Showing papers on "Phrase published in 1989"

Voice language translator

Abstract: A voice language translator, suitable for implementation in hand-held size, is disclosed. The voice language translator includes: a key pad (20); a display system (17); a language cartridge(s) (45); a voice recognition module (49); a voice synthesizer (47); a speaker (39); a microphone (41); and a programmed CPU (43). Prior to use as a translator, the voice language translator is trained to the voice of a user. During training, a series of words and phrases to be spoken by the user are displayed, or spoken, in the language of the user. As the user speaks the words and phrases, the voice recognition circuit produces a digitally coded voice pattern that uniquely identifies the way in which the user spoke the words and phrases. The voice patterns produced by the voice recognition circuit are analyzed and stored, preferably in the cartridge. Thereafter, during translation, when the user speaks a sentence, the voice pattern produced by the voice recognition circuit is compared with the stored voice patterns to determine the nature of the spoken sentence. The result of the comparison is used to locate equivalent translations stored in the cartridge. Preferably, only sentences in the form of instructions or questions are translatable. Also, preferably, each question or instruction ends with a specific word unrelated to the content of the question, such as PLEASE. Strings of words and phrases that make up sentences are combinable only in a logical manner. Illogical combinations of words and phrases are ignored. This is accomplished by creating "banks" of combinable words and phrases in memory, and controlling via the CPU program the pathways therebetween such that only logical combinations are creatable. If the translator does not understand a spoken word or phrase, a list of acceptable words and phrases is displayed. Positioning a cursor adjacent the desired word or phrase and depressing an enter key allows the desired word or phrase to be selected. The logical string combinations of equivalent translations are converted to audible sounds by the voice synthesizer and emitted by the speaker. If desired, a visual display, or an audible emission, in the language of the user can be made to occur before the translated emission takes place (or simultaneously with the translated emission) so that the user can be certain that the sentence to be translated has been accurately interpreted by the voice language translator. The voice language translator also includes provisions for testing "trained" words or phrases and correcting erroneous training. Further, the voice language translator includes provisions for transferring "trained" voice patterns from one translation cartridge (e.g., an English-to-French cartridge) to another translation cartridge (e.g., English-to-French cartridge).

A functional grammar of Gooniyandi

Abstract: This volume sets out to provide a comprehensive description of the grammar of Gooniyandi, a non-Pama-Nyungan language of the southern-central Kimberley region of Western Australia. It covers phonetics and phonology, word phrase and clause structure, and the semantics of closed-class grammatical items. The major focus is, however, on meaning: how do Gooniyandi speakers mean with and in their language. To this end, the theoretical framework of systemic functional grammar, particularly as elaborated in Halliday's recent work, is adopted. Certain refinements to the theory are proposed in order to better account for the Gooniyandi evidence. Of obvious importance to those studying Australian aboriginal languages, this work has an importance to a wider audience for its effective presentation of theory justification.

Changes in activation levels with negation.

Abstract: Three experiments investigated the effects of negation during on-line language processing. It was hypothesized that negation of a noun (e.g., no bread) would affect the activation level of the mental representation of that noun. Experiment 1 manipulated the location of the negation in sentences that were followed by a probe recognition task. Subjects were slower to indicate that a probe had been in the sentence when the probe corresponded to a negated noun. Experiment 2 replicated these results with a probe naming task. Experiment 3 replicated the result that reading the phrase no bread inhibits responses to bread in the probe task but found no evidence of inhibition of the response to an associate probe, such as butter. The results of these three studies suggest that negation affects the discourse focus of a noun phrase, and hence the activation level of its representation.

Improved translation system utilizing a morphological stripping process to reduce words to their root configuration to produce reduction of database size

Abstract: A machine translation system having a natural language source module for accepting externally introduced text in the source language The system is broadly based upon the concept of Chaos and conducts a divergent search in the source language, a morpheme root database, and further includes a morphological word stripping means that is to be implemented on a data processing device The system source module provides the steps whereby each of the words in a subject clause, phrase, or sentence of the externally introduced source language text are individually compared first to data in a lexical database and if the individual words are not found among the data in the lexical database then the words are subjected to the morphological word stripping means which are directed to the affixes of the words and first to the stripping of suffixes, if any, from each word followed by the step of comparing an individual stripped word, in the absence of that particular word's stripped suffix, with the data in the morpheme root database, which comparison normally proceeds downward through descending length character strings until a morpheme root match is found The stripping and comparison with the database are repeated as often as required to find a root match

The effectiveness of a nonsyntatic approach to automatic phrase indexing for document retrieval

Abstract: It may be possible to improve the quality of automatic indexing systems by using complex descriptors, for example, phrases, in addition to the simple descriptors (words or word stems) that are normally used in automatically constructed representations of document content. This study is directed toward the goal of developing effective methods of identifying phrases in natural language text from which good quality phrase descriptors can be constructed. The effectiveness of one method, a simple nonsyntactic phrase indexing procedure, has been tested on five experimental document collections. The results have been analyzed in order to identify the inadequacies of the procedure, and to determine what kinds of information about text structure are needed in order to construct phrase descriptors that are good indicators of document content. Two primary conclusions have been reached: (1) In the retrieval experiments, the nonsyntactic phrase construction procedure did not consistently yield substantial improvements in effectiveness. It is therefore not likely that phrase indexing of this kind will prove to be an important method of enhancing the performance of automatic document indexing and retrieval systems in operational environments. (2) Many of the shortcomings of the nonsyntactic approach can be overcome by incorporating syntactic information into the phrase construction process. However, a general syntactic analysis facility may be required, since many useful sources of phrases cannot be exploited if only a limited inventory of syntactic patterns can be recognized. Further research should be conducted into methods of incorporating automatic syntactic analysis into content analysis for document retrieval. © 1989 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Term clustering of syntactic phrases

Abstract: Term clustering and syntactic phrase formation are methods for transforming natural language text. Both have had only mixed success as strategies for improving the quality of text representations for document retrieval. Since the strengths of these methods are complementary, we have explored combining them to produce superior representations. In this paper we discuss our implementation of a syntactic phrase generator, as well as our preliminary experiments with producing phrase clusters. These experiments show small improvements in retrieval effectiveness resulting from the use of phrase clusters, but it is clear that corpora much larger than standard information retrieval test collections will be required to thoroughly evaluate the use of this technique.

The progressive in English: Events, states and processes

Abstract: This paper has two goals. The first is to formulate an adequate account of the semantics of the progressive aspect in English: the semantics of ‘Agatha is making a cake’, as opposed to ‘Agatha makes a cake’. This account presupposes a version of the so-called “Aristotelian” classification of verbs in English into EVENT, PROCESS and STATE verbs. The second goal of this paper is to refine this classification so as to account for the infamous “category switch” problem, the problem of how it is that modification of a verb like ‘run’ by an adverbial like ‘to the store’ can turn a PROCESS phrase (‘run’) into an EVENT phrase (‘run to the store’). Views discussed include those of Aqvist, Bach, Bennett, Bennett and Partee, Dowry, Montague and Scott, and Vendler.

A computational model of rubato

Abstract: Presented is a model of rubato, implemented in Lisp, in which expression is viewed as the mapping of musical structure into the variables of expression. The basic idea is that the performer uses “phrase final lengthening” as a device to reflect some internal representation of the phrase structure. The representation is based on Lardahl and Jackendoff's time-span reduction. The basic heuristic in the model is recursive involving look-ahead and planning at a number of levels. The planned phrasings are superposed beat by beat and the output from the program is a list of durations which could easily be adapted to be sent to a synthesiser given a suitable system.

From Words to Numbers: A Generalized and Linguistics-Based Coding Procedure for Collecting Textual Data

Abstract: In this paper, I describe a new, powerful technique for coding data from textual sources, a technique based on concepts developed in thefield of linguistics, particularly on the concept of semantic text grammar. I develop a grammar of data collection from the simple linguistic canonical structure noun phraselverb phrase, namely, subjectlactionlobject and their modifiers. I show that the grammar allows researchers to collect richer and more flexible data than more traditional coding schemes. In particular, the grammar produces coded output that, to a large extent, preserves both the syntax and the lexicon of the source material. Furthermore, the grammar makes the process of data collection independent of any prior specification of hypotheses, because virtually all relevant information provided by the sources can be easily coded.

HMM continuous speech recognition using predictive LR parsing

Abstract: The authors propose a continuous-speech recognition method that uses an accurate and efficient parsing mechanism, an LR parser, and drives HMM (hidden Markov model) modules directly without any intervening structures such as a phoneme lattice. The method was tested in Japanese phrase recognition experiments. Two grammars were prepared, a general Japanese grammar and a task-specific grammar. The phrase recognition rate with the general grammar was 72% for top candidates and 95% for the five best candidates. With the task-specific grammar, recognition rate was 80% and 99% respectively. >

Method and apparatus for analyzing the semantics and syntax of a sentence or a phrase

Abstract: Meanings of words, phrases, and a sentence are expressed in items. Items, which have equal contents, of a plurality of semantic structures are represented by a common item during the expressing of the meanings. Items, which have different contents, of the semantic structures are written in parallel during the expressing of the meanings. The semantic structures are rewritten into a parallel semantic structure through the representing and the writing. Contents of the parallel semantic structure are examined and corrected in consideration of a parallel characteristic of the parallel semantic structure.

The Effects of Cross-Fostering On Selective Song Learning in Estrildid Finches

Abstract: Male zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, which have been cross-fostered to Bengalesc finches, Lonchura striata, learn Bengalese finch song elements with as much accuracy as a male learning from his natural father. However, these elements are sung in phrases which are more nearly zebra finch length and lack the repetitiveness typical of the elements in a Bengalese finch phrase. Male Bengalese finches are also capable of learning song from a zebra finch foster-father. Males vary substantially but they tend to produce fewer, more widely spaced zebra finch elements in a Bengalese finch-length phrase. Both species show selective song learning and it is suggested that phrase length and the absence or presence of repeated elements might act as important cues for species-specific learning. Cross-fostered Bengalese finches seem to learn less than cross-fostered zebra finches: possible reasons for this are discussed.

Influence of sentence context on speech perception in young and older adults.

Abstract: This study investigated the ability of young and older adults to use contextual cues to understand speech in ordinary listening situations. Key word recognition scores were obtained with the Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN) test. Sentence lists contained 50 key words preceded by a high predictability (HP), low predictability (LP), or a carrier phrase (CP) context accompanied by a varying background of multitalker babble. Comparison of the low context items vs the number of meaningfully rich items correctly identified provided an index of the listener's ability to use contextual information in the HP sentences. The LP and CP score reflected the individual's ability to recognize items based only on the acoustic-phonetic information of the key words. Most individuals were able to take some advantage of contextual cues in everyday sentences; however, the older listeners were more adversely affected by background noise than younger listeners. For clinical utilization of the SPIN test, further research is needed to develop normative data as a function of age to make it an "age-fair" test.

Apparatus and method for effecting data compression

Abstract: A dictionary-based data compression technique wherein compression occurs at a variety of levels in response to word, phrase, super-phrase (sentence), and context-sensitive recognition. A separate dictionary is used at each compression level so that word compression occurs first, followed by phrase compression, followed by other compressions. Disclosed applications built upon the compression strategy include an idiomatic-language translator and a voice-recognition control system.

Articulatory-rate context effects in phoneme identification.

Abstract: Three experiments demonstrated that the pattern of changes in articulatory rate in a precursor phrase can affect the perception of voicing in a syllable-initial prestress velar stop consonant. Fast and slow versions of a 10-word precursor phrase were recorded, and sections from each version were combined to produce several precursors with different patterns of change in articulatory rate. Listeners judged the identity of a target syllable, selected from a 7-member /gi/-ki/ voice-onset-time (VOT) continuum, that followed each precursor phrase after a variable brief pause. The major results were: (a) articulatory-rate effects were not restricted to the target syllable's immediate context; (b) rate effects depended on the pattern of rate changes in the precursor and not the amount of fast or slow speech or the proximity of fast or slow speech to the target syllable: and (c) shortening of the pause (or closure) duration led to a shortening of VOT boundaries rather than a lengthening as previously found in this phonetic context. Results are explained in terms of the role of dynamic temporal expectancies in determining the response to temporal information in speech, and implications for theories of extrinsic vs. intrinsic timing are discussed.

Using Connectionist Models to Explore Complex Musical Patterns

Abstract: Music teachers often ask their classes to take musical dictation. The teacher commonly plays a short excerpt, perhaps a phrase from a Bach chorale, and then the students attempt to translate the various pitches and durations into the symbols of standard musical notation. Each resulting symbol can be judged true or false, right or wrong. Music teachers also ask their classes to analyze the musical syntax of phrases from Bach chorales. The resulting answers will likely have varying shades of truth or falsity. Students can have legitimate differences of opinion about how to interpret ambiguous musical events or events that have one meaning in prospect and a second in retrospect. And not only students differ in their assessments of complex musical patterns. Acknowledged experts in eighteenth-century music are known to disagree about how, in a given phrase, the chords, rhythms, contours, melodies, textures, timbres, and counterpoint all interact. Connectionist models offer elegant ways of dealing with multidimensional complexity of the type found in polyphonic, harmonically oriented music. One can, for example, define a musical event as an input pattern of activation that is then transformed by a network of interconnected processing units into an output pattern of activation representing an interpretation of the event. Models that allow for learning often require an explicit teacher prepared to state unambiguously whether, and to what degree, the output pattern is in error (Rumelhart, Hinton, and Williams 1986; Werbos 1988). For relatively low-level musical tasks, like the transcription problem described above, this requirement poses no serious obstacle; but for higher-level tasks, the notion of an explicit teacher becomes problematical. One wonders, for example, if anyone would be comfortable in claiming that one interpretation of a musical phrase is only 69 percent as true as another? An alternative class of connectionist models

Words or numbers? The evaluation of probability expressions in general practice.

Abstract: A sample of 56 general practitioners were asked to rate, on a percentage scale, 23 words or phrases which denote frequency or likelihood. The hypothetical context of the exercise was that of communicating to patients the probability of a side-effect (headache) arising from an unspecified prescription medicine. Median phrase ratings ranged from 'never' at 0% to 'certain' at 95% with a 50% rating given to the phrase 'reasonable chance'. Despite relatively large variance in ratings between respondents, the median ratings of a number of phrases were similar, and some identical, to other studies from different medical professionals. Although the clinical context in which a given expression of probability is used may affect its meaning, the results are encouraging and suggest that phrases denoting likelihood might be systematically codified to enhance communication between doctor and patient. To move towards this objective more research is needed to evaluate how patients interpret expressions of probability, and the relative effectiveness of different modes of communicating likelihood.

When grammar wins over sense: children's judgments of extraposed relatives.

Abstract: A sentence judgment task was used to test 4-to 5-year-old children's knowledge of coreference possibilities for extraposed relatives. The overall pattern of children's performance in the first experiment reported here is similar to that of a control group of adult subjects and is consistent with knowledge of the linguistic constraints that restrict extraposition in the adult grammar. Performance on a follow-up experiment argues against a nongrammatical explanation of the results of the first experiment. Children's performance on the judgment task shows, that they are capable of abstracting away from the pragmatics of the immediate situation in making judgments and can be construed as evidence that children construct mental representations for the sentences they judge in which an NP over NP S structure is constructed for relative clauses at a level distinct from the surface structure string. The comparative lack of response patterns found in some previous work is discussed in the context of models of sentence processing.

Effects of Imitation on Language Comprehension and Transfer to Production in Children With Mental Retardation

Abstract: This study investigated the effects of verbal imitation on the comprehension of novel object-location responses and subsequent transfer of these responses to production. A matrix training procedure was used to teach 2 children with moderate mental retardation syntactic rules for combining known and unknown words into two-word utterances. An alternating treatments design was used with two conditions: receptive teaching with imitation of the target phrase and no imitation of the phrase. Findings suggested that the use of imitation facilitated both generalized receptive learning and transfer to production in both subjects.

On the Automatic Generation of Content Links in Hypertext

Abstract: Text structuring systems that provide links between text portions have been widely proposed as aids for text preparation and text manipulation. In principle, it is easy to follow available links between related text portions; it is much harder, however, to put in place useful links that relate document sections with related text content. An approach is described in this note for the automatic generation of content links based on global term and phrase matches between sentence and document texts. Tentative evaluation data are included to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed procedures.

International review of sign linguistics

Abstract: Contents: S.D. Fischer, By the Numbers: Language-Internal Evidence for Creolization. H. Ebbinghaus, J. Hessmann, Signs & Words: Accounting for Spoken Elements in German Sign Language. T. Johnston, Function and Medium in the Forms of Linguistic Expression Found in a Sign Language. A. Stavans, One, Two or More: The Expression of Number in Israeli Sign Language. W. Sandler, Representing Handshapes. C.T. Boster, On the Quantifier-Noun Phrase Split in American Sign Language and the Structure of Quantified Noun Phrases. R.B. Wilbur, Evidence for the Function and Structure of Wh-Clefts in American Sound Language.

Augmenting a hidden Markov model for phrase-dependent word tagging

Abstract: The paper describes refinements that are currently being investigated in a model for part-of-speech assignment to words in unrestricted text. The model has the advantage that a pre-tagged training corpus is not required. Words are represented by equivalence classes to reduce the number of parameters required and provide an essentially vocabulary-independent model. State chains are used to model selective higher-order conditioning in the model, which obviates the proliferation of parameters attendant in uniformly higher-order models. The structure of the state chains is based on both an analysis of errors and linguistic knowledge. Examples show how word dependency across phrases can be modeled.

Machine translation system including semantic information indicative of plural and singular terms

Abstract: To translate Japanese having no morphological distinction between singular and plural forms into English having a morphological distinction between the two, for instance, the dictionary unit includes semantic information indicative of the plural number, and the translation unit syntactically and semantically translates Japanese into English as follows: a Japanese sentence is morphologically analyzed into basic morphemes by an inflection information dictionary; lexical syntactic information of the Japanese basic morphemes are retrieved form a word/phrase dictionary; the Japanese sentence is syntactically analyzed into an intermediate structure by Japanese syntactic analysis grammar to clarify modification relationship between two words; the Japanese intermediate structure is semantically transferred into an English intermediate structure by structure transfer grammar; a concept data of a noun (e.g. "book") which includes FEATURE:NUMBER=PLURAL is formed when the noun is modified by an adjective (e.g. "many") indicative of the plural number; an English sentence structure is syntactically generated from the intermediate structure and by English syntactic generation grammar; and lastly an English morphemes are generated by morphological generation grammar to change "book" into "books".