Showing papers on "Natural language published in 1982"

An efficient easily adaptable system for interpreting natural language queries

Abstract: This paper gives an overall account of a prototype natural language question answering system, called Chat-80. Chat-80 has been designed to be both efficient and easily adaptable to a variety of applications. The system is implemented entirely in Prolog, a programming language based on logic. With the aid of a logic-based grammar formalism called extraposition grammars, Chat-80 translates English questions into the Prolog subset of logic. The resulting logical expression is then transformed by a planning algorithm into efficient Prolog, cf. "query optimisation" in a relational database. Finally, the Prolog form is executed to yield the answer. On a domain of world geography, most questions within the English subset are answered in well under one second, including relatively complex queries.

Language, the social mirror

Abstract: 1. What is Language? The Complexity of Language. The Levels of Language. The Arbitrary Nature of Language. Language and Thought. First-Language Acquisition. Notes. Exercises. 2. Field Methods Recipes for Discovery. Sociolinguistics and Field Methods. Ethics. Notes. Exercises. 3. Style of Speech Style as Communication. Greetings. Address Forms. Style and Interaction. The Elements of Style. Marked and Unmarked Values in Style. Phonetic, Lexical and Syntactic Alternants. Power and Solidarity. Universal Politeness. Negative and Positive Face. Notes. Exercises. 4. Kinesics: The Silent Language Body Language. Proxemics. Eye Contact. Touching. Amount of Talking. Body Motion in Concert. Problems in Research in Paralinguistics. Notes. Exercises. 5. Pragmatics and Conversation Doing things with words. Speech Acts and Discourse Routines. Frames. Speech Events and Genres. Intention. Conversation. The Ethnography of Communication. Silence. Ritual Nature of Conversation. Jargons. Notes. Exercises. 6. Orality and Literacy Verbal Skill. Literacy. The Uses of Spelling. Communicating by Computer. Verbal Play. Speech Activities and Social Pressures. Ego-Boosting in Speech Activities. Notes. Exercises. 7. Everybody Speaks a Dialect Language versus Dialect. Traditional regional Dialect Studies. The Myth of the General American. Dialect Differences. Black Ethnic Speech. Development of an American Standard. Notes. Exercises. 8. Bilingualism: Individual and Social Monolingualism and bilingualism. Different Language, Different Mind? Language and Thought. Bilingualism Across Generations. Official Languages. Notes. Exercises. 9. Speech Communities What Constitutes a Speech Community. Different Dialects, Same Region. Network Theory. The Value of a Sociolinguistic Survey. Diglossia. Language Choice and Social Bonding. The Origins of American Dialects. Notes. Exercises. 10. Vocabulary and Gender Vocabulary as a Mirror of Social Realities. Gender and Language. Language as Mirror. Notes. Exercises. 11. Sociolinguistics and the Professions Applications of Sociolinguistics. Language and Medicine. Psychotherapy. Language and the Law. Discourse Practices and Education. Dialects and Reading. Applications to Bilingual Education. Language and Religion. Notes. Exercises.

Natural languages and context-free languages

Abstract: In his 1956 paper ‘Three Models for the Description of Language’ Noam Chomsky posed an interesting open question: when we consider the human languages purely as sets of strings of words (henceforth stringsets), do they always fall within the class called context-free languages (CFL’s)? Chomsky declared that he did not know the answer to this question, and turned to a very different set of questions concerning relative elegance and economy of different types of description. Since 1956 various authors (Chomsky included) have attempted to provide answers in the negative, and the negative answer is now the standardly accepted one. We take up the question again in this paper, and show that it is still open, as all the arguments for the negative answer that have been provided in the literature are either empirically or formally incorrect.

Cross-Serial Dependencies in Dutch

Abstract: Chomsky’s argument that natural languages are not finite state languages puts a lower bound on the weak generative capacity of grammars for natural languages (Chomsky (1956)). Arguments based on weak generative capacity are useful in excluding classes of formal devices as characterizations of natural language, but they are not the only formal considerations by which this can be done. Generative grammars may also be excluded because they cannot assign the correct structural descriptions to the terminal strings of a language; in this case, the grammars are excluded on grounds of strong generative capacity. Thus, the deterministic subclasses of context-free grammars (Knuth (1965)) can be rejected because they cannot assign alternative phrase structures to represent natural language ambiguities.

Fuzzy pattern matching

Abstract: Pattern‐directed inference systems (P.D.I.S.) are among the most largely used tools in A.I. to‐day in order to represent and exploit knowledge. Generally, P.D.I.S.'s use production rules triggered by matching between rule patterns and elements of the data base. However, the lack of flexibility in the matching remains a drawback in this kind of system. In the framework of the communication in natural language with robots, approximate descriptions of real world situations and approximately specified rules are needed; furthermore, similarity in the matching process does not always need to be perfect. Thus, the pervading fuzziness of natural language can be taken into account. The following levels, belonging to the real interval [0,1], are evaluated: The possibility of similarity between referents designated in the data and in the pattern respectively; the necessity that a referent designated in the data is similar to a referent designated in the pattern. Designations are fuzzy when the pattern or the data are fuzzy, which is usual with words of a natural language.

NLI: a robust interface for natural language person-machine communication

Abstract: In this paper, a novel approach to natural language understanding, called goal oriented parsing, is presented. Such a model of comprehension is embedded in the more general frame of interpersonal communication and is applied to the person-machine interaction task. It is based on the claim that understanding imperative natural language is strongly dependent both on the goal of the speaker and on the nature of the hearer. This assumption has proved appropriate for the design of effective and robust natural language interfaces to artificial systems. This approach is supported by the development of an experimental project, called NLI, for enquiring in Italian a relational data base. NLI is to date running on a PDP 11/34 computer at the University of Udine. In this paper we illustrate the overall architecture of the system, along with the basic features of the parsing algorithm. This is based on the new concept of hierarchical parsing and is mainly directed by the semantics of the language. The role of clarification dialogue to overcome critical situations is discussed as well. The use of goal oriented parsing in dealing with full query text and anaphora is also exploited. Several meaningful examples are presented. Comparisons with related works are outlined and promising directions deserving further investigation are presented.

DIALOGIC: a core natural-language processing system

Abstract: The DIALOGIC system translates English sentences into representations of their literal meaning in the context of an utterance. These representations, or "logical forms," are intended to be a purely formal language that is as close as possible to the structure of natural language, while providing the semantic compositionality necessary for meaning-dependent computational processing. The design of DIALOGIC (and of its constituent modules) was influenced by the goal of using it as the core language-processing component in a variety of systems, some of which are transportable to new domains of application.

Coping with syntactic ambiguity or how to put the block in the box on the table

Abstract: Sentences are far more ambiguous than one might have thought. There may be hundreds, perhaps thousands, of syntactic parse trees for certain very natural sentences of English. This fact has been a major problem confronting natural language processing, especially when a large percentage of the syntactic parse trees are enumerated during semantic/pragmatic processing. In this paper we propose some methods for dealing with syntactic ambiguity in ways that exploit certain regularities among alternative parse trees. These regularities will be expressed as linear combinations of ATN networks, and also as sums and products of formal power series. We believe that such encoding of ambiguity will enhance processing, whether syntactic and semantic constraints are processed separately in sequence or interleaved together.

Teaching and Learning Languages

Abstract: Following a nontechnical account of how teacher and students interact, and how the mind deals with foreign language data, this text describes a wide range of teaching techniques, It discusses the advantages as well as disadvantages revealed through personal experience.

Generating natural language text in response to questions about database structure

Abstract: There are two major aspects of computer-based text generation: (1) determining the content and textual shape of what is to be said; and (2) transforming that message into natural language. Emphasis in this research has been on a computational solution to the questions of what to say and how to organize it effectively. A generation method was developed and implemented in a system called TEXT that uses principles of discourse structure, discourse coherency, and relevancy criterion. The main features of the generation method developed for the TEXT strategic component include (1) selection of relevant information for the answer, (2) the pairing of rhetorical techniques for communication (such as analogy) with discourse purposes (for example, providing definitions) and (3) a focusing mechanism. Rhetorical techniques, which encode aspects of discourse structure, are used to guide the selection of propositions from a relevant knowledge pool. The focusing mechanism aids in the organization of the message by constraining the selection of information to be talked about next to that which ties in with the previous discourse in an appropriate way. This work on generation has been done within the framework of a natural language interface to a database system. The implemented system generates responses of paragraph length to questions about database structure. Three classes of questions have been considered: questions about information available in the database, requests for definitions, and questions about the differences between database entities. The main theoretical results of this research have been on the effect of discourse structure and focus constraints on the generation process. A computational treatment of rhetorical devices has been developed which is used to guide the generation process. Previous work on focus of attention has been extended for the task of generation to provide constraints on what to say next. The use of these two interacting mechanisms constitutes a departure from earlier generation systems. The approach taken in this research is that the generation process should not simply trace the knowledge representation to produce text. Instead, communicative strategies people are familiar with are used to effectively convey information. This means that the same information may be described in different ways on different occasions.

Criteria of language learning

Abstract: A language is called natural just in case it can be internalized by human infants on the basis of the kind of casual linguistic exposure typically afforded the young. A theory of natural language will specify (a) the kind of linguistic input available to children, (b) the process by which children convert that experience into successive hypotheses about the input language, and (c) the criteria for "internalization of a language" to which children ultimately conform. From (a)-(c) it should be possible to deduce (d) the class of languages that can be internalized in the sense of (c) by the learning mechanism specified in (b) operating on linguistic input of the kind characterized in (a). Such a theory is correct only if (d) contains exactly the natural languages. Wexler and his associates (Hamburger and Wexler, 1973; Wexler and Culicover, 1980, Chap. 1) provide detailed discussion of theories of natural language in the present sense. Gold (1967) has provided specifications of (a)--(c) that have played major roles in subsequent evaluation of theories of natural language. ~ In Gold's model, linguistic input is construed as an enumeration of the sentences of the target language, arranged in arbitrary order; the process embodied by the human language learner is assumed to be "mechanical" in the sense of realizing a computable function of some sort; and the learner is credited with the capacity to acquire a language L just in case for every order of presen-

Translation between natural languages

Abstract: An input sentence described by a first natural language is sectioned into individual words Parts of speech corresponding to the individual words are retrieved from a lexical word storage, whereby the input sentence is described by a corresponding string of the parts-of-speech as retrieved A translation pattern table is previously prepared which defines correspondence between patterns of strings of parts-of-speech for the first natural language and those for a second natural language by which corresponding output sentence is to be described By referring to the translation pattern table, the string of the parts-of-speech of the input sentence is transformed into a corresponding string of the parts-of-speech for the second natural language The output sentence described by the second natural language is generated by sequencing target words in accordance with the sequential order of the parts of speech of the string pattern obtained after the transformation

Early Lexical Acquisition in Children with Specific Language Impairment

Abstract: This study examined the characteristics of early lexical acquisition in children with specific language impairment. Sixteen unfamiliar words and referents were exposed across 10 sessions to languag...

On memory limitations in natural language processing

Abstract: This paper proposes a welcome hypothesis: a computationally simple device is sufficient for processing natural language. Traditionally it has been argued that processing natural language syntax requires very powerful machinery. Many engineers have come to this rather grim conclusion; almost all working parsers are actually Turing Machines (TM). For example, Woods specifically designed his Augmented Transition Networks (ATN''s) to be Turing Equivalent. If the problem is really as hard as it appears, then the only solution is to grin and bear it. Our own position is that parsing acceptable sentences is simpler because there are constraints on human performance that drastically reduce the computational requirements (time and space bounds). Although ideal linguistic competence is very complex, this observation may not apply directly to a real processing problem such as parsing. By including performance factors, it is possible to simplify the computation. We will propose two performance limitations, bounded memory and deterministic control, which have been incorporated in a new parser YAP.

Method for automatic translation between natural languages

Abstract: An automatic translation method between natural languages comprises assigning parts of speech to words/idioms of an input text sentence by looking up a lexicon storage The input text sentence in the form of string of parts of speech is segmented into phrasal elements as minimum units having linguistic meaning to assign parts of speech to the respective elements The sequence of phrasal parts of speech is converted to a string of syntatic roles to the respective phrasal elements and words/idioms Patterns representing a sentence, a clause and a quasi-clause are detected from the sequence of syntatic roles to transform the input text sentence to a skeleton pattern represented by a combination of those patterns The sequence of the simple sentence, clause and quasi-clause inherent to the input language which forms the skeleton pattern is transformed to a sequence inherent to the output language The sequence of syntatic roles of the simple sentence, clause and quasi-clause inherent to the input language which forms the transformed skeleton pattern is transformed to a sequence inherent to the output language Finally, target language equivalents are assigned to the transformed string of syntatic roles

Spanish-English Language Switching in Speech and Literature: Theories and Models.

Abstract: Language switching among Spanish-English bilinguals living in the United States is one of the most salient characteristics of this speech population and has been the subject of comment and research by educators, psychologists, linguists, anthropologists, and literary investigators. Originally, before critical focus was directed at this phenomenon, language switching (later to become known as "code-switching" was taken as evidence for internal mental confusion, the inability to separate two languages sufficiently to warrant the designation of true bilingualism. With the advent of interest in sociolinguistic and ethnolinguistic investigations of non-prestige groups, code-switching became the object of scientific scrutiny, with the unsurprising result that it was shown to be governed by a complicated and as yet not fully delimited set of constraints, indicating a complex and structured interaction between the two languages in the internal cognitive apparatus of the bilingual?a far cry from the anarchical confusion postulated previously. At present, scholarly interest in bilingualism is high and code-switching, particularly between Spanish and English, is an almost constant topic of discussion. Many states are under a mandate to provide bilingual education for language minorities and in the concomitant process of determining language standards for classroom use the problem of language mixture continues to appear, often encumbered by a clutter of anecdotal, misleading, and incomplete descriptions that reflect ignorance, prejudice, and disinterest. Despite this almost overwhelming diversity of motivations for directing attention to bilingual language switching, certain common denominators may be extracted, which promise both immediate and long-range dividends for research scholars and educators alike, and as such are worth comparing. It is the purpose of this article to offer an appraisal of the major research strategies affecting the linguistic study of Spanish-English code-switching, which have implications for the determination of the linguistic competence of bilinguals and the manner in which the two languages are represented in the cognitive apparatus. Particular emphasis will be placed on the potential benefits of work currently in progress, by both the present writer and other investigators who have dedicated themselves to the study of bilingual code-switching. Code-switching provides evidence on two interrelated planes: linguistic and psychological. The latter includes the situational variables that permit a switch to occur, while the former includes the linguistic factors that facilitate the switch and the precise form that a switched utterance takes. An additional dichotomy is the study of language switching in the spontaneous speech of bilinguals and switching as reflected in written documents in which it becomes a literary device; this is found most frequently in the works of certain contemporary United States Hispanic writers. An analysis of written code-switching may be of great value in tracing the psychological variables that come into play and promises to provide a broader perspective on the affective values of language mixing. It is obvious that language switching in literature is not the result of confusion or inability to separate the languages, but rather stems from a conscious desire to juxtapose the two codes to achieve some particular literary effect, which in turn presumably reflects an inner drive that

The Design of a Family of Application-Oriented Requirements Languages

Abstract: The purpose of a requirements specification is to describe a product's behavior at an early stage of its development life cycle. The specifications document should describe what the product should do, not how it does it. This specification is read in detail by the product's prospective users for their approval and by the product's designers so that they can better understand what they are designing and implementing. The customer or his representative is typically an expert in a particular application (e.g., medicine, telephony, nuclear reactor controls), and the designer is typically an expert in systems, software, and hardware engineering. These differences in audience background and interests constitute a major dilemma for the requirements writer. In what language shall the requirements specification document be written? Technical English is ideal for the customer but is inherently ambiguous. Moreover, English documents cannot be subjected to rigorous computer processing to determine inconsistencies. On the other hand, a formal computer language is ideal for designers who are accustomed to reading large, formal, dry documents. As an added advantage , requirements written in formal languages can be processed by computer-based requirements analyzers. Unfortunately, formal documents are not suitable for customers unfamiliar with the format, syntax, and semantics present in these documents. One solution to this dilemma is the definition of application-specific formal requirements languages. Each language is \"formal\" in that it possesses a unique, well-defined, and documented syntax and semantics. Each one, however, is also tailored to a particular application area and thus is rich in the terminology peculiar to that area. This article first discusses the various alternatives to application-oriented requirements languages. It then describes a class of application-oriented requirements languages suitable for the specification of real-time systems and discusses a computer program that can automatically check requirements documents written in these languages for the presence of ambiguity and inconsistency. The alternatives Much research has been performed in the design of specification languages. Each research effort has resulted in one or more languages having varying degrees of formality (i.e., suitability for computer processing) and readability. Figure I shows these two properties on a two-dimensional grid. As each alternative is explored, it will be described in terms of this grid to show how the language relates to other languages. As the richness of the language and its methodology increases , while its formality remains consistently high, increased \"processibility\" can be achieved. For example,

Development of an automatic identification system of spoken languages: Phase I

Abstract: The feasibility of a new approach to automatic language identification is examined in this pilot study The procedure involves the application of pattern analysis techniques to features extracted from the speech signal The database of the extracted features for five speakers from each of eight languges was divided into a learning subset and an evaluation subset A potential function was then generated for all features in the learning subset The complexity of the decision function was systematically increased until all members within the learning subset could be separated into the properly identified languages Although the constraints on this pilot study necessarily precluded feature ordering and selection, the application of the decision function to the evaluation subset resulted in an over-all 84% classification accuracy

Learning and remembering command names

Abstract: Natural language would seem to have a strong effect on users' behavior with artificial command languages for interacting with computer systems.We can divide the potential effects of natural language on command languages into: (a) effects on the names of commands, (b) effects on command arguments, and (c) effects on how command-argument units are interrelated (see Black and Sebrechts [2]). Others have investigated arguments (Barnard et al. [1]) and command-argument interrelations (Carroll [4]). In this paper, we describe our research concerning the first of these—namely, how the names of commands effect the learnability and memorability of the commands. Our investigation uses text-editing as the specific domain.Applied research in human-computer interaction is a subtle affair, with many pitfalls awaiting the unwary researcher. Thus, in addition to presenting research results, we will conclude this paper with some methodological lessons.