A Meta-Algorithm for the Generation of Referring Expressions

This paper describes a new approach to the generation of referring expressions. We propose to formalize a scene as a labeled directed graph and describe content selection as a subgraph construction problem. Cost functions are used to guide the search process and to give preference to some solutions over others. The resulting graph algorithm can be seen as a meta-algorithm in the sense that defining cost functions in different ways allows us to mimic --- and even improve--- a number of well-known algorithms.