PLUTO : a preprocessor for multilingual spoken language generation

Surface realization, a subtask of natural language generation, maps a meaning representation to a natural language string. This thesis presents an architecture for a surface realization component in a spoken dialogue system. The architecture divides the surface realization task in two: (1) modification of the meaning representation to adhere to the constraints of the target language, and (2) string production. Each subtask is handled by a separate module. PLUTO is a new module, responsible for meaning representation modification, that has been added to the Spoken Language Systems group's surface realization component. PLUTO acts as a preprocessor to the main processor, GENESIS, which is responsible for string production. We show how this new, decoupled architecture is amenable to a hybrid approach to machine translation that combines transfer and interlingua. We also present a policy for generation that specifies the roles of PLUTO, GENESIS, and the lexicon they share. This policy formalizes a way of writing robust, reusable grammars. The primary contribution of this work is to simplify the development of such grammars in multilingual speech-based applications.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Cowan, Brooke A. (Brooke Alissa), 1972-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Stephanie Seneff.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/30102

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/30102