LINGUIST List 13.2681

Thu Oct 17 2002

Books: Computational Linguistics: Androutsopoulos

Editor for this issue: Marisa Ferrara <marisalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. paul, Exploring Time, Tense and Aspect...Androutsopoulos

			
Title: Exploring Time, Tense and Aspect in Natural Language Database
 Interfaces
Series Title: Natural Language Processing
			
Publication Year: 2002
Publisher: John Benjamins 
 http://www.benjamins.com/
 
Author: Ion Androutsopoulos 

Hardback: ISBN: 9027249903, Pages: x, 307 pp., Price: EUR 116.00
Hardback: ISBN: 1588112691, Pages: x, 307 pp., Price: USD 104.00
			
Abstract:

Advances in temporal databases make it increasingly easier to store
time-dependent information, creating a need for facilities that will
help end-users access this information. In the context of natural
language interaction, significant effort has been devoted to
interfaces that allow database queries to be formulated in natural
language. Most of the existing interfaces, however, do not support
adequately the notion of time. Drawing upon tense and aspect theories,
temporal logics, and temporal databases, this cross-discipline book
examines relevant issues from the three areas, developing a unified
theoretical framework that can be used to build natural language
interfaces to temporal databases. The framework features an HPSG
mapping from English to a formally defined meaning representation
language, and a corresponding mapping to a temporal extension of the
SQL database language. The book is accompanied by a freely available
prototype interface, built according to the framework, and implemented
using Prolog and ALE. This is the first in-depth exploration of the
notion of time in natural language database interfaces. It will be
particularly interesting to researchers working on natural language
interaction, tense and aspect, HPSG, temporal logics, and temporal
databases, especially those who wish to learn about time-related
issues in other disciplines.


Table of Contents

1. Introduction 1 
2. Linguistic data and an informal account 19 
3. The TOP meaning representation language 71 
4. From English to TOP 109 
5. From TOP to TSQL2 183 
6. The prototype NLITDB 239 
7. Related work and directions for further research 267 
References 283 
Index 293 
Appendix A: TOP to TSQL2 translation rules 299

Lingfield(s): Computational Linguistics

Written In: English (Language Code: ENG)