---
title: "Semantic Inference in Natural Language: Validating a Tractable Approach"
authors:
  - "Marc B. Vilain"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1995/173"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1995/0173.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1995
pages: "1346-1352"
track: "Natural Language"
keywords:
---

# Semantic Inference in Natural Language: Validating a Tractable Approach

Marc B. Vilain

*Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 1346-1352.

## Abstract

This paper is concerned with an inferential approach to information extraction, reporting in particular on the results of an empirical study that was performed to validate the approach. The study brings together two lines of research: (I) the RHO framework for tractable terminological knowledge representation, and (2) the Alembic message understanding system. There are correspondingly two principal aspects of interest to this work. From the knowledge representation perspective, the present study serves to validate experimentally a normal form hypothesis that guarantees tractability of inference in the RHO framework. From the message processing perspective, this study substantiates the utility of limited inference to information extraction.