1988 · 186 citations · 14 references
ComputingComputer ScienceLinguisticsComputational LinguisticsNatural Language ProcessingRhetoricDiscourse ComprehensionNatural Language GenerationSentence StructureText ComprehensionText GenerationText StructureAutomated Text GenerationRhetorical OrganizationRhetorical Structure AnalysisRhetorical Structure TheorySentence CombinationSentence Linking
Most text generators can string sentences together but lack the ability to order them for coherence, which requires inference patterns linked by rhetorical relations such as those defined in Rhetorical Structure Theory. The study formalizes RST relations and applies them in a prototype text planner to structure input elements into coherent paragraphs. The prototype planner employs the formalized RST relations to organize input elements into coherent paragraph structures.
Though most text generators are capable of simply stringing together more than one sentence, they cannot determine which order will ensure a coherent paragraph. A paragraph is coherent when the information in successive sentences follows some pattern of inference or of knowledge with which the hearer is familiar. To signal such inferences, speakers usually use relations that link successive sentences in fixed ways. A set of 20 relations that span most of what people usually say in English is proposed in the Rhetorical Structure Theory of Mann and Thompson. This paper describes the formalization of these relations and their use in a prototype text planner that structures input elements into coherent paragraphs.
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Computer-Based Medical Consultations: MYCIN.
Annals of Internal Medicine · 1976 · 2.5K citations
Jerry R. Hobbs · Cognitive Science · 1979 · 901 citations · Full text