Anaphora for Limited Domain Systems
Abstract
This paper presents a simple mechanism for the resolution of anaphora in limited domain natural language systems. This mechanism provides functionality equivalent to the natural communication mechanism of anaphora as used and understood by people, but without the deep inferencing or cognitive modelling required for full simulation of human performance. The mechanism covers simple pronoun anaphora, and set selection anaphora (e.g. 'last one', 'one before', 'others'). It was developed to provide the most efficient and effective communication between system and user, even if this meant diverging significantly from human performance when this performance was impractical to reproduce. In cases of radical divergence, we were careful to make the behavior of the mechanism very simple and easy to predict. In this way, the user can either rely on his experience of human performance or his knowledge of the artificial, but simple, substitute to predict the behaviour of the system in response to his inputs, and thus construct his inputs to use the mechanism to best advantage. An algorithmic description of an implemented version of the mechanism is presented. A similar approach to other aspects of man-machine interfaces is recommended as a promising way to address the problem of habitability that still plagues all natural language computer interfaces.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 30, 1981
- Accession Number
- ADA106559
Entities
People
- Philip J. Hayes
Organizations
- Carnegie Mellon University