Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
skip to main content
10.3115/981251.981285dlproceedingsArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesaclConference Proceedingsconference-collections
Article
Free access

The TEXT system for natural language generation: an overview

Published: 16 June 1982 Publication History

Abstract

Computer-based generation of natural language requires consideration of two different types of problems: 1) determining the content and textual shape of what is to be said, and 2) transforming that message into English. A computational solution to the problems of deciding what to say and how to organize it effectively is proposed that relies on an interaction between structural and semantic processes. Schemas, which encode aspects of discourse structure, are used to guide the generation process. A focusing mechanism monitors the use of the schemas, providing constraints on what can be said at any point. These mechanisms have been implemented as part of a generation method within the context of a natural language database system, addressing the specific problem of responding to questions about database structure.

References

[1]
{BOSSIE 82}. Bossie, S., "A tactical model for text generation: sentence generation using a functional grammar," forthcoming M. S. thesis, university of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa., 1982
[2]
{CHEN 76}. Chen, P. P. S., "The entity-relationship model - towards a unified view of data." ACM Transactions on Database Systems, Vol. 1, No. 1. (1976).
[3]
{GRIMES 75}. Grimes, J. E. The Thread of Discourse. Mouton, The Hague, Paris. (1975).
[4]
{GROSZ 77}. Grosz, B. J., "The representation and use of focus in dialogue understanding." Technical note 151, Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, Ca. (1977).
[5]
{LEE and GERRITSEN 78}. Lee, R. M. and R. Gerritsen, "Extended semantics for generalization hierarchies", in Proceedings of the 1978 ACM-SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data, Austin, Tex., 1978.
[6]
{KAY 79}. Kay, M. "Functional grammar." Proceedings of the 5th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society. (1979).
[7]
{MALHOTRA 75}. Malhotra, A. "Design criteria for a knowledge-based English language system for management: an experimental analysis." MAC TR-146, MIT, Cambridge, Mass. (1975).
[8]
{MCCOY 82}. McCoy, K. F., "Augmenting a database knowledge representation for natural language generation," in Proc. of the 20th Annual Conference of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Toronto, Canada, 1982.
[9]
{MCKEOWN 80}. McKeown, K. R., "Generating relevant explanations: natural language responses to questions about database structure." in Proceedings of AAAI, Stanford Univ., Stanford, Ca. (1980). pp. 306-9.
[10]
{MCKEOWN 82}. McKeown, K. R., "Generating natural language text in response to questions about database structure." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. 1982.
[11]
{SHEPHERD 26}. Shepherd, H. R., The Fine Art of Writing, The Macmillan Co., New York, N. Y., 1926.
[12]
{SIDNER 79}. Sidner, C. L., "Towards a computational theory of definite anaphora comprehension in English discourse." Ph.D. dissertation, MIT AI Technical Report #TR-537, Cambridge, Mass. (1979).
[13]
{SMITH and SMITH 77}. Smith, J. M. and Smith, D. C. P., "Database abstractions: aggregation and generalization." University of Utah, ACM Transactions on Database Systems, Vol. 2, #2, June 1977, pp. 105--33.
[14]
{TENNANT 79}. Tennant, H., "Experience with the evaluation of natural language question answerers." Working paper #18, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Ill. (1979).

Cited By

View all

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image DL Hosted proceedings
ACL '82: Proceedings of the 20th annual meeting on Association for Computational Linguistics
June 1982
178 pages
  • Program Chair:
  • Madeleine Bates

Publisher

Association for Computational Linguistics

United States

Publication History

Published: 16 June 1982

Qualifiers

  • Article

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 85 of 443 submissions, 19%

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)46
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)7
Reflects downloads up to 15 Oct 2024

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all
  • (2007)Adaptive information for consumers of healthcareThe adaptive web10.5555/1768197.1768215(465-484)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2007
  • (2005)Story plot generation based on CBRKnowledge-Based Systems10.1016/j.knosys.2004.10.01118:4-5(235-242)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2005
  • (2002)JYAG & IDEYEighteenth national conference on Artificial intelligence10.5555/777092.777265(994-995)Online publication date: 28-Jul-2002
  • (2001)Creating natural language ouput for real-time applicationsintelligence10.1145/378116.37812212:2(21-34)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2001
  • (2000)YAGProceedings of the first international conference on Natural language generation - Volume 1410.3115/1118253.1118293(264-267)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2000
  • (1986)Writing to be searched: A workshop on document creation principlesACM SIGIR Forum10.1145/16287.1628819:1-4(9-14)Online publication date: 1-Jan-1986
  • (1985)A pragmatics-based approach to understanding intersentential ellipsisProceedings of the 23rd annual meeting on Association for Computational Linguistics10.3115/981210.981234(188-197)Online publication date: 8-Jul-1985
  • (1984)A response to the need for summary responsesProceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computational Linguistics and 22nd annual meeting on Association for Computational Linguistics10.3115/980491.980579(432-436)Online publication date: 2-Jul-1984
  • (1983)Design of a knowledge-based report generatorProceedings of the 21st annual meeting on Association for Computational Linguistics10.3115/981311.981340(145-150)Online publication date: 15-Jun-1983
  • (1983)Providing a unified account of definite noun phrases in discourseProceedings of the 21st annual meeting on Association for Computational Linguistics10.3115/981311.981320(44-50)Online publication date: 15-Jun-1983
  • Show More Cited By

View Options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Get Access

Login options

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media