Meta-Rules as a Basis for Processing III-Formed Input

If natural language processing systems are ever to achieve natural, cooperative behavior, they must be able to process input that is ill-formed lexically, syntactically, semantically, or pragmatically. Systems must be able to partially understand, or at least give specific, appropriate error messages, when input does not correspond to their model of language and of context.We propose meta-rules and a control structure under which they are invoked as a framework for processing ill-formed input. The left-hand side of a meta-rule diagnoses a problem as a violated rule of normal processing. The right-hand side relaxes the violated rule and states how processing may be resumed, if at all.Examples discussed in the paper include violated grammatical tests, omitted articles, homonyms, spelling/typographical errors, unknown words, violated selection restrictions, personification, and metonymy. An implementation of a meta-rule processor within the framework of an augmented transition network parser is also described.

[1]  Bertram C. Bruce.  Case Systems for Natural Language , 1975, Artif. Intell..

[2]  Terry Winograd,et al.  Understanding natural language , 1974 .

[3]  Yorick Wilks,et al.  A Preferential, Pattern-Seeking, Semantics for Natural Language Inference , 1975, Artif. Intell..

[4]  John Seely Brown,et al.  Semantic Grammar: A Technique for Constructing Natural Language Interfaces to Instructional Systems. , 1977 .

[5]  Richard Granger,et al.  Scruffy Text Understanding: Design and Implementation of the NOMAD System , 1983, ANLP.

[6]  Ralph M. Weischedel,et al.  Problem Localization Strategies For Pramatics Processing In Natural-Language Front Ends , 1984, COLING.

[7]  Lance A. Miller,et al.  Text-critiquing with the EPISTLE system: an author's aid to better syntax , 1981, AFIPS '81.

[8]  Philip J. Hayes,et al.  Flexible Parsing , 1980, ACL.

[9]  Linda Fineman,et al.  Questioning the Need for Parsing Ill-formed Inputs , 1983, CL.

[10]  William A. Woods,et al.  Computational Linguistics Transition Network Grammars for Natural Language Analysis , 2022 .

[11]  Jaime G. Carbonell,et al.  Multi-Strategy Construction-Specific Parsing for Flexible Data Base Query and Update , 1981, IJCAI.

[12]  Jaime G. Carbonell,et al.  The XCALIBUR Project: A Natural Language Interface to Expert Systems , 1983, IJCAI.

[13]  Sandra Carberry,et al.  Tracking User Goals in an Information-Seeking Environment , 1983, AAAI.

[14]  Norman K. Sondheimer,et al.  An Improved Heuristic for Ellipsis Processing , 1982, ACL.

[15]  Roger C. Schank,et al.  An Integrated Understander , 1980, Am. J. Comput. Linguistics.

[16]  A. Malhotra.  Design criteria for a knowledge-based English language system for management : an experimental analysis , 1975 .

[17]  Gary G. Hendrix,et al.  Developing a natural language interface to complex data , 1977, TODS.

[18]  David H. D. Warren,et al.  Prolog - the language and its implementation compared with Lisp , 1977, Artificial Intelligence and Programming Languages.

[19]  B. H. Thompson,et al.  Linguistic Analysis of Natural Language Communication With Computers , 1980, COLING.

[20]  S. Jerrold Kaplan.  Indirect responses to loaded questions , 1978, TINLAP '78.

[21]  Yorick Wilks,et al.  Natural Language Understanding Systems Within The AI Paradigm: A Survey And Some Comparisons , 1974, ACL Microfiche Series 1-83, Including Computational Linguistics.

[22]  Larry R. Harris.  ROBOT: A High Performance Natural Language Data Base Query System , 1977, IJCAI.

[23]  Mark James,et al.  An Artificial Intelligence Approach to Language Instruction , 1978, Artif. Intell..

[24]  Bonnie L. Webber,et al.  Knowledge Representation for Syntactic/Semantic Processing , 1980, AAAI.

[25]  Charles J. Fillmore,et al.  Individual differences in language ability and language behavior , 1979 .

[26]  William A. Woods,et al.  Progress in natural language understanding: an application to lunar geology , 1973, AFIPS National Computer Conference.

[27]  Chew Lik Chang.  Finding missing joins for incomplete queries in relational data bases" ibm res , 1978 .

[28]  Norman K. Sondheimer,et al.  Semantic Interpretation Using KL-ONE , 1984, ACL.

[29]  David L. Waltz,et al.  An English language question answering system for a large relational database , 1978, CACM.

[30]  Fernando Pereira,et al.  Prolog - the language and its implementation compared with Lisp , 1977, Artificial Intelligence and Programming Languages.

[31]  H. William Buttelmann,et al.  American Journal of Computational Linguistics , 1974 .

[32]  Jaime G. Carbonell,et al.  Towards a Self-Extending Parser , 1979, ACL.

[33]  C. Linde,et al.  Spatial Networks as a Site for the Study of Language and Thought. , 1975 .

[34]  L WaltzDavid.  An English language question answering system for a large relational database , 1978 .

[35]  Larry R. Harris.  User Oriented Data Base Query with the ROBOT Natural Language Query System , 1977, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..

[36]  Jane J. Robinson.  DIAGRAM: a grammar for dialogues , 1986, CACM.

[37]  Naomi Sager,et al.  Natural Language Information Processing: A Computer Grammar of English and Its Applications , 1980 .

[38]  George E. Heidorn.  Augmented phrase structure grammars , 1975, TINLAP '75.

[39]  Madeleine Bates.  Syntax In Automatic Speech Understanding , 1976 .

[40]  Karen Jensen,et al.  The Fitted Parse: 100% Parsing Capability in a Syntactic Grammar of English , 1983, ANLP.

[41]  Ralph M. Weischedel,et al.  Responding Intelligently to Unparsable Inputs , 1980, Am. J. Comput. Linguistics.

[42]  Larry R. Harris,et al.  The ROBOT System: Natural language processing applied to data base query , 1978, ACM Annual Conference.

[43]  John Robert Ross,et al.  Where's English? , 1979 .

[44]  Sandra Carberry.  Understanding Pragmatically Ill-Formed Input , 1984, COLING.

[45]  Norman K. Sondheimer,et al.  Relaxation Techniques for Parsing Grammatically III-Formed Input in Natural Language Understanding Systems , 1981, Am. J. Comput. Linguistics.

[46]  C. M. Eastman,et al.  On the Need for Parsing Ill-Formed Input , 1981, CL.

[47]  H. H. Clark.  Speech errors as linguistic evidence. , 1975 .

[48]  David James Trawick.  Robust sentence analysis and habitability , 1983 .

[49]  Geoffrey K. Pullum,et al.  Processing English with a Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar , 1982, ACL.