LINGUIST List 9.1387

Tue Oct 6 1998

FYI: Ergo's NLP, Conference address

Editor for this issue: Brett Churchill <brettlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D., Ergo's NLP in Boston
2. Dr. Ana Roca, Web address for XVII SPANISH IN THE UNITED STATES CONFERENCE

In conjunction with a trade show/conference I am going to
be in Boston during the first week of November and would
like to know if there are any classes or student seminars or
something of the sort which would be interested in seeing a
demonstration of Ergo's NLP tools and in hearing a lecture
about them. Those in the area at that time who are familiar
with our NLP that have not had an opportunity to see or try
them can do so at that time. Reply to me privately for 
details. 

The lecture is called "The Best Theory of Syntax" and it
presents the argument that: Since all theoretical mechanisms
ever proposed for any theory of syntax can be implemented in
a programming language, a computer can be used as physical
evidence of the viability of a particular theory. That is,
whichever theory can be most completely implemented in a
programming language should be judged to be the best
theory of syntax. The demonstration of the Ergo NLP tools
is part of this lecture. 

As part of this lecture/demonstration, I will demonstrate
software that: 1) generates Penn Treebank style labelled
brackets (the standard for the industry) and equivalent tree
structures, 2) does navigation and control of computers and
software using full sentences rather than a few short phrases,
3) can provide first order predicate calculus descriptions
of input strings, 4) can do syllogistic reasoning, and 5) can
be used as a multi-purpose engine in a variety of Natural
Language tools. Finally and most importantly, it will
demonstrate a q&a ability that is sufficiently sophisticated
to allow search engines such as Yahoo to return one sole
response to a question like "Who was the third President of
the United States?" rather than 3,786,903 [_Excite_,October
4, 1998]. 

It is important to note many of these NLP tools are only
available through our company and that those that are
made elsewhere are usually done far better by us. 

While all this is well-known to the linguistics and NLP
communities via protracted and sometimes heated discussions
on this newslist (January of 97 and January of 98) and the
several thousand visitors we have had to our web site (which
is only advertised to linguists and NLP professionals) I
believe it would be of value to students and professionals
alike to meet and interact over this lecture and these
demonstrations. 

Please respond privately if you are aware of a lecture group
or class that I could address in the Boston area during that
first week of November. If such an arrangement can be made,
it can be announced according to your standard procedures
afterward.

Phil Bralich



Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.
President and CEO
Ergo Linguistic Technologies
2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175
Honolulu, HI 96822

Tel: (808)539-3920
Fax: (808)539-3924
bralichhawaii.edu
http://www.ergo-ling.com

Reminder: Deadline for Call for Papers for the Spanish in the United
States Conference, is October 19, 1998. 

We have recently created a web page which contains the Call for Papers
and which will later on include hotel information as well as the
preliminary program and information about Miami, Coral Gables and
Florida International University.

Please visit our website:
http://www.fiu.edu/orgs/modlang/spanishusa.htm

or contact:

Dr. Ana Roca at:
rocaafiu.edu