Ap: A System to Direct and Control Natural Language Generation
Penelope Sibun · 1987
A KEY AREA IN CURRENT RESEARCH IN NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING IS THE PRODUCTION OF LANGUAGE FOR A PURPOSE AND IN A CONTEXT. THIS REQUIRES A SYSTEM CAPABLE OF MORE THAN THE GENERATION OF ISOLATED SENTENCES. THE SYSTEM MUST MEDIATE BETWEEN A KNOWLEDGE SOURCE---WHICH HAS SOMETHING TO SAY, AND A LINGUISTIC COMPONENT---WHICH HAS THE MECHANISMS FOR SAYING IT. APT IS ONE SUCH SYSTEM, WHICH DIRECTS THE CONSTRUCTION OF A DESCRIPTION FROM A KNOWLEDGE BASE OF APARTMENT LAYOUTS, AND CONTROLS THE DESCRIPTION''S EXPRESSION BY A LINGUISTIC COMPONENT. THIS PAPER FIRST DISCUSSES THE DOMAIN OF APARTMENT LAYOUTS, THEN THE STRUCTURE OF NOUMENA, THE UNDERLYING KNOWLEDGE BASE, AND THE NATURE OF APT''S INTERFACE TO BOTH NOUMENA AND THE NATURAL LANGUAGE GENERATOR MUMBLE. NEXT, SOME OF THE GOALS OF APT ITSELF, AND WORK BEING DONE TO MEET THEM, ARE EXPLORED. FINALLY, FURTHER THEORETI- CAL ISSUES, INCLUDING LEXICAL SELECTION AND THE REPRESENTATION OF DEICTIC INFORMATION, ARE TOUCHED UPON.