Noun Phrase Compression in Navy Messages.
Abstract
An important goal of the Navy's future message systems is to be able to interpret automatically the English narrative in Navy messages. To accomplish this, such systems must incorporate a natural language parser that determines the structure of English phrases and sentences. The parser does this by using a grammar, a set of rules that describes all acceptable patterns in the language. A central aim of our research is to develop a grammar that is oriented toward the particular style, or sublanguage, used in Navy messages. In this report, we describe a partial grammar for telegraphic constructs in the message sublanguage, i.e. constructs in which words that would normally occur are omitted when the meaning of the phrase is clear without them. Specifically, we are concerned with telegraphic noun phrases of the form Modifier + Noun + Modifier, where either or both of the modifiers are optional. We present a grammatical description of complex acronyms like CINCLANT ('Commander-in-Chief for the Atlantic'), focusing on the rules that assign these expressions an internal structure. Given this description, we show that complex acronyms are hybrid expressions in that they share the properties of single words like CNO and of phrases like arrival Norfolk. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 31, 1983
- Accession Number
- ADA132313
Entities
People
- Constance L. Heitmeyer
- Joan C. Bachenko
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory