Applying semantic knowledge to the automatic processing of temporal expressions and events in natural language

This paper addresses the problem of the automatic recognition and classification of temporal expressions and events in human language. Efficacy in these tasks is crucial if the broader task of temporal information processing is to be successfully performed. We analyze whether the application of semantic knowledge to these tasks improves the performance of current approaches. We therefore present and evaluate a data-driven approach as part of a system: TIPSem. Our approach uses lexical semantics and semantic roles as additional information to extend classical approaches which are principally based on morphosyntax. The results obtained for English show that semantic knowledge aids in temporal expression and event recognition, achieving an error reduction of 59% and 21%, while in classification the contribution is limited. From the analysis of the results it may be concluded that the application of semantic knowledge leads to more general models and aids in the recognition of temporal entities that are ambiguous at shallower language analysis levels. We also discovered that lexical semantics and semantic roles have complementary advantages, and that it is useful to combine them. Finally, we carried out the same analysis for Spanish. The results obtained show comparable advantages. This supports the hypothesis that applying the proposed semantic knowledge may be useful for different languages.

Detecting implicit expressions of affect in text using EmotiNet and its extensions

In the past years, an important volume of research in Natural Language Processing has concentrated on the development of automatic systems to deal with affect in text. The different approaches considered dealt mostly with explicit expressions of emotion, at word level. Nevertheless, expressions of emotion are often implicit, inferrable from situations that have an affective meaning. Dealing with this phenomenon requires automatic systems to have “knowledge” on the situation, and the concepts it describes and their interaction, to be able to “judge” it, in the same manner as a person would. This necessity motivated us to develop the EmotiNet knowledge base — a resource for the detection of emotion from text based on commonsense knowledge on concepts, their interaction and their affective consequence. In this article, we briefly present the process undergone to build EmotiNet and subsequently propose methods to extend the knowledge it contains. We further on analyse the performance of implicit affect detection using this resource. We compare the results obtained with EmotiNet to the use of alternative methods for affect detection. Following the evaluations, we conclude that the structure and content of EmotiNet are appropriate to address the automatic treatment of implicitly expressed affect, that the knowledge it contains can be easily extended and that overall, methods employing EmotiNet obtain better results than traditional emotion detection approaches.

Transportation expressions.

Transportation Department, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Washington, D.C.

An approach to the compilation of array expressions in the OL/2 language.

Originally presented as the author's thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

An algorithm for evaluating array expressions in OL/2 /

"January, 1971."

Quadratic algorithms for minimizing joins in restricted relational expressions /

"October 1979."

Laws of Michigan : concerning the organization and government of townships, and the powers and duties of township officers and boards of supervisors : with numerous practical forms, and notes referring to adjudicated cases /

Mode of access: Internet.

A dictionary of English synonymes and synonymous or parallel expressions : designed as a practical guide to aptness and variety of phraseology /

Mode of access: Internet.

Nouveau dictionnaire du voyageur : françois-allemand-latin, et allemand-françois-latin : enrichi de tous les mots, et de toutes les expressions françoises, & allemandes nouvellement introduites ...

Mode of access: Internet.

Parémiologie musicale de la langue française : ou Explication des proverbes, locutions proverbiales, mots figurés, qui tirent leur origine de la musique, accompagnée de recherches sur un grand nombre d'expressions du même genre empruntées aux langues étrangères, et suivi de La Saint-Julien des ménétriers, symphonie-cantata à grand orchestre, avec solos et choeurs /

"Table alphabétique des principaux termes employés dans les proverbes musicaux, de leurs congénères, de leurs fréquentatifs et de leurs dérivés pris au propre ou au figure": p. [665]-677.