Intelligent CAI: An Author Aid for a Natural Language Interface.
Abstract
One of the major stumbling blocks for an intelligent instructional system is the lack of a natural means of communication between the student and the computer. This report addresses the problems of using natural language (English) as the communication language for advanced computer-based instructional systems. The instructional environment places requirements on a natural language understanding system that exceed the capabilities of all existing systems. These requirements include: (1) efficiency; (2) habitability; (3) tutorial capability; and (4) the ability to exist with ambiguity. The notion of semantic grammar is presented as a paradigm for organizing the knowledge required in the understanding process that permits efficient parsing. In addition, semantic grammar aids the habitability by providing insights into a useful class of dialogue constructs, and permits efficient handling of such phenomena as pronominalizations and ellipses. The need for a better formalism for expressing semantic grammars is met by the use of Augmented Transition Networks (ATN). The ability of the ATN-expressed semantic grammar to satisfy the above stated requirements is demonstrated in the natural language front-end for the SOPHIE system. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1978
- Accession Number
- ADA061269
Entities
People
- John Seely Brown
- Richard R. Burton
Organizations
- BBN Technologies