Dictionary-based method for coherence maintenance in man-machine dialogue with indirect antecedents and ellipses

Abstract

Resolution of referential ambiguity is one of the most challenging problems of natural language processing. Especially frequently it is faced within dialogues. We present a heuristic algorithm for detection of the indirect antecedents for dialogue phrases based on the use of a dictionary of prototypic scenarios associated with each headword as well as of a thesaurus of the standard type. The conditions for filtration of the candidates for the antecedent are presented. We also present a similar algorithm for reconstruction of elliptical phrases of a special kind using a combinatory dictionary.