Understanding natural language

Winograd, Terry

doi:10.1016/0010-0285(72)90002-3

Cited by 1,638 publications

(461 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…For example, in parsing it often must be determined whether a given word (e.g, "permit") is being used as a verb or a noun (Allen, 1987;Steedman, 1996); a similar issue is encountered in determining which sense of a homonymous word (e.g., bank) is being used. It is from this interest in ambiguity that researchers in computational linguistics have long considered the interpretation of reference and coreference as critical to the processing of natural language (Winograd, 1972). The principal focus has been on how the context of an utterance contributes to the "resolution" (or determination) of a pronoun's reference.…”

Section: Computationalmentioning

confidence: 99%

The representation and processing of coreference in discourse

1998

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The phenomenon of coreference-where two linguistic expressions refer to the same thing-is a central topic in attempts to understand the meaning and structure of language. This is true both for disciplines that attempt to model knowledge of language and for disciplines that attempt to model language processing. Despite their often divergent goals, the disciplines of generative linguistics, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics and formal semantics have all expended considerable energy on aspects of coreference, particularly on the distinction between coreference with full referring expressions, such as names or descriptions, and with reduced referring expressions, such as pronouns. We believe that progress in these different disciplines has provided important ideas that converge in the Direct all correspondence to: Peter C. Gordon, Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270; E-Mail: pcg@email.unc.edu; Randall Hendrick, Department of Linguistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3155; E-Mail: hendrick@email.unc.edu. 389 390GORDON AND HENDRICK domain of local coreference, that is coreference within sentences and short strings of sentences that are semantically coherent. In this paper we attempt to integrate that progress in such a way as to provide a unified account that addresses some of the central concerns of each of these disciplines. This account is based on the following principles: (1) The primary function of pronouns (and other reduced expressions) is to refer to things that have already been mentioned in a discourse and which are mentally represented in a discourse model; therefore pronouns are the natural vehicle for coreference. In contrast, the primary function of names (and of other full expressions) is to introduce entities into the discourse model; therefore coreference with repeated names requires additional mental processes. (2) The syntactic and sequential structure of language strongly influence mental representation in the discourse model which in turn influences the interpretation of referring expressions in linguistic input. (3) The discourse model is constructed incrementally with each utterance directly adding conditions that further specify the meaning embodied in the model; exceptions to this direct incremental construction occur in well-marked cases where linguistic forms indicate that a phrase or clause serves to modify the meanings that follow it rather than the meanings that precede it.The paper is organized as follows: First, we briefly review how reference and coreference are approached by different disciplines within cognitive science, with particular attention on how the work contributes to the present effort. Next, we sketch out some basics of the approach taken towards coreference in Kamp and Reyle's (1993) Discourse Representation Theory; our work employs the mechanisms developed in that approach to formal semantics. The main body of our work then shows how the three principles outlin...

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Section: Computationalmentioning

confidence: 99%

The representation and processing of coreference in discourse

1998

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“…This task has a long history in AI, and in practice the translation of natural language into a deep, unambiguous representation (i.e., understanding) turned out to be impossible (except for small domains where all relevant background knowledge was explicitly modeled, see for example [23]). Natural language processing (NLP) has since switched to robust, efficient and reasonably accurate methods that analyze text to a more superficial partially syntactic and partially semantic representation (shallow parsing), using machine learning and statistical methods trained on large annotated corpora.…”

Section: Memory-based Shallow Parsermentioning

confidence: 99%

Generative Art Inspired by Nature, Using NodeBox

Smedt

Lechat²,

Daelemans

2011

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

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NodeBox is a free application for producing generative art. This paper gives an overview of the nature-inspired functionality in NodeBox and the artworks we created using it. We demonstrate how it can be used for evolutionary computation in the context of computer games and art, and discuss some of our recent research with the aim to simulate (artistic) brainstorming using language processing techniques and semantic networks.

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“…One of the more famous AI programmes from this period was Terry Winograd's SHRDLU (see Winograd 1972). This programme could understand a fairly large variety of sentences, formulated in natural language, about a world consisting of different kinds of blocks and perform (imagined) actions on the blocks like moving or stacking them.…”

Section: The Rise and Fall Of Artificial Intelligencementioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive Science: From Computers to Anthills as Models of Human Thought

2005

The Dynamics of Thought

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The roots of cognitive science go as far back as those of philosophy. One way of defining cognitive science is to say that it is just naturalised philosophy. Much of contemporary thinking about the mind derives from René Descartes' distinction between the body and the soul. They were constituted of two different substances and it was only humans that had a soul and were capable of thinking. According to him, other animals were mere automata.Descartes was a rationalist: our minds could gain knowledge about the world by rational thinking. This epistemological position was challenged by the empiricists, notably John Locke and David Hume. They claimed that the only reliable source of knowledge is sensory experience. Such experiences result in ideas, and thinking consists of connecting ideas in various ways.Immanuel Kant strove to synthesize the rationalist and the empiricist positions. Our minds always deal with phenomenal experiences and not with the external world. He introduced a distinction between the thing in itself (das Ding an sich) and the thing perceived by us (das Ding an uns). Kant then formulated a set of categories of thought, without which we cannot organise our phenomenal world. For example, we must interpret what happens in the world in terms of cause and effect.Among philosophers, the favourite method of gaining insights into the nature of the mind was introspection. This method was also used by psychologists at the end the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. In particular, this was the methodology used by Wilhelm Wundt and other German psychologists. By looking inward and reporting inner experiences it was hoped that the structure of the conscious mind would be unveiled.However, the inherent subjectivity of introspection led to severe methodological problems. These problems set the stage for a scientific revolution in psychology. In 1913, John Watson published an article with the title "Psychology as the behaviourist views it" which has been seen as a behaviourist manifesto. The central methodological tenet of behaviourism is that only objectively verifiable observations should be allowed as data. As a consequence, scientists should prudently eschew all topics related to mental processes, mental events and states of mind. Observable behaviour consists of stimuli and responses. According to Watson, the goal of psychology is to formulate lawful connections between such stimuli and responses.Behaviourism had a dramatic effect on psychology, in particular in the United States. As a consequence, animal psychology became a fashionable topic. Laboratories were filled with rats running in mazes and pigeons pecking at coloured chips. An enormous amount of data concerning conditioning of behaviour was collected. There was also a behaviourist influence

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Understanding natural language

Cited by 1,638 publications

References 12 publications

The representation and processing of coreference in discourse

The representation and processing of coreference in discourse

Generative Art Inspired by Nature, Using NodeBox

Cognitive Science: From Computers to Anthills as Models of Human Thought

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