Givenness, Implicature, and the Form of Referring Expressions

Logical Form Equivalence: the Case of Referring Expressions Generation

We examine the principle of coextensivity which underlies current algorithms for the generation of referring expressions, and investigate to what extent the principle allows these algorithms to be generalized. The discussion focusses on the generation of complex Boolean descriptions and sentence aggregation.

Recognition Of Referring Expressions

Computational models of referring such as those of Kronfeld (1990) and Heeman & Hirst (1995), being based on the view of language as goal-directed behaviour, assume that the act of referring includes making the hearer recognize the speaker's communicative goal. My present work centres on the question of how we recognize an expression as a referring expression, i.e. how do we know that the use o...

Against Structured Referring Expressions

Generating Contrastive Referring Expressions

The referring expressions (REs) produced by a natural language generation (NLG) system can be misunderstood by the hearer, even when they are semantically correct. In an interactive setting, the NLG system can try to recognize such misunderstandings and correct them. We present an algorithm for generating corrective REs that use contrastive focus (“no, the BLUE button”) to emphasize the informa...

Planning English Referring Expressions

This paper describes a theory of language generation based on planning. To illustrate the theory, the problem of planning referring expressions is examined in detail. A theory based on planning makes it possible for one to account for noun phrases that refer, that inform the hearer of additional information, and that are coordinated with the speaker's physical actions to clarify his communicati...