Research Reports ESPRIT Project 393. ACORD. Vol. 1 Edited in cooperation with the Commission of the European Communities
G. G. Bes T. Guillotin (Eds.) A Natural Language and Graphics Interface Resu Its and Perspectives from the ACORD Project Spri nger -Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York London Paris Tokyo Hong Kong Barcelona Budapest
Editors Gabriel G. Bes Universite Blaise Pascal Clermont II Formation Doctorale Linguistique et Informatique 34 avenue Carnot, F-63037 Clermont Ferrand Cedex, France Thierry Guillotin Centre Scientifique IBM-France 3-5 place VendOme, F-75001 Paris France ESPRIT Project 393 "Construction and Interrogation of Knowledge Bases Using Natural Language Text and Graphics (ACORD)" belongs to the Subprogramme "Advanced Information Processing" of ESPRIT, the European Specific Programme for Research and Development in Information Technology supported by the Commission of the European Communities. Project 393 focuses on a trilingual (French, German and English) system for the automatic construction of a knowledge base with natural language text output and a retrieval and manipulation system aimed at casual users. The knowledge base is builtfrom documents combining text and graphics (encyclopedia ortechnical type) and is based on Prolog. The analysis of texts is based on theoretical linguistics (discourse representation theory and functional grammars). The knowledge representation is based on formal semantics and the logical theory of databases. To support dialogue, the system selects the appropriate output presentation, text or graphics, and selects relevant information for output. The system interface features a symbolic interplay of graphics and natural language. CR Subject Classification (1991): 1.2.7,1.2.1,1.2.4,1.3.2 ISBN-13: 978-3-540-55675-6 e-isbn-13: 978-3-642-46774-5 001: 10.1007/978-3-642-46774-5 This work Is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved. whether the whole or part of the material Is concerned. specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other ways, and storage in data banks. Duplication ofthis publication or parts there of is permitted only under the provisions olthe German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in Its current version and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer-Verlag. Violations are liable for prosecution under the German Copyright Law. Publication No. EUR 14486 EN of the Commission of the European Communities, Scientific and Technical Communication Unit, Directorate-General Telecommunications, Information Industries and Innovation, Luxembourg LEGAL NOTICE Neither the Commission of the European Communities nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission Is responsible for the use which might be made of the following Information. ECSC - EEC - EAEC, Brussels - Luxembourg, 1992 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1992 Typesetting: Camera ready by authors 45/3140-54321 0 - Printed on acid-free paper
PREFACE In the terminal phase of the ACORD project, the idea of documenting relevant results and perspectives grew among most of the involved partners. This book is the outcome of the idea. It completes in a more theoretically perspective the final technical documentation of the project (see p. 6 footnote 1) which is mainly focussed in the description of the integrated demonstrator and of each of its modules. The reader will find in chapter 1 a brief presentation of the general architecture of the ACORD system and pointers to each of the subsequent chapters. These cover the main results and perspectives of the project on grammar formalisms and implementation, for both parsing and generation, graphics and natural language integration, and knowledge base formalism. The production of the book benefited from a fund of Alcatel Alsthom Recherche, from the technical assistance of Karine Baschung and from a carefull typographic revision and final preparation of the submitted texts by Sylvie Di Penta. Gabriel G. Bes
VI CONTRIBUTORS KARINE BAS CHUNG Formation Doctorale Linguistique et Informatique, Universite Blaise Pascal (Clermont Ferrand II), 34 Avenue Carnot, 63037 Clermont Ferrand Cedex, France. GABRIEL G. BES Formation Doctorale Linguistique et Informatique, Universite Blaise Pascal (Clermont Ferrand II), 34 Avenue Carnot, 63037 Clermont Ferrand Cedex, France. FRIEDRICH DUDDA Triumph-Adler, Hundingst. 11 bd, 8500 Nuremberg, Germany. CLAIRE GARDENT Departement of Philosophy, Facultet der Wisjbegeerte, Heidelberglaan, 2 Postbus 80103,3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands. THIERRY GUILLOTIN Centre Scientifique d'ibm France, 3-5 Place Vendome, 75021 Paris Cedex 01, France. GERARD HEYER Triumph-Adler, Hundigstr. 11 bd, 8500 Nuremberg, Germany. PIERRE-FRANCOIS JURIE Formation Doctorale Linguistique et Informatique, Universite Blaise Pascal (Clermont Ferrand 11),34 Avenue Carnot, 63037 Clermont Ferrand Cedex, France. WALTER KASPER Institut fur Maschinelle Sprachverarbeitung-CI, Universitiit Stuttgart, Azenberstr. 17, 7000 Stuttgart 1, Germany. DIETER KOHL Institut fur Maschinelle Sprachverarbeitung-CI, Universitiit Stuttgart, Azenberstr. 17, 7000 Stuttgart 1, Germany. JOHN LEE Department of Architecture, University of Edinburgh, 20 Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 IJ2, Scotland, UK. MARC MOENS Centre for Cognitive Science, University of Edinburgh, 2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, Scotland, UK. STEFAN MOMMA Institut fur Maschinelle Sprachverarbeitung-CI, Universitiit Stuttgart, Azenberstr. 17,7000 Stuttgart 1, Germany. PETER OVENHAUSEN Triumph-Adler, Hundingst.11 bd, 8500 Nuremberg, Germany. AGNES PLAINFOSSE Alcatel Alsthom Recherche, Route de Nozay, 91460 Marcoussis, France. MIKE REAPE Department of Computer Science, O'Reilly Institute, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Eire. HENK ZEEVAT Department of Computational Linguistics, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Spuistraat 134, 1012 VB Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Overall View of the ACORD Project Thierry Guillotin, Gabriel G. Res The Construction of Semantic Representations from F-STRUCTUREs W alter Kasper French Unification Categorial Grammars Karine Baschung, Gabriel G. Bes, Thierry Guillotin TheControl of UCG Grammars Pierre-Francois Jurie, Gabriel G. Bes Anaphora Resolution Walter Kasper, Marc Moens, Henk Zeevat Text Generation from Semantic Representation Dieter Kohl, Claire Gardent, Agnes Plainfosse, Mike Reape, Stefan Momma Graphics and Dialogue John Lee Knowledge Representation and Conceptual Inferencing Gerhard Heyer, Friedrich Dudda, Peter Ovenhausen 1 6 23 47 65 94 162 176