is little reason to suppose that what linguistics does not do for its practitioners it will do for elementary school children.
Abstract: The answer depends on what one conceives the study of grammar to be. If one conceives of the study of grammar in the same terms as the theoretical linguist, then surely grammar has no more place in the elementary school curriculum than does the study of quantum mechanics or high temperature physics. Linguistics is concerned with developing a theory to formally characterize the knowledge which a speaker of a natural language possesses. The questions which he asks are questions about formal properties of grammars based upon the facts of a natural language.2 A study of such facts and correspondences can tell him a great deal about the abstract principles according to which natural languages appear to be constructed. One thing which this inquiry will not tell the linguist, however, is how to read better, or write better, or speak better, or listen better. There is little reason to suppose, then, that what linguistics does not do for its practitioners it will do for elementary school children. This is not to say that the subject matter of linguistics is irrelevant to elementary school teaching. It does say, however, that the linguist's concern with language is quite different from the educator s concern with

ReportDOI
01 Nov 1970
TL;DR: The role of formal, controlled vocabularies for indexing and retrieval is contrasted with the use of natural language for these activities in large central information processors as appropriate to the 1970's.
Abstract: : The role of formal, controlled vocabularies for indexing and retrieval is contrasted with the use of natural language for these activities. The following credo is advanced for large central information processors as appropriate to the 1970's. (a) Highly structured controlled vocabularies are obsolete for indexing and retrieval. (b) The natural language of scientific prose is fully adequate for indexing and retrieval. (c) Machine-aided indexing of natural language is within the state of the art. (d) Natural language retrieval can be conducted on line if the request can be stated in a phrase or a sentence.



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The goal-oriented buzz group as discussed by the authors is a group dynamics theory and practice methodology for foreign language teaching, which may be generally useful in language classrooms, but it is not sufficient for the development of communication skills.
Abstract: The main emphasis in much foreign language teaching is on helping the learner approximate the phonetic, morphological, and syntactic patterns of the language by means of pattern practice and similar drills. Although this is useful and may, indeed, be necessary, it is not sufficient. There seems to be something other than accuracy of patterns which allows a speaker to make himself understood. The sine qua non for the development of communication skills is communication itself. Group dynamics theory and practice provide language teachers with a methodology which may be generally useful in language classrooms. The basic technique employed in the current application of this methodology is the goal-oriented buzz group. Small groups of students attempt to reach a consensus on the solution to problems presented by the instructor. They may later attempt to arrive at a class consensus. These activities are especially useful in oversized classes since they permit participation in communication activities by all members of the class simultaneously.