Computer program learns language rules and composes sentences, all without outside help

<body leftmargin="0" bgcolor="#000060" text="#FFFFFF" link="#FFFF00" vlink="#FF9900"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%" height="1"> <tr> <center> <td valign="top" width="33%" height="33"> <b> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="5">Computer program learns language rules, creates sentences</font></p> </b> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="1">Aug. 31, 2005<br> By Susan S. Lang/Cornell University<br> and World Science staff<br> </font> <b> <font face="Arial" size="2"><br> Researchers say they have developed a system that lets a computer scan text in various languages, figure out the grammatical rules behind it, and spit out simple, but sensible sentences of its own making.  </font> </b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b> <font face="Arial" size="2"> The method also works for such data as sheet music or genetic code, the researchers said, and has implications for speech recognition and genomics.</font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Arial" size="2">It could also provide new insights into language learning, according to the scientists.</font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b> <font face="Arial" size="2">The program “can take a body of text, abstract from it a collection of recurring patterns or rules and then generate new material,” said Shimon Edelman, a computer scientist and professor of psychology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.  </font> </b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b> <font face="Arial" size="2">Edelman co-wrote a paper describing the findings in the Aug. 16 issue of the research journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.<br> <br> The system, called Automatic Distillation of Structure (ADIOS), identifies complex patterns in raw texts by repeatedly aligning sentences and looking for overlapping parts. <br> <br> For example, the sentences “I would like to book a first-class flight to Chicago,” “I want to book a first-class flight to Boston,” and “Book a first-class flight for me, please” might tip off the computer that the following is a useable string of text: “book a first-class flight.” </font> </b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Arial" size="2">The researchers said in one experiment, they “trained” the system with a group of thousands of normal sentences of this type, all relating to airline travel. As a result, the computer generated sentences including the following: “I would like to book the first class”; “ I plan to make a round trip”; “ what kind of food would be served”; and “ how many flights does Continental have.” <br> <br> Because the program can identify patterns that contain other patterns, which in turn contain still more, the computer’s knowledge grows “as a sort of forest of branching trees of possibilities,” said Edelman.</font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Arial" size="2">The researchers said they also tested the method with translations of the Bible in several languages, also with successful results.</font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"> ADIOS relies on processes believed to occur in human language learning, Edelman added. “This may eventually help researchers understand how children, who learn language in a similar item-by-item fashion and with very little supervision, eventually master the full complexities of their native tongue.”</font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Arial" size="2">In biology research, he said, the system can help scientists decipher sequences of chemical units in genetic code. If the code contains information for producing a given molecule, for instance, the system can help predict the structure and function of that molecule. </font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Arial" size="2">The system has also been tested on musical notion, added Edelman, who developed it with researchers at Cornell and at Tel Aviv University.</font></b> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Arial" size="2">* * *</font> </p> </b> <p><b><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#FFFFFF">Send us a <a href="mailto:editor@world-science.net">comment</a> on this story, or <a href="mailto:?Body=http://www.world-science.net/othernews/050831_langfrm.htm">send it to a friend</a></font></b> </p> <p>  </p> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </body>