Qualitative Physics as a Component in Natural Language Semantics: A Progress Report

Abstract

We propose that qualitative physics can provide an important component of natural language semantics. Specifically, we describe how qualitative process theory can be recast in terms of frame semantics, as used in the Berkeley FrameNet project. This reformulation is important because it could allow the techniques of qualitative reasoning to be harnessed for natural language understanding and it expands the range of phenomena that can be described in NL semantics. We show that these ideas can account for a large percentage of a small corpus of explanatory text, and that they support the construction of QP models from such texts.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA465782

Entities

People

  • Ken Forbus
  • Sven E. Kuehne

Organizations

  • Northwestern University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Causal Reasoning
  • Cognitive Science
  • Computational Science
  • Computer Science
  • Construction
  • Differential Equations
  • Heat Energy
  • Heat Transmission
  • Language
  • Materials
  • Mathematics
  • Models
  • Natural Languages
  • Reasoning
  • Semantics
  • Words (Language)

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Systems Analysis and Design