Physical object representation and generalization: a survey of programs for semantic-based natural language processing

Abstract

This article surveys a portion of the field of natural language processing. The main areas considered are those dealing with representation schemes, particularly work on physical object representation, and generalization processes driven by natural language understanding The emphasis of this article is on conceptual representation of objects based on the semantic interpretation of natural language input. Six programs serve as case studies for guiding the course of the article. Within the framework of describing each of these programs, several other programs, ideas, and theories that are relevant to the program in focus are presented. RECENT ADVANCES in natural language processing [NLP] have generated considerable interest within the Artificial Intelligence [AI] and Cognitive Science communities. Within NLP, researchers are trying to produce intelligent computer systems that can read, understand, and respond to various human-oriented texts. Terrorism stories, airline flight schedules, and how to fill ice cube trays are all domains that have been used for NLP programs. In order to understand these texts and others, some way of representing information is needed. A complete understanding of human-oriented prose requires the ability to combine the meanings of many readings in an intelligent manner. Learning through the process of generalization is one such mechanism. The integration of representation and generalization in the domain of NLP is the subject of this article. Physical object understanding is an area in which a variety of representation schemes and generalization methods have been used. In past years, researchers have devised various representation systems for objects that range from very simple