Skip to main content

A Translation from Logic to English with Dynamic Semantics

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
  • 851 Accesses

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 6284))

Abstract

We present a procedure for translating predicate logic into English, which generates both referring and non-referring expressions using a dynamically updated context representation. The system treats referring and non-referring expressions within a unified framework, capturing their common properties – both bound and referential anaphora require an accessible antedecent – and the special properties of non-referring expressions: Non-referring expressions are introduced with quantificational determiners, and correspond to short-term discourse referents.

Thanks to the LENLS organizing committee and audience, David Beaver, Cleo Condoravdi, Nicholas Asher, Lucas Champollion and Elias Ponvert for feedback. This work was partially supported under the DARPA Rapid Knowledge Formation program.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Horacek, H.: An algorithm for generating referential descriptions with flexible interfaces. In: Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, pp. 206–213 (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Dale, R.: Cooking up referring expressions. In: Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Reiter, E.: The computational complexity of avoiding false implicatures. In: Proceedings of the 28th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Reiter, E., Dale, R.: A fast algorithm for the generation of referring expressions. In: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Nantes, pp. 232–238 (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Dale, R., Reiter, E.: Computational interpretations of the Gricean maxims in the generation of referring expressions. Cognitive Science 19, 233–263 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Copestake, A., Flickinger, D., Malouf, R., Riehemann, S., Sag, I.: Translation using minimal recursion semantics. In: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Machine Translation, Leuven, Belgium (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Shaw, J., McKeown, K.: Generating referring quantified expressions. In: Proceedings of the first international conference on natural language generation, Mitzpe Ramon, Israel, pp. 100–107 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Krahmer, E., Van Erk, S., Verleg, A.: Graph-based generation of referring expressions. Computational Linguistics (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Van Deemter, K.: Generating referring expressions: Boolean extensions of the incremental algorithm. Computational Linguistics 28, 37–52 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Siddharthan, A., Copestake, A.: Generating anaphora for simplifying text. In: Proceedings of the 4th Discourse Anaphora and Anaphor Resolution Colloquium, pp. 199–204 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Siddharthan, A., Copestake, A.: Generating referring expressions in open domains. In: Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Barcelona, Spain, pp. 408–415 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Varges, S., Van Deemter, K.: Generating referring expressions containing quantifiers. In: Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Computational Semantics, pp. 1–13 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Kelleher, J.D., Kruijff, G.J.M.: Incremental generation of spatial referring expressions in situated dialog. In: Proceedings of COLING/ACL 2006 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Paraboni, I., Van Deemter, K., Masthoff, J.: Generating referring expressions: Making referents easy to identify. Computational Linguistics 33, 229–254 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Van Deemter, K., Krahmer, E.: Graphs and booleans: on the generation of referring expressions. In: Bunt, H., Muskins, R. (eds.) Computing Meaning, vol. 3, pp. 397–422. Springer, Dordrecht (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Areces, C., Koller, A., Striegnitz, K.: Referring expressions as formulas of description logic. In: White, M., Nakatsu, C., McDonald, D. (eds.) Proceedings of the Fifth International Natural Language Generation Conference, Salt Fork, Ohio, pp. 42–49. Association for Computational Linguistics (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Wilcock, G., Matsumoto, Y.: Head-driven generation with HPSG. In: Proceedings of COLING-ACL 1998: Workshop on Usage of WordNet in Natural Language Processing Systems, pp. 1393–1397 (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Carroll, J., Flickinger, D., Copestake, A., Poznanski, V.: An efficient chart generator for (semi-)lexicalist grammars. In: Proceedings of the 7th European Workshop on Natural Language Generation, Toulouse, France (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Copestake, A., Flickinger, D., Pollard, C., Sag, I.A.: Minimal recursion semantics: An introduction. Research on Language and Computation 3, 281–332 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Carroll, J., Oepen, S.: High efficiency realization for a wide-coverage unification grammar. In: Dale, R., Wong, K.F. (eds.) Proceedings of the Second International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing (IJNLP 2005), Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Wedekind, J., Kaplan, R.M.: Ambiguity-preserving generation with LFG- and PATR-style grammars. Computational Linguistics 22, 555–558 (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Wedekind, J.: Semantic-driven generation with LFG- and PATR-style grammars. Computational Linguistics 25, 277–281 (1999)

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  23. Kaplan, R.M., Wedekind, J.: LFG generation produces context-free languages. In: Proceedings of the 18th Conference on Computational Linguistics, Saarbrücken, Germany, pp. 425–431 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Cahill, A., van Genabith, J.: Robust pcfg-based generation using automatically acquired lfg approximations. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Computational Linguistics and 44th Annual Meeting of the ACL, Sydney, Australia, pp. 1033–1040. Association for Computational Linguistics (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Calder, J., Reape, M., Zeevat, H.: An algorithm for generation in unification categorial grammar. In: Proceedings of the 4th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Manchester, UK, pp. 233–240 (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Phillips, J.D.: Generation of text from logical formulae. Machine Translation 8, 209–235 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. White, M.: Reining in CCG chart realization. In: Belz, A., Evans, R., Piwek, P. (eds.) INLG 2004. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3123, pp. 182–191. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  28. Pollard, C., Yoo, E.J.: A unified theory of scope for quantifiers and wh- phrases. Journal of Linguistics 34(2), 415–445 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Kamp, H., Reyle, U.: From Discourse to Logic. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht (1993)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  30. Heim, I.: The Semantics of Definite and Indefinite Noun Phrases. PhD thesis, MIT (1982)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Karttunen, L.: Discourse referents. In: McCawley, J.D. (ed.) Syntax and Semantics 7: Notes from the Linguistic Underground, pp. 363–385. Academic Press, New York (1976)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Sailer, M.: Npi licensing, intervention and discourse representation structures in hpsg. In: Müller, S. (ed.) Proceedings of the HPSG 2007 Conference. CSLI Publications, Stanford (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Reyle, U.: Dealing with ambiguities by underspecification: Construction, representation, and deduction. Journal of Semantics 10(2), 123–179 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. De Swart, H.: Licensing of negative polarity items under inverse scope. Lingua 105, 175–200 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Lenat, D.: Cyc: A large-scale investment in knowledge infrastructure. Communications of the ACM 38 (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Ramachandran, D., Reagan, P., Goolsbey, K.: First-orderized ResearchCyc: Expressivity and efficiency in a common-sense ontology. In: Papers from the AAAI Workshop on Contexts and Ontologies: Theory, Practice and Applications, Pittsburg, PA (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Matuszek, C., Cabral, J., Witbrock, M., DeOliveira, J.: An introduction to the syntax and content of Cyc. In: Proceedings of the 2006 AAAI Spring Symposium on Formalizing and Compiling Background Knowledge and Its Applications to Knowledge Representation and Question Answering, Stanford, CA (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Heim, I.: File change semantics and the familiarity theory of definiteness. In: Baurle, R., Schwarze, C., Von Stechow, A. (eds.) Meaning, Use, and the Interpretation of Language, pp. 164–189. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin (1983)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Muskens, R.: Combining Montague semantics and discourse representation. Linguistics and Philosophy 19, 143–186 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Pollard, C., Sag, I.A.: Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  41. Wechsler, S., Zlatić, L.: The Many Faces of Agreement. Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Chafe, W.L.: Givenness, contrastiveness, definiteness, subjects, topics and point of view. In: Li, C.N. (ed.) Subject and topic, pp. 25–55. Academic Press, New York (1976)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Ariel, M.: Accessing NP antecedents. Routledge, London (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  44. Gundel, J.K., Hedberg, N., Zacharski, R.: Cognitive status and the form of referring expressions in discourse. Language 69, 274–307 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Brennan, S.: Centering attention in discourse. Language and Cognitive Processes 10, 137–167 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Grosz, B.J., Joshi, A.K., Weinstein, S.: Providing a unified account of definite noun phrases in discourse. In: Proceedings of the 21st Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Cambridge, MA, pp. 44–49 (1983)

    Google Scholar 

  47. Grosz, B.J., Joshi, A.K., Weinstein, S.: Centering: A framework for modeling the local coherence of discourse. Computational Linguistics 21, 203–226 (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  48. Beaver, D.I.: The optimization of discourse anaphora. Linguistics and Philosophy 27, 3–56 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Lenat, D.B., Guha, R.V.: Building Large Knowledge-Based Systems. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  50. Baxter, D., Shepard, B., Siegel, N., Gottesman, B., Schneider, D.: Interactive natural language explanations of cyc inferences. In: Proceedings of AAAI 2005: International Symposium on Explanation-aware Computing, Washington, D.C. (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  51. Heim, I., Kratzer, A.: Semantics in Generative Grammar. Blackwell, Oxford (1998)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Coppock, E., Baxter, D. (2010). A Translation from Logic to English with Dynamic Semantics. In: Nakakoji, K., Murakami, Y., McCready, E. (eds) New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. JSAI-isAI 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 6284. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14888-0_18

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14888-0_18

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-14887-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-14888-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics