Centering of Attention, Pronominal Reference, and Discourse Coherence

注意力集中、代词指代和话语连贯

• 批准号: 9009018
• 负责人: Barbara Grosz
• 金额: $ 20.66万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1990
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1990-08-01 至 1994-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9009018&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Centering; Attention; Pronominal; Reference; Discourse

This work addresses fundamental problems in three facets of discourse processing, (1) the focus of attention of discourse participants, (2) the use and understanding of pronominal reference, and (3) the coherence of discourse. The research focuses on the interaction among these facets within a discourse segment. It will refine and expand current computational theories of discourse coherence and reference at this local level. The approach is interdisciplinary: it includes the development of algorithms that embody the theory and psychological investigations to determine constraints on parameters of the theory (e.g. the ordering of candidate referents for pronouns). It will empirically test the claims of the theory as a model of human language use, and will compare the performance of algorithms for handling pronouns employing the constraints of this theory with alternatives based on other theories. The results will contribute to computer science and the cognitive sciences in three major arenas: the construction of more fluent and robust natural-language processing systems; the development of more computationally sufficient psychological theories of discourse processing; and, potentially in the longer term, the design of more sophisticated computer languages (e.g. database-access languages, system-interface languages).

这项工作解决了话语处理的三个方面的基本问题：（1）话语参与者的注意力焦点，（2）代词指称的使用和理解，以及（3）话语的连贯性。 该研究的重点是话语片段中这些方面之间的相互作用。 它将完善和扩展当前本地层面的话语连贯性和参考的计算理论。 该方法是跨学科的：它包括开发体现理论和心理学研究的算法，以确定理论参数的约束（例如代词的候选所指对象的排序）。 它将通过实证检验该理论作为人类语言使用模型的主张，并将使用该理论的约束处理代词的算法与基于其他理论的替代方案的性能进行比较。 研究结果将为计算机科学和认知科学的三个主要领域做出贡献：构建更流畅、更强大的自然语言处理系统； 发展计算能力更强的话语处理心理学理论；从长远来看，可能会设计更复杂的计算机语言（例如数据库访问语言、系统界面语言）。