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In this contribution, we deal with graph parsing, i.e., mapping input strings to graph-structured output representations, using tree approximations. We experiment with the data from the SemEval 2014 Semantic Dependency Parsing (SDP) task. We define various tree approximation schemes for graphs, and make twofold use of them. First, we statically analyze the semantic dependency graphs, seeking to unscover which linguistic phenomena in particular require the additional annotation expressivity provided by moving from trees to graphs. We focus on undirected base cycles in the SDP graphs, and discover strong connections to grammatical control and coordination. Second, we make use of the approximations in a statistical parsing scenario. In it, we convert the training set graphs to dependency trees, and use the resulting treebanks to build standard dependency tree parsers. We perform lossy graph reconstructions on parser outputs, and evaluate our models as dependency graph parsers. Our system outperforms the baselines by a large margin, and evaluates as the best non-voting tree approximation–based parser on the SemEval 2014 data, scoring at just over 81% in labeled F1.

This demonstration presents a first operable pilot of the Language Analysis Portal (LAP), an ongoing project within the Norwegian CLARINO initiative that aims at providing easy access to Language Technology (LT) tools running on a powerful High-Performance Computing (HPC) cluster. The system is built on top of the Galaxy framework, giving users an on-line platform where they can design experiments using an array of processors. These processors can be combined into complex workflows using a visual editor. The current implementation functions as a testbed for further development, hosting a limited collection of tools addressing common use-cases in the LT-realm; the long-term goal for LAP is to reach beyond the field and be an enabling platform for LT-powered research in the humanities and social sciences. Emanuele Lapponi, Erik Velldal, Nikolay A. Vazov, Stephan Oepen (2013). HPC-ready Language Analysis for Human Beings, Proceedings of the 19th Nordic Conference of Computational Linguistics (NODALIDA 2013), May 22–24, 2013, Oslo University, Norway. NEALT Proceedings Series 16 http://www.ep.liu.se/ecp_article/index.en.aspx?issue=085;article=042

This paper documents ongoing work within the Norwegian CLARINO project on building a Language Analysis Portal (LAP). The portal will provide an intuitive and easily accessible web interface to a centralized repository of a wide range of language technology tools, all installed on a high-performance computing cluster. Users will be able to compose and run workflows using an easy-to-use graphical interface, with multiple tools and resources chained together in potentially complex pipelines. Although the project aims to reach out to a diverse set of user groups, it particularly will facilitate use of language analysis in the social sciences, humanities, and other fields without strong computational traditions. While the development of the portal is still in its early stages, this paper documents ongoing work towards an already operable pilot in addition to providing an overview of long-term goals and visions. At the core of the current pilot implementation we find Galaxy, a web-based workflow management system initially developed for data-intensive research in genomics and bioinformatics; therefore, an important part of the work on the pilot is to adapt and evaluate Galaxy for the context of a language analysis portal. Emanuele Lapponi, Erik Velldal, Nikolay A. Vazov, Stephan Oepen (2013). Towards Large-Scale Language Analysis in the Cloud, Proceedings of the workshop on Nordic language research infrastructure at NODALIDA 2013, May 22-24, 2013, Oslo, Norway. NEALT Proceedings Series 20 http://www.ep.liu.se/ecp_article/index.en.aspx?issue=089;article=001

We compare three different approaches to parsing into syntactic, bi-lexical dependencies for English: a ‘direct’ data-driven dependency parser, a statistical phrase structure parser, and a hybrid, ‘deep’ grammar-driven parser. The analyses from the latter two are post-converted to bilexical dependencies. Through this ‘reduction’ of all three approaches to syntactic dependency parsers, we determine empirically what performance can be obtained for a common set of dependency types for English, across a broad variety of domains. In doing so, we observe what trade-offs apply along three dimensions, accuracy, efficiency, and resilience to domain variation. Our results suggest that the hand-built grammar in one of our parsers helps in both accuracy and cross-domain performance. Proceedings of The 13th International Conference on Parsing Technologies IWPT-2013.

The Deep Linguistic Processing with HPSG Initiative (DELH-IN) provides the infrastructure needed to produce open-source semantic transfer-based machine translation systems. We have made available a prototype Japanese-English machine translation system built from existing resources include parsers, generators, bidirectional grammars and a transfer engine.

We discuss the use of NL systems in the domain of appointment scheduling. Appointment scheduling is a problem faced daily by many people and organizations, and typically solved using communication in natural language. In general, cooperative interaction between several participants is required whose calendar data are distributed rather than centralized. In this distributed multi-agent environment, the use of NL systems makes it possible for machines and humans to cooperate in solving scheduling problems. We describe the COSMA (Cooperative Schedule Managament Agent) system, a secretarial assistant for appointment scheduling. A central part of COSMA is the reusable NL core system DISCO, which serves, in this application, as an NL interface between an appointment planning system and the human user. COSMA is fully implemented in Common Lisp and runs on Unix Workstations. Our experience with COSMA shows that it is a plausible and useful application for NL systems. However, the appointment planner was not designed for NL communication and thus makes strong assumptions about sequencing of domain actions and about the error-freeness of the communication. We suggest that further improvements of the overall COSMA functionality, especially with regard to flexibility and robustness, be based on a modified architecture.

This paper recommends an approach to the implementation of semantic representation languages (SRLs) which exploits a parallelism between SRLs and programming languages (PLs). The design requirements of SRLs for natural language are similar to those of PLs in their goals. First, in both cases we seek modules in which both the surface representation (print form) and the underlying data structures are important. This requirement highlights the need for general tools allowing the printing and reading of expressions (data structures). Second, these modules need to cooperate with foreign modules, so that the importance of interface technology (compilation) is paramount; and third, both compilers and semantic modules need "inferential" facilities for transforming (simplifying) complex expressions in order to ease subsequent processing. But the most important parallel is the need in both fields for tools which are useful in combination with a variety of concrete languages -- general purpose parsers, printers, simplifiers (transformation facilities) and compilers. This arises in PL technology from (among other things) the need for experimentation in language design, which is again parallel to the case of SRLs. Using a compiler-based approach, we have implemented NLL, a public domain software package for computational natural language semantics. Several interfaces exist both for grammar modules and for applications, using a variety of interface technologies, including especially compilation. We review here a variety of NLL, applications, focusing on COSMA, an NL interface to a distributed appointment manager.

The Deep Linguistic Processing with HPSG Initiative (DELPH-IN) provides the infrastructure needed to produce open-source semantic transfer-based machine translation systems. We have made available a prototype Japanese-English machine translation system built from existing resources include parser, generators, bidirectional grammars and a transfer engine. Accepted version

In the LOGON machine translation system where semantic transfer using Minimal Recursion Semantics is being developed in conjunction with two existing broad-coverage grammars of Norwegian and English, we motivate the use of a grammar-specific semantic interface (SEM-I) to facilitate the construction and maintenance of a scalable translation engine. The SEM-I is a theoretically grounded component of each grammar, capturing several classes of lexical regularities while also serving the crucial engineering function of supplying a reliable and complete specification of the elementary predications the grammar can realize. We make extensive use of underspecification and type hierarchies to maximize generality and precision. Accepted version

The German nominal group - even when reduced to the core inventory of nouns, determiners and attributive adjectives - is a morphologically and syntactically complex structure. In this paper it is suggested that a detailed understanding of the (morpho-) syntactic categories and the syntagmatic relations exhibited in the core nominal group is a prerequisite to an adequate analysis. It will be argued that the two fundamental syntagmatic relations holding within the nominal group, viz. GOVERNMENT and AGREEMENT, have to figure as theoretically primitive concepts in any reasonably detailed account of nominal structures. Explicating government and agreement relations and especially separating one from the other, will presuppose a sufficient inventory of formal descriptive devices in any particular theory of grammar. The paper is settled in the framework of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). Recent HPSG analyses for the German nominal group that have been put forth in [Pollard and Sag 1994] and [Netter 1994] are studied in detail contrasting them to (semi-) formal proposals from other linguistic frameworks; potential problems as weIl as some abstract joint properties of the two HPSG approaches are exemplified. Building on this comparison it is concluded that in exactly the linguistic stipulations shared by the two accounts, two important generalizations about the inherent structure 'of the German nominal group are to be found. At the same time the [Pollard and Sag 1994] analysis is tentatively reformulated.

Engineering and Applied Sciences

The LinGO Redwoods initiative is a seed activity in the design and development of a new type of treebank. While several medium- to large-scale treebanks exist for English (and for other major languages), pre-existing publicly available resources exhibit the following limitations: (i) annotation is mono-stratal, either encoding topological (phrase structure) or tectogrammatical (dependency) information, (ii) the depth of linguistic information recorded is comparatively shallow, (iii) the design and format of linguistic representation in the treebank hard-wires a small, predefined range of ways in which information can be extracted from the treebank, and (iv) representations in existing treebanks are static and over the (often year- or decade-long) evolution of a large-scale treebank tend to fall behind the development of the field. LinGO Redwoods aims at the development of a novel treebanking methodology, rich in nature and dynamic both in the ways linguistic data can be retrieved from the treebank in varying granularity and in the constant evolution and regular updating of the treebank itself. Since October 2001, the project is working to build the foundations for this new type of treebank, to develop a basic set of tools for treebank construction and maintenance, and to construct an initial set of 10,000 annotated trees to be distributed together with the tools under an open-source license., Engineering and Applied Sciences

Strong and affordable in-domain data is a desirable asset when transferring trained semantic parsers to novel domains. As previous methods for semi-automatically constructing such data cannot handle the complexity of realistic SQL queries, we propose to construct SQL queries via context-dependent sampling, and introduce the concept of topic. Along with our SQL query construction method, we propose a novel pipeline of semi-automatic Text-to-SQL dataset construction that covers the broad space of SQL queries. We show that the created dataset is comparable with expert annotation along multiple dimensions, and is capable of improving domain transfer performance for SOTA semantic parsers.

This paper shows the extent to which treebanks of Ancient Greek play a central role in the ongoing Pedalion project at the University of Leuven. Building on diverse treebanks readily available today, the project aims to make progress in the automated parsing of classical and postclassical Greek texts. Rather than developing new technology as such, our project endeavours to make deliberate and methodical use of the technology that already exists, essentially by combining and adapting both technology and data. This contribution offers a ‘roadmap’ of our project, surveying (a) the existing work on which we can rely, (b) the strategies which we adopt to reach better results in the automated processing of Ancient Greek and (c) the deliverables that have already been realised or are forthcoming. no ISSN ispartof: pages:109-117 ispartof: Proceedings of the 18th International Workshop on Treebanks and Linguistic Theories (TLT, SyntaxFest 2019) pages:109-117 ispartof: 18th International Workshop on Treebanks and Linguistic Theories (TLT, SyntaxFest 2019) location:Paris, France date:28 Aug - 29 Aug 2019 status: Published online