Word Expert Parsing

Abstract

An approach to natural language meaning-baaed parsing in which the unit of linguistic knowledge is the word rather than the rewrite rule is described. In the Word Expert Parser, knowledge about language is diatributed acroaa a povulation of procedural expert!. each representing a word of the language, and each an expert at diagnosing that word a intended usage in context. tne parser is structured around a coroutine control environment in which the generator-like word experts ask questions and exchange information in coming to collective agreement on sentence meaning. The Word Expert theory is advanced as a better cognitive model of human language expertise than the traditional rule-baaed approach. The technical discussion is organized around examples taken from the prototype LISP syatem which implements parts of the theory.