Understanding Editorial Text: A Computer Model of Argument Comprehension

315 Pages·1990·11.48 MB·English

by  Sergio J. Alvarado (auth.)

UNDERSTANDING EDITORIAL TEXT:
A Computer Model of Argument
Comprehension
THE KLUWER INTERNATIONAL SERIES IN
ENG~GANDCO~UTERSCIENCE
NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING
AND MACHINE TRANSLATION
Consulting Editor
Jaime Carbonell
Other books in the series:
EFFICIENT PARSING FOR NATURAL lANGUAGE: A FAST ALGORITIIM
FOR PRACTICAL SYSTEMS, M. Tomita
ISBN 0-89838-202-5
A NATURAL lANGUAGE INTERFACE FOR COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN,
T.Samad
ISBN 0-89838-222-X
IN1EGRATED NATURAL lANGUAGE DIALOGUE: A COMPUTATIONAL
MODEL, R.E. Frederking
ISBN 0-89838-255-6
NAIVE SEMANTICS FOR NATURAL LANGUAGE UNDERSTANDING,
K. Dahlgren
ISBN 0-89838-287-4
UNDERSTANDING EDITORIAL TEXT:
A Computer Model of Argument
Comprehension
by
Sergio J. Alvarado
University of California, Davis
~.
"
KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS
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Ubrary of Coagreu CatalogiDg-iD·PublkatloD Data
Alvarado, Sergio Jose, 1957-
Understanding editorial text: a computer model of argument
comprehension / by Sergio J. Alvarado.
p. crn. - (Kluwer international series in engineering and
computer science)
Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D.)-University
of California, Los Angeles.
Includes bibliographical references and indelt.
ISBN·I3: 978-1-4612-8836-7 e-ISUN-13: 978-1-4613-1561-2
001: 10.1007/978-1-4613-1561-2
1. Editorials-Data processing. 2. Natural language processing
(Computer 5cience) 3. Teltt processing (Computer science)
1. Title. II. Series.
PN4784.E28A48 1990
006.3-dc20 90-4813
CIP
CoPyriKhl © 1990 by Kluwer Academic Publishers
Softco\'cr rcprint ofthc hardco\'er 1st edition 1990
All rights reserved. No pan of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retriev<l1
system or transmitted in any form orby any means, mechanical, pholo-copying, recording,
or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, Kluwer Academic
Publishers, 101 Philip Drive, Assinippi Park, Norwell, Massachusetts 02061.
To Ingrid
Table of Contents
LI·S t 0 fF'1 9ures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. X.U..l
List of Tables ................................................................ xvii
Foreword by Michael G. Dyer. ............................................ xix
Preface ....................................................................... xxiii
Ackn ow I e dgmen ts ........................................................... xxv
1. The Nature of Argument Comprehension. .............................. 1
1.1. Introduction .......................................................... 1
1.2. Argument Comprehension in OpEd ............................... 2
1.2.1. Domain-Specific Knowledge ............................. 5
1.2.2. Beliefs and Belief Relationships .......................... 7
1.2.3. Causal Chains of Reasoning .............................. 8
1.2.4. Abstract Knowledge of Argumentation .................. 9
1.2.5. Conceptual Representation of Arguments ............. 10
1.2.6. Memory Retrieval ........................................ 12
1.3. Scope of OpEd .................................................... 14
1.4. Architecture of OpEd ........ . .. . .. ... .. . . .. .. . . .. . .. . .. . . . . .. . ... 19
1.5. Contents of the Dissertation ...................................... 22
2. Representing Politico-Economic Knowledge ......................... 25
2.1. Introduction ........................................................ 25
2.2. Politico-Economic Conflicts ..................................... 27
2.2.1. Basic Socials Acts and Authority Triangles ........... 28
2.2.2. Modeling Situations of Protectionism With
Authority Triangles ...................................... 30
viii UNDERSTANDING EDITORIAL 1EXT
2.2.3. Beliefs and Goals Associated With Situations of
Protectionism ............................................. 34
2.2.4. Organizing Conflict-Resolution Events With
Plan boxes ................................................. 36
2.3. Politico-Economic Reasoning ................................... 38
2.3.1. Graph of Economic Quantities .......................... 38
2.3.2. Modeling Trade With Graphs of Economic
Quantities .................................................. 40
2.3.3. Modeling Reasoning About Protectionism With
Reasoning Scripts ........................................ 42
2.4. Summary ............................................................ 48
3. Beliefs and Belief Relationships ....................................... 49
3.1. Introduction ................................................... , .... 49
3.2. Belief Representation ............................................. 52
3.3. Attack Relationships .............................................. 56
3.3.1. Attacks Based on Mutually-Exclusive Planning
Situations .................................................. 57
3.3.2. Attacks Based on Opposite Effects on
Interrelated Goals ........................................ 58
3.4. Support Relationships ............................................ 61
3.4.1. Supports Based on Refinements of Plan
Evaluations ................................................ 62
3.4.2. Supports Based on Refinements of Plan-Goal
Relationships ............................................. 66
3.4.3. Supports Based on Analogies .......................... 75
3.4.4. Supports Based on Examples ........................... 77
3.5. Summary ........................................................... 79
4. Argument Units .......................................................... 81
4. 1. Introduction ........................................................ 81
4.2. Taxonomy of Argument Units ................................... 84
4.2.1. Argument Units Based on Unrealized Successes .... 84
4.2.2. Argument Units Based on Realized Failures .......... 93
4.2.3. Argument Units Based on Realized Successes ...... 101
4.2.4. Argument Units Based on Unrealized Failures ...... 105
4.3. Representing Editorials With Configurations of
Argument Units .................................................. 111
4.4. Generality of Argument Units .................................. 113
4.4.1. Language-Independent Nature of Argument
Units ...................................................... 114
TABLE OF CONTENTS ix
4.4.2. Domain-Independent Nature of Argument UnitS .... 117
4.5. Summary .......................................................... 119
5. Meta-Arguntellt Units .................................................. 121
5 . 1. Introduction ....................................................... 121
5.2. Meta-Argument Units Based on Hypocritical Behavior ..... 123
5.2.1. Inconsistencies Between Actions and Professed
Beliefs .................................................... 123
5.2.2. Inconsistencies Between Actions and Criticisms .... 126
5.2.3. Hypocritical Behavior and Expectation Failures ..... 128
5.2.4. Hypocritical Behavior in Multiple Domains .......... 130
5.3. Meta-Argument Units Based on Unsound Reasoning ....... 132
5.3.1. Burden of Proof ......................................... 132
5.3.2. Plausibility ............................................... 135
5.3.3. Tautology ................................................ 136
5.3.4. Self-Contradiction ....................................... 138
5.3.5. Reasoning Errors in Multiple Domains ............... 140
5.4. Summary .......................................................... 141
6. Recognizing Argument Structures .................................... 143
6. 1. Introduction ....................................................... 143
6.2. Recognizing Evaluative Beliefs From Explicit
Standpoints ....................................................... 145
6.3. Recognizing Evaluative Beliefs From Emotional
Reactions .......................................................... 146
6.4. Recognizing Causal Beliefs From Evaluative Beliefs ........ 147
6.5. Recognizing Reasoning Scripts From Causal Beliefs ....... 150
6.6. Recognizing Argument Units From Linguistic
Constructs ......................................................... 154
6.6.1. Contradictory-Effect Construct. ....................... 154
6.6.2. Expectation-Failure Construct ......................... 157
6.6.3. Argument-Evaluation COnstruct. ...................... 160
6.7. Recognizing Argument Units From Plan-Failure Beliefs ... 164
6.8. Summary .......................................................... 167
7. Memory Search and Retrieval ......................................... 169
7. 1. Introduction ...................................................... , 169
7.2. Organizing and Indexing Editorial Memory ................... 171
7.3. Retrieving Information From Editorial Memory .............. 177
7.3.1. Belief-Holder Questions ................................ 181
x UNDERSTANDING EDITORIAL TEXT
7.3.2. Causal-Belief Questions ................................ 182
7.3.3. Belief-Justification Questions .......................... 185
7.3.4. AffectlBelief Questions ................................. 188
7.3.5. Top-Belief/AU Questions .............................. 190
7.4. Summary .......................................................... 192
8. Annotated Example of the OpEd System. ............................ 195
8.1. Introduction ....................................................... 195
8.2. Editorial-Comprehension Trace ................................ 197
8.2.1. First Sentence ............................................ 198
8.2.2. Second Sentence ........................................ 206
8.2.3. Third Sentence ........................................... 215
8.2.4. Fourth Sentence ......................................... 221
8.2.5. Fifth Sentence ........................................... 229
8.2.6. Sixth Sentence ........................................... 235
8.2.7. Seventh Sentence ........................................ 241
8.2.8. Eighth Sentence ......................................... 244
8.3. Question-Answering Traces .................................... 246
8.3.1. Belief-Holder Question ................................. 247
8.3.2. Causal-Belief Question ................................. 249
8.3.3. Belief-Justification Question ........................... 252
8.3.4. AffectlBelief Question .................................. 254
8.3.5. Top-Belief/AU Question ............................... 256
8.4. Current Status of OpEd .......................................... 259
9. Future Work and Conclusions .. 261
0"0 ....................................
9. 1. Introduction ....................................................... 261
9.2. Comparison With Other Work .................................. 262
9.2.1. Argument Analysis in Rhetoric ........................ 263
9.2.2. FonnallLogical Approaches to Belief Systems ...... 264
9.2.3. Artificial Intelligence Approaches to Argument
Comprehension .......................................... 264
9.2.4. Psycholinguistic Analysis of Editorial Text .......... 267
9.3. Future Work ...................................................... 268
9.3 .1. Long-Term Memory Organization of Arguments ... 268
9.3.2. Subjective Comprehension of Arguments ............ 269
9.3.3. Belief Inferences Based on Past Arguments ......... 270
9.3.4. Modeling Persuasion ................................... 270
9.3.5. Meta-Argument Comprehension ...................... 271
9.3.6. Knowledge Engineering Bottlenecks ................. 271
TABLE OF CONTENTS xi
9.4. Summary and Conclusions ..................................... 272
References .................................................................... 275
Index .......................................................................... 287