Constraints on the generation of adjunct clauses

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of a family of particular English constructions, all of which roughly express "purpose". In particular we look at the purpose clause, rationale .clause, and infinitival relative clause. We (1) show that couching the analysis in a computational framework, specifically generation, provides a more satisfying account than analyses based strictly on descriptive linguistics, (2) describe an implementation of our analysis in the natural language generation system MUMBLE-86, and (3) discuss how our architecture improves upon the techniques used by other generation systems for handling these and other adjunct constructions.