In this paper we present SINTESI, a system for the knowledge extraction from Italian inputs, currently under development in our re,search centre. It is used on short descriptive diagnostic texts, in order to summarise their technical content and to build a knowledge base on faults. Often in these texts complex linguistic constructions like conjunctions, negations, ellipsis and anaphorae are inv...

This paper explores the usefulness of a technique from software engineering, code instrumentation, for the development of large-scale natural language grammars. Information about the usage of grammar rules in test and corpus sentences is used to improve grammar and testsuite, as well as adapting a grammar to a specific genre. Results show that less than half of a large-coverage grammar for Germ...

We present a family of priors over probabilistic grammar weights, called the shared logistic normal distribution. This family extends the partitioned logistic normal distribution, enabling factored covariance between the probabilities of different derivation events in the probabilistic grammar, providing a new way to encode prior knowledge about an unknown grammar. We describe a variational EM ...

To facilitate the development of spoken dialog systems and speech enabled applications, we introduce SGStudio (Semantic Grammar Studio), a grammar authoring tool that enables regular software developers with little speech/linguistic background to rapidly create quality semantic grammars for automatic speech recognition (ASR) and spoken language understanding (SLU). We focus on the underlying te...

SGStudio (Semantic Grammar Studio) is a grammar authoring tool that facilitates the development of spoken dialog systems and speech enabled applications. It enables regular software developers with little speech/linguistic background to rapidly create quality semantic grammars for automatic speech recognition (ASR) and spoken language understanding (SLU). This paper introduces the framework of ...

This paper presents a technique for product configuration modelling based on object-orientation and attribute grammars. The technique allows efficient interactive configurator tools to be generated for specified product families. Additional benefits include a high degree of checkability, early validation, readability, and reusability. The technique is particularly aimed at mass-customization pr...

The acquisition of grammar from a corpus is a challenging task in the preparation of a knowledge bank. In this paper, we discuss the extraction of Chinese grammar oriented to a restricted corpus. First, probabilistic context-free grammars (PCFG) are extracted automatically from the Penn Chinese Treebank and are regarded as the baseline rules. Then a corpusoriented grammar is developed by adding...

\ OX is a Natural Language Processor whose knowledge ran be extended by interaction with a user about these objects. The VOX analyzer uses information obtained in extensibility sessions to analyze novel text. 1.1 EXAMPLES VOX consists of a text analyzer and an extensibility system that share a knowledge base The extensibility system lets the user add vocabulary, concepts, phrases, events, and s...

This study aimed to investigate the relative effectiveness of consciousness-raising tasks and structure-based production tasks in comparison with the traditional teaching in learning comparative and superlative forms, following a task-based approach to teaching English grammar. To this end, from among 82 female elementary-level high school students having taken a Solutions Placement Test (2010)...

In this article we present a Spanish grammar implemented in the Linguistic Knowledge Builder system and grounded in the theoretical framework of Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar. The grammar is being developed in an international multilingual context, the DELPH-IN Initiative, contributing to an open-source repository of software and linguistic resources for various Natural Language Processi...