I found the two examples they provided in the article slightly humorous.. Turning a sentence into a syntactical tree indicates it's form and interrelation between words. They are trying to show that "Please arrange for a meeting with John at 11 o'clock" evaluates equivalently to "Make an appointment with John at 11". However, there are ambiguities in the human language, that require humans to request clarification from each other. This simple statement is rather ambiguous: Make an appointment at 11:00. It could mean: (Make) (an appointment at 11:00). or (Make at 11:00) (an appointment). What is at 11:00? The appointment, or the time I make it? I personally think how they determine the 'correct' syntactic structure is as challenging, if not more so, problem than is the problem of proving two syntactic structures equivalent to each other. We humans learn it through years of experience, and it's not something that can be picked up in a book or is defined easily by rules. Just my $.02, Mike On Thu, 12 Apr 2001, Elaine -HFB- Ashton wrote: > I thought this looked interesting. > > e. > > ----- Forwarded message from Technology Review Events > > *>Wednesday, April 25th > *>7:30am - 9:30am > *> > *>Bellevue Club Hotel, Bellevue, WA > *>11200 SE 6th Street > *>Bellevue, WA 98004 > *>Olympic Suite, First Floor > *>425.455.1616 > *> > *>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > *> > *>Join Bill Dolan, Manager, Natural Language Processing Group, Microsoft > *>Research for a discussion of natural language processing (NLP). NLP > *>technology is creating a world where humans will truly interact with > *>their computers, using speech-enabled "intelligent environments" to > *>engage computers in extended conversation. > *> > *>Mr. Dolan's group was featured in Technology Review's "TR10" article > *>showcasing "Ten Technologies That Will Change the World" (Jan/Feb > *>2001). Currently, his group is developing MindNet, a lexical > *>knowledge base that uses automatic parsing technology to "understand" > *>our natural language. > *> > *>The potential of this technology is enormous, and anyone associated > *>with software or hardware development will benefit from attending the > *>event. > *> > *>Event Sponsored by EDS > *>( http://www.eds.com ). > *> > *>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > *> > *>Registration fee: > *>$50 (including breakfast) > *>$40 for MIT alumnus/a > *>To register please visit: > *>http://events.technologyreview.com/cgi-bin9/flo?y=eGHK0BqQIb0B7Q0egq0At > *>or call 617.252.1187. > *> > *> > *> > *>----------------------------------------------- > *> > *>Technology Review respects the privacy of its readers. > *>If you wish to be removed from the Technology Review Events mailing > *>list, please click on this link: > *>mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > *>and type your email address [[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > *>in the subject line. We will promptly remove your email > *>address from further transmissions of event notifications. > *> > *> > *> > *> > > ----- End forwarded message ----- >
