Discourse Processing of Dialogues with Multiple Threads

In this paper we will present our ongoing work on a plan-based discourse processor developed in the context of the Enthusiast Spanish to English translation system as part of the JANUS multi-lingual speech-to-speech translation system. We will demonstrate that theories of discourse which postulate a strict tree structure of discourse on either the intentional or attentional level are not totally adequate for handling spontaneous dialogues. We will present our extension to this approach along with its implementation in our plan-based discourse processor. We will demonstrate that the implementation of our approach outperforms an implementation based on the strict tree structure approach.

Recovering From Parser Failures: A Hybrid Statistical/Symbolic Approach

We describe an implementation of a hybrid statistical/symbolic approach to repairing parser failures in a speech-to-speech translation system. We describe a module which takes as input a fragmented parse and returns a repaired meaning representation. It negotiates with the speaker about what the complete meaning of the utterance is by generating hypotheses about how to fit the fragments of the partial parse together into a coherent meaning representation. By drawing upon both statistical and symbolic information, it constrains its repair hypotheses to those which are both likely and meaningful. Because it updates its statistical model during use, it improves its performance over time.