Parsing Natural Language using Guided Local Search

In this paper an application of guided local search (GLS) to the problem of natural language parsing is presented. The given parsing approach is situated in a constraint based parsing paradigm [10] that allows natural language processing in a robust and resource adaptive way [16]. Some extensions of GLS are introduced, most notably a multi-threaded search where a couple of agents cooperate with each other in parallel, showing synergetic effects. The resulting algorithm is compared to competing techniques within the framework of weighted constraint dependency grammars [21]. An experimental evaluation shows GLS being on par with similar approaches [7].