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Language Processing--Sentence Parsing Example
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 he sentence
to be parsed is: "Jimbo saw Ahab in the park with a telescope." This
complex sentence will produce the following possible sentence diagrams. Try to guess
what the parsing would mean to a computer and then read the explanation on the
right. Use the key to understand what the abbreviations mean. |
Abbreviations To Parsed
Parts |
S=sentence
NP=noun phrase
VP=verb phrase
PP=prepositional phrase |
N=noun
V=verb
P=preposition
D=determiner |
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| Possibility #1 |
Diagram |
Explanation |
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The situation this sentence is conveying when parsed in this way is that
Jimbo used a telescope to see Ahab in the park. |
| Possibility #2 |
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The second diagram states that Jimbo saw Ahab... and that's
all one knows about him. Ahab, on the other hand, apparently was in the park holding
a telescope. |
| Possibility #3 |
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This diagram depicts Jimbo was in the park and
used the telescope to see Ahab. |
| Possibility #4 |
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The diagram meant that while Jimbo was in the park, he used the telescope
to see Ahab. |
| Possibility #5 |
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Again, here, Jimbo used the telescope to see Ahab who was at the park. |
This example of ambiguity shows how difficult it is for a computer to understand what a
sentence means--some ways to interpret the sentence produce similar meanings while other
ways produce totally different pictures of the situation. People in
everyday language often use ambiguous sentences like the one above, but the meaning is
usually derived from intuition which includes past knowledge from the same conversation or
from an old one. A simple dialogue illustrates this point rather well:
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"Where is it?"
"What?"
"You know."
"Where do you think it is?"
"Oh." |
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What "it" is and its location is never expressed, but the two people involved
in this conversation knows both facts because they share a common past knowledge on the
topic, i.e. implied knowledge. Though everyday conversation is not
as intimate most of the time, there is a certain amount of shared knowledge that is not
expressed as well. This type of language often occurs as idioms whose literal
meaning sometimes don't have anything to do with its deeper, relevant meaning. Why
does a house "burns down" while paper "burns up?" That is why
foreigners just learning English, for example, often become confused in the way
native-speakers express themselves. |
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