The Use of Syntactic Clues in Discourse Processing

The d e s i r a b i l i t y o f a s y n t a c t i c p a r s i n g component i n n a t u r a l l a n g u a g e u n d e r s t a n d i n g s y s t e m s h a s been t h e s u b j e c t o f d e b a t e f o r t h e p a s t s e v e r a l y e a r s . T h i s p a p e r d e s c r i b e s an a p p r o a c h t o a u t o m a r i e t e x t p r o c e s s i n g which i s e n t i r e l y b a s e d on s y n t a c t i c fo rm. A p rog ram i s d e s c r i b e d which p r o c e s s e s one g e n r e of d i s c o u r s e , t h a t o f news p a p e r r e p o r t s . The p rog ram c r e a t e s summar i e s o f r e p o r t s by r e l y i n g on an expanded c o n c e p t o f t e x t g r o u n d i n g : c e r t a i n s y n t a c t i c s t r u c t u r e s and t e n s e / a s p e c t o a i r s i n d i c a t e t h e most i m p o r t a n t e v e n t s i n a news s t o r y . S u p p o r t i v e , b a c k g r o u n d m a t e r i a l i s a l s o h i g h l y coded s y n t a c t i c a l l y . C e r t a i n t y p e s o f i n f o r m a t i o n a r e r o u t i n e l y e x p r e s s e d w i t h d i s t i n c t s y n t a c t i c f o r m s . Where more t h a n one e p i s o d e o c c u r s in a s i n g l e r e p o r t , a change of e p i s o d e w i l l a l s o be marked s y n t a c t i c a l l y in a r e l i a b l e way.