6708049
Understanding New Metaphors
Metaphors are widespread in natural language. Most natural language processing systems have failed to adequately deal with this issue. A two part approach to this problem involving a Metaphoric Lexicon and a dynamic extension system is described. The extension mechanism operates by analogically mapping previously understood mappings to account for new uses based on known regularities in the English metaphor system. A system based on this approach has been applied to the UNIX domain. Results indicate that this domain exhibits all the predicted regularities and that understanding new senses is possible using these regularities
33984452
Using System Networks to Build Rhetorical Structures
We are currently engaged in a project to study the generation of instructional texts for common consumer devices. Our initial efforts have focused on an exhaustive corpus-based analysis of instruction booklets for cordless telephones. In this paper, we present our analysis of the way the various processes used in this domain are expressed. Our emphasis here is on the relationship between the surface grammatical coding of these processes and the underlying rhetorical structure of the text. This analysis has been formalized using a systemic-functional framework, with the resulting system networks forming the basis for the Imagene text generation system.
8592573
Contextual Spelling Correction Using Latent Semantic Analysis
Contextual spelling errors are defined as the use of an incorrect, though valid, word in a particular sentence or context. Traditional spelling checkers flag misspelled words, but they do not typically attempt to identify words that are used incorrectly in a sentence. We explore the use of Latent Semantic Analysis for correcting these incorrectly used words and the results are compared to earlier work based on a Bayesian classifier.
2946678
Conventional Metaphor and the Lexicon
Metaphor and other forms of non-literal language are essential parts of language which have direct bearing on theories of lexical semantics. Neither narrow theories of lexical semantics, nor theories relying solely on world knowledge are sufficient to account for our ability to generate and interpret non-literal language. This paper presents an emerging approach that may provide such an account. This approach is based on systematic representations that capture non-literal language conventions, and mechanisms that can dynamically understand and learn new uses as they are encountered.
61042466
The berkeley UNIX consultant project
UC (UNIX Consultant) is an intelligent, natural language interface that allows naive users to learn about the UNIX2 operating system. UC was undertaken because the task was thought to be both a fertile domain for artificial intelligence (AI) research and a useful application of AI work in planning, reasoning, natural language processing, and knowledge representation.The current implementation of UC comprises the following components: a language analyzer, called ALANA, produces a representation of the content contained in an utterance; an inference component, called a concretion mechanism, that further refines this content; a goal analyzer, PAGAN, that hypothesizes the plans and goals under which the user is operating; an agent, called UCEgo, that decides on UC's goals and proposes plans for them; a domain planner, called KIP, that computes a plan to address the user's request; an expression mechanism, UCExpress, that determines the content to be communicated to the user, and a language production mechanism, UCGen, that expresses UC's response in English.UC also contains a component, called KNOME, that builds a model of the user's knowledge state with respect to UNIX. Another mechanism, UCTeacher, allows a user to add knowledge of both English vocabulary and facts about UNIX to UC's knowledge base. This is done by interacting with the user in natural language.All these aspects of UC make use of knowledge represented in a knowledge representation system called KODIAK. KODIAK is a relation-oriented system that is intended to have wide representational range and a clear semantics, while maintaining a cognitive appeal. All of UC's knowledge, ranging from its most general concepts to the content of a particular utterance, is represented in KODIAK.
15685117
MetaBank: A Knowledge-Base of Metaphoric Language Conventions
The frequent and conventional use of nonliteral language has been a major stumbling block for natural language processing systems since the early machine translation efforts. Metaphor, metonymy, and indirect speech acts are among the most troublesome phenomena. Recent computational efforts addressing these problems have taken an approach that emphasizes the use of systematic knowledge about nonliteral language conventions. We are currently engaged in an effort to supply this knowledge in the case of conventional metaphor. We are constructing MetaBank: an empirically derived and theoretically motivated knowledge-base of English metaphorical conventions. This article describes our three-part approach to the construction of MetaBank: the collection of on-line textual resources and databases of linguistic generalizations, the development of a methodology for analyzing these resources, and the construction of a knowledge-base based on the preceding analyses.
26598527
Large Tandem Queueing Networks with Blocking
Systems consisting of many queues in series have been considered by Glynn and Whitt (1991) and Baccelli, Borovkov and Mairesse (2000). We extend their results to apply to situations where the queues have finite capacity and so various types of “blocking” can occur. The models correspond to max-plus type recursions, of simple form but in infinitely many dimensions; they are related to “percolation” problems of finding paths of maximum weight through a 2-dimensional lattice with random weights at the vertices. Topics treated include: laws of large numbers for the speed of customers progressing through the system; stationary behaviour for systems with external arrival processes; a functional central limit theorem describing the behaviour of the “front of the wave” progressing through a system which starts empty; stochastic orderings for waiting times of customers at successive queues. Several open problems are noted.
14705463
C to Java migration experiences
With the growing popularity of the Java programming language for both client and server side applications in network-centric computing, there is a rising need for programming libraries that can be easily integrated into Java programs. In a previous paper, we surveyed current strategies for integrating C source code into Java programs, pointed out their weaknesses and presented goals for an improved migration approach. In this paper, we present the Ephedra approach to software migration and report on the results of three case studies transliterating C source code to Java using the Ephedra environment.
5177142
Spectral techniques for graph bisection in genetic algorithms
Various applications of spectral techniques for enhancing graph bisection in genetic algorithms are investigated. Several enhancements to a genetic algorithm for graph bisection are introduced based on spectral decompositions of adjacency matrices of graphs and subpopulation matrices. First, the spectral decompositions give initial populations for the genetic algorithm to start with. Next, spectral techniques are used to engineer new individuals and reorder the schema to strategically group certain sets of vertices together on the chromosome. The operators and techniques are found to be beneficial when added to a plain genetic algorithm and when used in conjunction with other local optimization techniques for graph bisection. In addition, several world record minimum bisections have been obtained from the methods described in this study.
15015024
Annotating Multimodal Behaviors Occurring During Non Basic Emotions
The design of affective interfaces such as credible expressive characters in story-telling applications requires the understanding and the modeling of relations between realistic emotions and behaviors in different modalities such as facial expressions, speech, hand gestures and body movements. Yet, research on emotional multimodal behaviors has focused on individual modalities during acted basic emotions. In this paper we describe the coding scheme that we have designed for annotating multimodal behaviors observed during mixed and non acted emotions. We explain how we used it for the annotation of videos from a corpus of emotionally rich TV interviews. We illustrate how the annotations can be used to compute expressive profiles of videos and relations between non basic emotions and multimodal behaviors.
14471368
A Unified Framework for Constructing Multimodal Experiments and Applications
Inspired by a Wizard of Oz (WOZ) simulation experiment, we developed a working prototype of a system that enables users to interact with a map display through synergistic combinations of pen and voice. To address many of the issues raised by multimodal fusion, our implementation employed a distributed multi-agent framework to coordinate parallel competition and cooperation among processing components. Since then, the agent-based infrastructure has been enhanced with a collaboration technology, creating a framework in which multiple humans and automated agents can naturally interact within the same graphical workspace.Our current endeavour is the leveraging of this architecture to create a unified implementation framework for simultaneously developing both WOZ simulated systems and their fully-automated counterparts. Bootstrapping effects made possible by such an approach are illustrated by an experiment currently under way in our laboratory: as a naive subject draws, writes, and speaks requests to a (simulated) interactive map, a hidden Wizard responds as efficiently as possible using our best fullyautomated system, through either standard graphical interface devices or multimodal combinations of pen and voice. The input choices made by both subject and Wizard are invaluable, and the data collected from each can be applied directly to evaluating and improving the automated part of the system.