The PLUM Users Manual
W. Lehnert, Sheldon D. Rosenberg · 1987
`PLUM'' (THE PREDICTIVE LANGUAGE UNDERSTANDING MECHANISM) PROVIDES A CONTROL STRUCTURE FOR INTEGRATED LANGUAGE ANALYSIS [DYER 1983]. `PLUM'' DOES NOT MAKE SPECIFIC COMMITMENTS TO PARTICULAR LINGUISTIC THEORIES OR STRATEGIES FOR CONCEPTUAL INFORMATION PROCESSING. RATHER, THE INTENT OF `PLUM'' IS TO PROVIDE A POWERFUL FRAMEWORK THAT FACILITATES BOTH THEORETICAL EXPERIMENTATION AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. HOWEVER, NO GENERAL FRAMEWORK IS TOTALLY DEVOID OF SOME COMMITMENTS TO SPECIFIC PROCESSING STRATEGIES AND `PLUM'' IS NO EXCEPTION. `PLUM'' IS COMMITTED TO PREDICTIVE SENTENCE ANALYSIS, WHERE PRE-DEFINED FRAME STRUC- TURES ARE INSTANTIATED BY SLOT-FILLING DEMONS. `PLUM'' ALSO ASSUMES THAT THE MEMORY REPRESENTATION CREATED IN RESPONSE TO EACH SENTENCE (OR GROUP OF SENTENCES) WILL BE CONTENT ADDRESSABLE, BUT DOES NOT IMPOSE CONSTRAINTS ON WHAT SORTS OF FRAME STRUCTURES ARE TO BE USED. `PLUM'' CAN SUPPORT LEVELS OF LEXICAL ANALYSIS AND SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS, AS WELL AS ANY VARIETY OF CONCEPTUAL OR SEMANTIC ANALYSIS THAT THE SYSTEM DESIGNER FINDS USEFUL. `PLUM'' IS MOST ACCURATELY DESCRIBED AS A CONTROL STRUCTURE FOR LANGUAGE ANALYSIS. IT DOES NOT EMBODY A SPECIFIC THEORY OF NATURAL LANGUAGE COMPRE- HENSION PER SE. WHILE `PLUM'' EMPHASIZES THE USE OF FRAME-ORIENTED REPRESENTATION, ITS ARCHITECTURE DOES NOT PROHIBIT THE USE OF OTHER ANALYSIS STRATEGIES. FOR