Taxonomy, Descriptions, and Individuals in Natural Language Understanding

KLONE i s a g e n e r a l p u r p o s e language f o r r e p r e s e n t i n g conceptual information. Several of its pr~linent features semantically clean inheritance of structured descriptions, taxonomic classification of gpneric knowledge, intensional structures for functional roles (including the possibility of multiple fillers), and procedural attachment (with automatic invocation) make it particularly useful in computer-based natural language understanding. We have implemented a prototype natural language system that uses KLONE extensively in several facets of its operation. This paper describes the system and points out some of the benefits of using KLONE for representation in natural language processing.