Method and apparatus for universal parsing of language

43 Pages·2013·3.65 MB·English

IJS005878385[\
United States Patent [19] [11] Patent Number: 5,878,385
Bralich et al. [45] Date of Patent: Mar. 2, 1999
[54] METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OTHER PUBLICATIONS
UNIVERSAL PARSING OF LANGUAGE
Aho, A.V. et al., Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and
[75] Inventors: Phillip A. Bralich, Honolulu, Hi.; Tools, Sections 2.4, 4.4—4.5, 4.7, 5.3, 5.6, 6.7 (Addison—
Wesley Publishing Company 1986).
Derek Bickerton, Talent, Oreg.
Allen, J ., Natural Language Understanding, Chapters 3—6,
Assignee: Ergo Linguistic Technologies 17 (The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc.
1995).
Bralich, P., and D. Bickerton, “A Proposal for the Revision
Appl. No.: 715,313
of the theory of P and P Syntax,” (seminar presentation
Filed: Sep. 16, 1996 material 1992).
Bralich, P., and D. Bickerton, “Anaphoric Reference,”
Int. Cl.6 .................................................... .. G06F 17/27 (seminar presentation material 1992).
US. Cl. ................................... .. 704/9; 704/8; 704/10; Bralich, P., and D. Bickerton, “Attach 0t,” (seminar presen
707/532 tation material 1992).
Field of Search ................................ .. 704/9, 8, 10, 1; Bralich, P., and D. Bickerton, “Other Syntactic Phenomena,”
707/531, 532, 536, 533, 534 (seminar presentation material 1992).
Cohen, R., “Analyzing the Structure of Argumentative Dis
course,” Computational Linguistics, 13(1—2):11—24 (1987).
References Cited
GrosZ, B]. et al., “TEAM: An Experiment in the Design of
Transportable Natural—Language Interfaces,” Arti?cial
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
Intelligence, 32(2):173—243 (1987).
4,706,212 11/1987 Toma ........................................ .. 704/2
4,829,423 5/1989 Tennant et al. 704/8 (List continued on next page.)
4,864,503 9/1989 Tolin ............... .. 704/2
Primary Examiner—Joseph Thomas
4,868,750 9/1989 Kucera et al. .. 704/8
4,887,212 12/1989 Zamora et al. 704/8
[57] ABSTRACT
4,984,178 1/1991 Hemphill et al. . 704/255
4,994,966 2/1991 Hutchins . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 704/9 A method and apparatus for natural language parsing are
5,091,950 2/1992 Ahmed ........ .. 704/277
described. The invention includes the steps of retrieving an
5,109,509 4/1992 Katayama et al. 704/9
input string, and performing a dictionary look-up for each
5,128,865 7/1992 Sadler ......... .. 704/2
Word in the input string to form a correspondence betWeen
5,157,606 10/1992 Nagashima ...... .. 704/2
5,222,187 6/1993 Doddington et al. . 704/200 each Word and a dictionary entry. The dictionary entry
5,287,429 2/1994 Watanabe ........ .. 704/239 provides lexical features of the Word. The invention includes
5,297,040 3/1994 Hu ............... .. 704/9 the additional step of processing the Words in the input string
5,321,606 6/1994 Kuruma et al. 704/9 beginning With a last Word in the input string and continuing
5,321,607 6/1994 Fukumochi et al. .. 704/4 toWard the ?rst Word in the input string. This step includes
5,355,493 10/1994 Silberbauer et al. . 395/701
the step of associating a selected Word in the input string
5,384,702 1/1995 T011 ........................................... .. 704/9
With a Word located to the left of the selected Word in the
5,416,696 5/1995 SuZuoka .................................... .. 704/2
input string to form a Word phrase. The associating step is
5,424,947 6/1995 Nagao et al. . 704/9
performed according to predetermined selection restriction
5,475,587 12/1995 Anick et al. .. 704/9
5,687,384 11/1997 Nagese .... .. 704/9 rules. The steps of processing the Words and associating a
5,721,938 2/1998 Stuckey ..................................... .. 704/4 selected Word are repeated until all Words of the input string
have been processed.
FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
2 211 639 7/1989 United Kingdom . 3 Claims, 12 Drawing Sheets
1 m nus ROUYINE. ATTADHM' ENT ls sDeOeNmE FROM maHmosT wean AM: we' \
\ WORKOURWAV LEFYWARD. Ms Rounuz IS PERFORMED IN EACH sPuT /
8% "mum (libY) susno3u ms3 3
46 4|‘
9a HBMEPO SUBROUTINE
lF monmosT worm [5 p0, spuns no»:
94 IMPOSSI, BIvU T3V 3 C H3E C3K 3 L
\ CHECKo WrO IRMDPO SmStaBl ALIGTAIIENSS' T ‘LIST
“k ATTACHIPREMDTETRIGH'I'TIKTSI')
I ETLHIEMSIPNLAITYE \102 I ED vas i
NO
“81 , ELMNATE spur ‘
l
REnucE3sPLrrs
A LOCOOKM wBI RNAoTuI aOnN RFEOMUANIDN.I mNG SmPLIY IS.T AIFW SAAYM E ;l
106 l
nus sPLlT IS DONE *
MORE SPLITS vEs -
7
NO
"IN TEND "
5,878,385
Page 2
OTHER PUBLICATIONS Kay, M., “The MIND System,” Natural Language Process
ing, Courant Computer Science Symposium 8:Dec. 20—21,
GrosZ, B.J., “The Representation and Use of Focus in a
1971, pp. 155—188 (NeW York: Algorithmics Press, Inc., R.
System for Understanding Dialogs,” Readings in Natural
Rustin ed. 1973).
Language Processing, pp. 353—362 (Morgan Kaufmann
Publishers, Inc. 1986. Litman, D.J., and J .F. Allen, “A Plan Recognition Model for
GrosZ, B.J., and C. Sidner, “Attention, Intentions, and the Subdialogues in Conversations,” Cognitive Science, 11(2):
Structure of Discourse,” Computational Linguistics, 163—200 (1987).
12(3):175—204 (1986).
Reichman, R., “Conversational Coherency,” Cognitive Sci
Hirschberg, J ., and DJ. Litman, “Empirical Studies on the
ence, 2(4):283—327 (1978).
Disambiguation of Cue Phrases,” Computational Linguis
tics, 19(3):501—530 (1993). Reichman, R., Getting Computers to Talk Like You and Me,
Kaplan, R.M., “A General Syntactic Processor” Natural Chapters 2, 5 and 8 (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press 1985).
Language Processing, Courant Computer Science Sympo
Sidner, C.L., “Focusing in the Comprehension of De?nite
sium 8: Dec. 20—21, 1971, pp. 193—241 (NeW York: Algo
Anaphora,” Readings in Natural Language Processing, pp.
rithmics Press, Inc., R. Rustin ed. 1973).
363—394 (Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc. 1986).
Kay, M., “Algorithm Schemata and Data Structures in
Syntactic Processing,” Readings in Natural Language Pro Sidner, C.L., “Plan Parsing for Intended Response Recog
cessing, pp. 35—70 (Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc. nition in Discourse,” Computational Intelligence, 1(1):1—10
1986). (1985).
U.S. Patent Mar. 2, 1999 Sheet 1 0f 12 5,878,385
54 £6
DATA
20\ STORAGE PROCESSOR RAM
DEvICE I I .)
F ,
1s
22\ KEYBOARD -—> \ ROM
\
CURSOR
24\ CONTROL swig“
DEVICE 10
26\ DISPLAY _ SCANNER
DEvICE DEVICE \30
voICE
28\ INPUTI ,
voICE ,3? f
RECOGNITION
DEvICE
U.S. Patent 5,878,385
Mar. 2, 1999 Sheet 2 0f 12
MAIN OVERVIEW ROUTINE
DICTIONARY LOOKUP
60,000 WORDS,
DICTIONARY SPLIT
I
MAIN SEQUENCE 1
EVALUATE PREPOSITION
AND ATTACH
TO THE X2 LEVEL
HandleAnd (a&b)
l
MAIN SEQUENCE 2
EVALUATE Verb & Do
SUBCATAGORIES
HandleAnd (b&c)
I
MAIN SEQUENCE 3
CLEAN UP
I
FUNCTIONS
54@
U.S. Patent Mar. 2, 1999 Sheet 3 0f 12 5,878,385
DICTIONARY LOOKUP
BEGIN WORD ROUTINE
NOTE: LOOKUP IS DONE ON EACH 60
WORD IN THE SENTENCE
I
GET INPUT SENTENCE \ 62
Li
It
LOOK UP WORD
60 000 WORD DICTIONARY CONTAINS \64
33W‘ wrtATw??s'rek?m'v-wmul I I
LOOK
FOR A MATCH No
SPLIT FOR MULTIPLE
POSSIBILITIES, IF POSSIBLE
/
MAKE ROBUST LEXICAL
70\ GUESS - SPLIT FOR
MULTIPLE GUESSES
72
YES WORDS IN THE
INPUT SENTENCE
U.S. Patent Mar. 2, 1999 Sheet 4 0f 12 5,878,385
MAIN SEQUENCE 1
84 BEGIN
IN THIS ROUTINE, ATTACHMENT IS DONE FROM RIGHTMOST WORD AND WE
WORK OUR WAY LEFTWARD. THIS ROUTINE IS PERFORMED IN EACH SPLIT
HandleAnd (8&b) SUBROUTINE
4—6 I
90\ HandlePO SUBROUTINE
lF RIGHTMOST WORD IS pO, SPLIT AS p0Ip3
I
IMPOSSIBILITY CHECK
CHECK WORD PAIR AGAINST "LIST
OF IMPOSSIBILITIES"
110\ ATTACH/PROMOTE (RIGHTMOST)
ELIMINATE
THE SPLIT \102
118\ ELIMINATE SPLIT
I
REDUCE SPLITS
LOOK THROUGH REMAINING SPLITS, IF SAME
COMBINATION FOUND, THROW IT AWAY
/
106 L
122w THIS SPLIT IS DONE
U.S. Patent Mar. 2, 1999 Sheet 5 0f 12 5,878,385
MAIN SEQUENCE 2
BEGIN
150 IN THIS ROUTINE, ATTACHMENT IS DONE FROM RIGHTMOST
ITEM AND WEE WORK OUR WAY LEFTWARD.
THIS ROUTINE IS PERFORMED ON EACH SPLIT
Q 152\ EVALUATE VERB
154
NO
YEs
156\ A'ITACH SUBCATAGORIES
164
NO
YES
166\ HandIeAnd (a&b)
I
168\ ATTACH/PROMOTE (RIGHTMOST ITEM)
I60
\ I
THE TREE FAILED,
REMOVE AND ELIMINATE
YES
U.S. Patent 5,878,385
Mar. 2, 1999 Sheet 6 0f 12
SPLITS
A SPLIT IS WHEN WE TAKE A SNAPSHOT OF THE CURRENT
SENTENCE STRUCTURE WE'RE WORKING ON
AND ALTER IT TO TRY ANOTHER POSSIBILITY
MAIN SEQUENCE 1 SPLIT
nn22 dd00 aa00 pp30 fig; 63
MAIN SEQUENCE 2 SPLIT
M/CX8J8
U.S. Patent Mar. 2, 1999 Sheet 7 0f 12 5,878,385
MAIN SEQUENCE 3
I90\ BEGIN
50 ‘CLEAN UP" PHASE
LOOK FOR UNATI'ACHED SUBTREES
/
192
195\ ATTACH/PROMOTE
(TWO UNATI'ACHED ITEMS)
196
NO
YES
198\ THE TREE FAILED,
REMOVE AND ELIMINATE
2""
Fly 7
U.S. Patent Mar. 2, 1999 Sheet 8 0f 12 5,878,385
222 ATI'ACH-SUBCATAGORIES
PARAMETER: A TREE SPLIT POSSIBILITY
RETURN: SUCCESS OR FAIL
224\ FIND RIGHTMOST VERB
226\ LOOK FOR AND A'ITACH TO THETA PHRASES
AS SPECIFIED IN VERB'S SUBCATAGORIES
228
ARE
SUBCATAGORIES
FULFILLED
9
YES
236\ LOOK TO LEFT FOR NEXT
RIGHTMOST VERB
240\ RETURN (success)
240\ RETURN (FAIL) @234
FL? 8