An Augmented State Transition Network Analysis Procedure

A s y n t a c t i c a n a l y s i s procedure is descr ibed which ob ta ins d i r e c t l y the deep s t r u c t u r e i n f o r m a t i o n assoc ia ted w i t h an inpu t sentence. The implementat i o n u t i l i z e s a s t a t e t r a n s i t i o n network c h a r a c t e r i z i n g those l i n g u i s t i c f a c t s r ep resen tab le in a contex t f r ee fo rm, and a number of techn iques to code and d e r i v e a d d i t i o n a l l i n g u i s t i c i n f o r m a t i o n and to permi t the compression of the network s i z e , thereby a l l o w i n g more e f f i c i e n t o p e r a t i o n of the system. By r e c o g n i z i n g i d e n t i c a l c o n s t i t u e n t p r e d i c t i o n s stemming from two d i f f e r e n t a n a l y s i s pa ths , the system determines the s t r u c t u r e o f t h i s c o n s t i t u e n t only once. When two a l t e r n a t i v e paths th rough the s t a t e t r a n s i t i o n network converge to a s i n g l e s t a t e at some p o i n t In the a n a l y s i s , subsequent analyses are c a r r i e d out only once d e s p i t e the e a r l i e r amb igu i t y . Use of f l a g s to ca r ry f e a t u r e concordance and p rev ious con tex t i n f o r m a t i o n a l lows merging of a number of almost i d e n t i c a l paths th rough the network.