TY - CHAP
T1 - The inverse lambda calculus algorithm for typed first order logic lambda calculus and its application to translating english to FOL
AU - Baral, Chitta
AU - Gonzalez, Marcos Alvarez
AU - Gottesman, Aaron
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - In order to answer questions and solve problems that require deeper reasoning with respect to a given text, it is necessary to automatically translate English sentences to formulas in an appropriate knowledge representation language. This paper focuses on a method to translate sentences to First-Order Logic (FOL). Our approach is inspired by Montague's use of lambda calculus formulas to represent the meanings of words and phrases. Since our target language is FOL, the meanings of words and phrases are represented as FOL-lambda formulas. In this paper we present algorithms that allow one to construct FOL-lambda formulas in an inverse manner. Given a sentence and its meaning and knowing the meaning of several words in the sentence our algorithm can be used to obtain the meaning of the other words in that sentence. In particular the two algorithms take as input two FOL-lambda formulas G and H and compute a FOL-lambda formula F such that F with input G, denoted by F@G, is H; respectively, G@F = H. We then illustrate our algorithm and present soundness, completeness and complexity results, and briefly mention the use of our algorithm in a NL Semantics system that translates sentences from English to formulas in formal languages.
AB - In order to answer questions and solve problems that require deeper reasoning with respect to a given text, it is necessary to automatically translate English sentences to formulas in an appropriate knowledge representation language. This paper focuses on a method to translate sentences to First-Order Logic (FOL). Our approach is inspired by Montague's use of lambda calculus formulas to represent the meanings of words and phrases. Since our target language is FOL, the meanings of words and phrases are represented as FOL-lambda formulas. In this paper we present algorithms that allow one to construct FOL-lambda formulas in an inverse manner. Given a sentence and its meaning and knowing the meaning of several words in the sentence our algorithm can be used to obtain the meaning of the other words in that sentence. In particular the two algorithms take as input two FOL-lambda formulas G and H and compute a FOL-lambda formula F such that F with input G, denoted by F@G, is H; respectively, G@F = H. We then illustrate our algorithm and present soundness, completeness and complexity results, and briefly mention the use of our algorithm in a NL Semantics system that translates sentences from English to formulas in formal languages.
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U2 - 10.1007/978-3-642-30743-0_4
DO - 10.1007/978-3-642-30743-0_4
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:84864203898
SN - 9783642307423
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 40
EP - 56
BT - Correct Reasoning
A2 - Esra, Erdem
A2 - Joohyung, Lee
A2 - Yuliya, Lierler
A2 - David, Pearce
ER -