Training Dependency Parser Using Light Feedback

We introduce lightly supervised learning for dependency parsing. In this paradigm, the algorithm is initiated with a parser, such as one that was built based on a very limited amount of fully annotated training data. Then, the algorithm iterates over unlabeled sentences and asks only for a single bit of feedback, rather than a full parse tree. Specifically, given an example the algorithm outputs two possible parse trees and receives only a single bit indicating which of the two alternatives has more correct edges. There is no direct information about the correctness of any edge. We show on dependency parsing tasks in 14 languages that with only 1% of fully labeled data, and light-feedback on the remaining 99% of the training data, our algorithm achieves, on average, only 5% lower performance than when training with fully annotated training set. We also evaluate the algorithm in different feedback settings and show its robustness to noise.