Technical reports

A mechanism for the accumulation and application of context in text processing

Hiyan Alshawi

November 1983, 17 pages

DOI: 10.48456/tr-48

Abstract

The paper describes a mechanism for the representation and application of context information for automatic natural language processing systems. Context information is gathered gradually during the reading of the text, and the mechanism gives a way of combining the effect of several different types of context factors. Context factors can be managed independently, while still allowing efficient access to entities in focus. The mechanism is claimed to be more general than the global focus mechanism used by Grosz for discourse understanding. Context affects the interpretation process by choosing the results, and restricting the processing, of a number of important language interpretation operations, including lexical disambiguation and reference resolution. The types of context factors that have been implemented in an experimental system are described, and examples of the application of context are given.

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BibTeX record

@TechReport{UCAM-CL-TR-48,
  author =	 {Alshawi, Hiyan},
  title = 	 {{A mechanism for the accumulation and application of
         	   context in text processing}},
  year = 	 1983,
  month = 	 nov,
  url = 	 {https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-48.pdf},
  institution =  {University of Cambridge, Computer Laboratory},
  doi = 	 {10.48456/tr-48},
  number = 	 {UCAM-CL-TR-48}
}