Computational Structure of Human Language

The central thesis of this report is that human language is NP-complete. That is, the process of comprehending and producing utterances is bounded above by the class NP, and below by NP-hardness. This constructive complexity thesis has two empirical consequences. The first is to predict that a linguistic theory outside NP is unnaturally powerful. The second is to predict that a linguistic theory easier than NP-hard is descriptively inadequate. To prove the lower bound, I show that the following three subproblems of language comprehension are all NP-hard: decide whether a given sound is possible sound of a given language; disambiguate a sequence of words; and compute the antecedents of pronouns. The proofs are based directly on the empirical facts of the language user's knowledge, under an appropriate idealization. Therefore, they are invariant across linguistic theories. (For this reason, no knowledge of linguistic theory is needed to understand the proofs, only knowledge of English.) To illustrate the usefulness of the upper bound, I show that two widely-accepted analyses of the language user's knowledge (of syntactic ellipsis and phonological dependencies) lead to complexity outside of NP (PSPACE-hard and Undecidable, respectively). Next, guided by the complexity proofs, I construct alternate linguisitic analyses that are strictly superior on descriptive grounds, as well as being less complex computationally (in NP). The report also presents a new framework for linguistic theorizing, that resolves important puzzles in generative linguistics, and guides the mathematical investigation of human language.

Procedures as a Representation for Data in a Computer Program for Understanding Natural Language

This paper describes a system for the computer understanding of English. The system answers questions, executes commands, and accepts information in normal English dialog. It uses semantic information and context to understand discourse and to disambiguate sentences. It combines a complete syntactic analysis of each sentence with a "heuristic understander" which uses different kinds of information about a sentence, other parts of the discourse, and general information about the world in deciding what the sentence means. It is based on the belief that a computer cannot deal reasonably with language unless it can "understand" the subject it is discussing. The program is given a detailed model of the knowledge needed by a simple robot having only a hand and an eye. We can give it instructions to manipulate toy objects, interrogate it about the scene, and give it information it will use in deduction. In addition to knowing the properties of toy objects, the program has a simple model of its own mentality. It can remember and discuss its plans and actions as well as carry them out. It enters into a dialog with a person, responding to English sentences with actions and English replies, and asking for clarification when its heuristic programs cannot understand a sentence through use of context and physical knowledge.

A DHT-Based Grid Resource Indexing and Discovery Scheme

This paper presents a DHT-based grid resource indexing and discovery (DGRID) approach. With DGRID, resource-information data is stored on its own administrative domain and each domain, represented by an index server, is virtualized to several nodes (virtual servers) subjected to the number of resource types it has. Then, all nodes are arranged as a structured overlay network or distributed hash table (DHT). Comparing to existing grid resource indexing and discovery schemes, the benefits of DGRID include improving the security of domains, increasing the availability of data, and eliminating stale data.

Supporting graduate development through work based learning

The genesis of this innovation lies in the commitment of a national Irish business enterprise to the professional development of its staff in general, and to the enhancement of its Information Technologies (IT) staff specifically, in collaboration with a national Higher Education (HE) provider. A postgraduate degree, awarded by the HE provider, seeks to bring coherence and cohesion to the education and training provision for newly recruited IT graduate staff of the business enterprise, simultaneously acting both as an induction process for new staff and as a professional capacity building exercise, thereby enhancing the enterprise’s organisational learning and collective competence in the areas of information technologies, IT security and technical service management. The curriculum was designed by the HE provider in collaboration with the business enterprise to offer it to circa sixteen IT staff per cycle of delivery through a model known generally as the new apprenticeship for professional practice which uses a combination of college-based, block release taught elements, regular day release seminars and substantial work-based learning, supported by the academic staff of the HE provider and work-based support staff/mentors of the business enterprise. Academic quality assurance, pedagogical, assessment and accreditation responsibilities remain with the HE provider. (...)

Evaluating the probability and the impact of a failure in GMPLS based networks

In this paper, we define a new scheme to develop and evaluate protection strategies for building reliable GMPLS networks. This is based on what we have called the network protection degree (NPD). The NPD consists of an a priori evaluation, the failure sensibility degree (FSD), which provides the failure probability, and an a posteriori evaluation, the failure impact degree (FID), which determines the impact on the network in case of failure, in terms of packet loss and recovery time. Having mathematical formulated these components, experimental results demonstrate the benefits of the utilization of the NPD, when used to enhance some current QoS routing algorithms in order to offer a certain degree of protection

A Self-Scoring Exercise On APA Style, Research Language, and Referencing for Undergraduate Students

Based on examples provided by 27 graduate psychology faculty, this self-test incorporates many of the more common errors in style, language, and referencing found in student papers. Taking this self-test helps students to recognize common errors and encourages them to refer the APA Publication Manual on a regular basis. In addition, students begin to think about how to use correctly the language of psychological research. This self-test should take about 30 minutes to complete and score. It is composed of three parts: a) a mock Discussion section, where students are asked to act as editors and find the errors, p. 2 (10 minutes). b) a corrected Discussion section, where students find the errors they missed, p. 3 (5 minutes) and, c) a full description of each error with illustrations of correct usage, pp. 4-7 (15 minutes). This exercise assumes some knowledge of APA style. Thus, it is best-suited for advanced undergraduates who need to write research reports and all levels of graduate students. It may be taken at home or in class. Although the self-test is designed to be fully self-directed, instructors may wish to use it at the beginning or end of a classroom discussion on APA style. It could also be used in a pre-test-post-test fashion to evaluate students learning over the course of a term.

WAIS Seminar:Modelling the Web: Examples of modelling language, network evolution and physical-social systems

Speaker(s): Prof. Steffen Staab Organiser: Dr Tim Chown Time: 23/05/2014 10:30-11:30 Location: B53/4025 Abstract The Web is constructed based on our experiences in a multitude of modalities: text, networks, images, physical locations are some examples. Understanding the Web requires from us that we can model these modalities as they appear on the Web. In this talk I will show some examples of how we model text, hyperlink networks and physical-social systems in order to improve our understanding and our use of the Web.

Experiences, sensations and demands of citizen (in)security: recent complex configurations in Argentina

Over the last decades the issue of insecurity due to an increase in crime rates and its possible impact on the stability of Latin American democracies has sparked an ongoing debate. In this context, the present article studies, for the case of Argentina, how experiences and sensations of insecurity may be articulated to demands for greater punitive rigor. The analysis is based on two types of information. Initially, data from international surveys such as Latinoabarometer are considered. Then, these are compared to data from prolonged on-site observations in a poor neighborhood of a mid-sized Argentine city. The combination of these different types of data shows the complexity of the process. Contrary to what is often assumed, experiences and sensations of insecurity do not lineally lead to demands for greater punitive rigor. The way in which social actors elaborate their experiences of insecurity is highly situational and not systematic. We have found that there is not necessarily a consistent process of ‘meaning construction’ that articulates experiences and sensations of insecurity with political demands.

Integration of knowledge-based, qualitative and numeric tools for real time dynamic systems supervision

The proposal presented in this thesis is to provide designers of knowledge based supervisory systems of dynamic systems with a framework to facilitate their tasks avoiding interface problems among tools, data flow and management. The approach is thought to be useful to both control and process engineers in assisting their tasks. The use of AI technologies to diagnose and perform control loops and, of course, assist process supervisory tasks such as fault detection and diagnose, are in the scope of this work. Special effort has been put in integration of tools for assisting expert supervisory systems design. With this aim the experience of Computer Aided Control Systems Design (CACSD) frameworks have been analysed and used to design a Computer Aided Supervisory Systems (CASSD) framework. In this sense, some basic facilities are required to be available in this proposed framework: ·

Postcolonial language : rejection and subversion

Postcolonial literature is often depicted as a form of cultural translation, a privileged space from which to rewrite history and retroactively reflect upon the colonial experience. Based on this notion of cultural translation, the article seeks to examine, respectively, Aimé Césaire’s Une Tempête (1969) and J. M. Coetzee’s Foe (1986) as regards the “written-back” characters Caliban and Friday. Both characters will be compared and contrasted concerning their peculiar use of language as an instrument of power, subversion, and rejection of the European ruling.

The sight of silence : the conceptualisation of silence in the visual cultures of sign language communities

Deaf people are perceived by hearing people as living in a silent world. Yet, silence cannot exist without sound, so if sound is not heard, can there be silence? From a linguistic point of view silence is the absence of, or intermission in, communication. Silence can be communicative or noncommunicative. Thus, silence must exist in sign languages as well. Sign languages are based on visual perception and production through movement and sight. Silence must, therefore, be visually perceptible; and, if there is such a thing as visual silence, how does it look? The paper will analyse the topic of silence from a Deaf perspective. The main aspects to be explored are the perception and evaluation of acoustic noise and silence by Deaf people; the conceptualisation of silence in visual languages, such as sign languages; the qualities of visual silence; the meaning of silence as absence of communication (particularly between hearing and Deaf people); social rules for silence; and silencing strategies.

Teaching language (at the primary level) through theme-base units

This paper is a collection of four theme-based units to be used to teach beginning science and social studies concepts.

Primary level curriculum units based on the Simple Sentence TAGS

This paper presents four teaching curriculum units for primary level students based on Simple and Complex TAGS (Teacher Assessment of Grammatical Structures), teaching vocabulary and language structure.

Teaching written language to students who are deaf or hard of hearing

This Independent Study looked into the effectiveness of the Interactive Writing program in teaching writing to students who are deaf or hard of hearing. The students' writing was assessed based on writing samples and teacher observations.

The European Union-an expanding security community? EU Diplomacy Paper 06/2012, August 2012

This paper investigates why and how the geographical scope of the security community centered around the European Union (EU) is expanding. It starts from the assumption that the EU itself is a ‘tightly-coupled mature pluralistic security community’. The analysis of the expansion of this peaceful area is based on the theoretical framework first designed by Karl Deutsch and later developed by Emmanuel Adler and Michael Barnett. Contrary to the logic of the adage ‘si vis pacem para bellum’, I argue that the security community is expanding because the EU’s own origins and self-perception are driven by an ambition to create lasting peace. The key mechanisms I explore are the EU’s enlargement and neighborhood policies, which are best understood when analyzed against the concept of concentric circles: the regional EU-centered security community is a multi-speed security community, stronger at its core and weaker as it spreads towards its margins.