Boeing’s Language Understanding Engine (BLUE) and its Performance on the Shared Task

1. Boeing’s Language Understanding Engine (BLUE)and its Performance on the Shared Task Peter Clark, Phil Harrison, (Boeing Phantom Works)

2. What does BLUE do, and how did it fare? “An object is thrown from a cliff.” object(throw01,object01), origin(throw01,cliff01).    (5.1) “I have a problem” has-part(i01,problem01). (4.1) “..training of dogs…” “of”(training01,dog1).  Predicate Argument Structure / Semantic Roles • Vocabulary of ~40 semantic relations (from UTexas) • Use small set of hand-coded SRL rules, e.g., • IF “of”(object,material) THEN material(object,material) • Occasionally will not make an assignment

3. What does BLUE do, and how did it fare?  Attachment Correctness • (or structural completeness/correctness) • Use of “world knowledge” tuples to guide parsing • Frequently right, sometimes not • Occasional loss in the final logic • (5.6) "Initially it was suspected that…” “Initially” lost • (5.4) "When the gun crew was killed they were crouching unnaturally, which suggested that they knew that an explosion would happen.“ Parse but no logic out

4. What does BLUE do, and how did it fare?  Anaphora and Reference Resolution • “an object…the object…” • Cross-POS, “falls…the fall…”, “high…the height…” • No pronoun resolution • “lacks it”→ object(lack01,it01) • Not across names “Greenslow…the farm…” • No propositional coreference • “Cancer is caused by a virus. That has been known…” • Unmentioned referent • “…a restaurant…the waiter…”      

5. What does BLUE do, and how did it fare? Saint John  Word Sense Disambiguation • Naïve translation to WordNet (but 70% ok) (3.1) "John went into a restaurant.“ isa(John01, John_n1), agent(go01,John01), destination(go01,restaurant01).

6. What does BLUE do, and how did it fare?  /  Quantification • Treated as ground facts • “every”, “some” in initial LF, but not final logic (“leftists” vs. “rightists”) (2.1) "Cervical cancer is caused by a virus." isa(cancer01,cancer_n1), isa(cervical01,cervical_a1), isa(virus01,virus_n1), causes(virus01,cancer01), mod(cancer01,cervical01).

7. What does BLUE do, and how did it fare? / Negation, Modals, Conditionals, Disjunction • Negation • Sentence polarity marked • Modals • Embedded structures • Conditionals • Disjunction  (5.2) "I am not ready yet." sentence-polarity(sentence,negative), "be"(i02,ready01). (4.5) "We would like our school to work similarly..." agent(like01,we01). object(like01,[ agent(work01,school01), manner(work01,similarly01)])   

8. What does BLUE do, and how did it fare?  (4.3) They visited places in England and France" object(visit01,place01), is-inside(place01,England01), is-inside(place01,France01). Conjunction: BLUE multiplies out coordinates  (3.4) "The atmosphere was warm and friendly" "be"(atmosphere01, warm01). "be"(atmosphere01, friendly01).

9. What does BLUE do, and how did it fare? ? Tense and Aspect • Recorded in LF, not output in final logical form (4.5) "We would like our school to work similarly to the French ones..." ;;; Intermediate logical form (LF): (DECL ((VAR _X1 "we" NIL) (VAR _X2 "our" "school")) (S (WOULD) _X1 "like" _X2 (DECL ((VAR _X3 "the" (PLUR "one") (AN "French" "one") ….

10. What does BLUE do, and how did it fare? • Collectives: use number-of-elements predicate (4.2) "seven people developed" isa(person01, person_n1), agent(develop01, person01), number-of-elements(person01,7).  ? Plurals • Recorded in LF, not output in final logical form (4.5) "We would like our school to work similarly to the French ones..." ;;; Intermediate logical form (LF): (DECL ((VAR _X1 "we" NIL) (VAR _X2 "our" "school")) (S (WOULD) _X1 "like" _X2 (DECL ((VAR _X3 "the" (PLUR "one") (AN "French" "one") ….

11. What does BLUE do, and how did it fare?  Comparison Phrases • Will do “-er” comparatives (not in shared task) • Won’t do “similarly to” "The cost was greater than ten dollars" isa(cost01,cost_n1), value(quantity01,[10,dollar_n1]), greater-than(cost01,quantity01).  (4.5) "We would like our school to work similarly to the French ones..." agent(work01,school04), manner(work01,similarly01), destination(work01,one01), 

12. What does BLUE do, and how did it fare? • But not all… (7.1) "the 1930s", (7.2) "the early 1970s", (7.4) "mid-'80s" (misparsed as an adjective), and (7.3) "the past 30 years"   Time • Tense and aspect recorded but not output • Some temporal prepositions and phrases recognized (4.4) "ensures operation until 1999" time-ends(ensure01, year1999). (5.3) "...yelled. Then the propellant exploded" next-event(yell01,explode01). (5.4) "When they were killed, they were crouching" time-at(crouch01,kill01). 

13. What does BLUE do, and how did it fare? Questions  (1.4) "What is the duration?" query-for(duration01). Measurement Expressions  (1.1) "125 m" value(height01,[125,m_n1]). • 5 types recognized • True/false, find value, find identity, find subtypes, how many

14. What does BLUE do, and how did it fare? Clarity (to a naïve reader) (3.1) "John went into a restaurant.“ isa(John01, John_n1), isa(restaurant01,restaurant_n1), isa(go01,go_v1), named(John01,["John"]), agent(go01,John01), destination(go01,restaurant01). (3.3) "The waiter took the order.“ isa(waiter01,waiter_n1), isa(order01,tell_v4), isa(take01,take_v1), agent(take01,waiter01), object(take01,order01).

15. Thank you!