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Dependency-directed control of text generation using functional unification grammar

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Abstract

In text generation, various kinds of choices need to be decided. In conventional frameworks, which we callone-path generation frameworks, choices are made in an order carefully designed in advance. In general, however, since choices depend on one another, it is difficult to make optimal decisions in such frameworks. Our approach to this issue is to introduce the revision process into the overall generation process. In our framework, revision of output texts is realized as dependency-directed backtracking (DDB). As well as Justification-based Truth Maintenance System (JTMS), we maintain dependencies among choices in a dependency network.

In this paper, we propose an efficient implementation of DDB for text generation using functional unification grammar (FUG). We use bindings of logical variables in Prolog and destructive argument substitutions to decrease the overhead of handling a dependency network. This paper describes the algorithm in detail and shows the results of preliminary experiments to demonstrate the performance of our implementation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 Ôokayama, Meguro, 152, Tokyo, Japan

    Kentaro Inui, Takenobu Tokunaga & Hozumi Tanaka

Authors
  1. Kentaro Inui
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  2. Takenobu Tokunaga
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  3. Hozumi Tanaka
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Additional information

Kentaro Inui, Dr.: He is a research associate of Department of Computer Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology. He received the B. S. degree in 1990, the M. S. degree in 1992, and the Dr. Eng. degree in 1995 from Tokyo Institute of Technology. His current interest is in natural language processing.

Takenobu Tokunaga, Ph.D.: He is an associate professor of Department of Computer Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology. He received the B.S. degree in 1983 from Tokyo Institute of Technology, the M.S. and the Dr. Eng. degrees from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1985 and 1991, respectively. His current interests are natural language processing, information retrieval.

Hozumi Tanaka, Ph.D: He is professor of Department of Computer Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology. He received the B.S. degree in 1964 and the M.S. degree in 1966 from Tokyo Institute of Technology. In 1966 he joined in the Electro Technical Laboratories, Tsukuba. He received the Dr. Eng. degree in 1980. He joined in Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1983. He has been engaged in artificial intelligence and natural language processing research.

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Inui, K., Tokunaga, T. & Tanaka, H. Dependency-directed control of text generation using functional unification grammar. New Gener Comput 14, 169–193 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03037498

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03037498

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