Noun Phrase Compression in Navy Messages.

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View the full text of this report Accession Number: ADA132313 Title: Noun Phrase Compression in Navy Messages. Descriptive Note: Interim rept., Corporate Author: NAVAL RESEARCH LAB WASHINGTON DC Personal Author(s): Bachenko,Joan C. Heitmeyer,Constance L. Report Date: 1983-08-31 Pagination or Media Count: 17.0 Abstract: An important goal of the Navys future message systems is to be able to interpret automatically the English narrative in Navy messages. To accomplish this, such systems must incorporate a natural language parser that determines the structure of English phrases and sentences. The parser does this by using a grammar, a set of rules that describes all acceptable patterns in the language. A central aim of our research is to develop a grammar that is oriented toward the particular style, or sublanguage, used in Navy messages. In this report, we describe a partial grammar for telegraphic constructs in the message sublanguage, i.e. constructs in which words that would normally occur are omitted when the meaning of the phrase is clear without them. Specifically, we are concerned with telegraphic noun phrases of the form Modifier Noun Modifier, where either or both of the modifiers are optional. We present a grammatical description of complex acronyms like CINCLANT Commander-in-Chief for the Atlantic, focusing on the rules that assign these expressions an internal structure. Given this description, we show that complex acronyms are hybrid expressions in that they share the properties of single words like CNO and of phrases like arrival Norfolk. Author Descriptors: *Message processing *Computational linguistics *Artificial intelligence Military applications English language Phrase structure grammars Words(Language) Structures Compression Parsers Natural language Syntax Semantics Linguistics Subject Categories: Linguistics Human Factors Engineering and Man Machine Systems Bionics Distribution Statement: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE View the full text of this report DEFENSE TECHNICAL INFORMATION CENTER 8725 John J. Kingman Road, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6218 1-800-CAL-DTIC (1-800-225-3842)

An important goal of the Navys future message systems is to be able to interpret automatically the English narrative in Navy messages. To accomplish this, such systems must incorporate a natural language parser that determines the structure of English phrases and sentences. The parser does this by using a grammar, a set of rules that describes all acceptable patterns in the language. A central aim of our research is to develop a grammar that is oriented toward the particular style, or sublanguage, used in Navy messages. In this report, we describe a partial grammar for telegraphic constructs in the message sublanguage, i.e. constructs in which words that would normally occur are omitted when the meaning of the phrase is clear without them. Specifically, we are concerned with telegraphic noun phrases of the form Modifier Noun Modifier, where either or both of the modifiers are optional. We present a grammatical description of complex acronyms like CINCLANT Commander-in-Chief for the Atlantic, focusing on the rules that assign these expressions an internal structure. Given this description, we show that complex acronyms are hybrid expressions in that they share the properties of single words like CNO and of phrases like arrival Norfolk. Author

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