Universität Bielefeld - Technische Fakultät

Robust Processing of Natural Language

Previous approaches to robustness in Natural Language Processing usually treat deviant input by relaxing grammatical constraints whenever a successful analysis cannot be provided by "normal" means. This schema implies, that error detection always comes prior to error handling, a behaviour which hardly can compete with its human model, where most erroneous situations are handled without even noticing them.

The paper analyses the necessary preconditions for achieving a higher level of robustness in Natural Language Processing and suggests a quite different approach based on a procedure for structural disambiguation. It not only offers the possibility to cope with robustness issues in a more natural way but eventually might be suited to accomodate quite different aspects of robust behaviour within a single framework.


Anke Bodzin, 1995-06-09