隐喻理解的计算模型综述

国际上,隐喻在思维及语言中所处的中心地位正逐渐引起人工智能研究者的重视。但在国内学术界,还鲜有开展隐喻计算化这方面研究的;实际上,作为异常用法的隐喻现象是自然语言中的普遍情况,因此隐喻问题若得不到很好的解决,将成为制约自然语言理解和机器翻译的瓶颈问题。本文结合相关的隐喻理论基础,根据不同的计算路线对已有隐喻理解计算模型进行分类,包括基于语义优先方法、基于知识表示的方法、基于逻辑的方法和基于统计语料库的方法,并在分析这些方法的适用范围和优缺点的基础上,对隐喻的计算理解方法以及面向汉语的隐喻理解计算模型研究提出了展望和建议。     

An Ontology-Based Approach to Metaphor Cognitive Computation

Language understanding is one of the most important characteristics for human beings. As a pervasive phenomenon in natural language, metaphor is not only an essential thinking approach, but also an ingredient in human conceptual system. Many of our ways of thinking and experiences are virtually represented metaphorically. With the development of the cognitive research on metaphor, it is urgent to formulate a computational model for metaphor understanding based on the cognitive mechanism, especially with the view to promoting natural language understanding. Many works have been done in pragmatics and cognitive linguistics, especially the discussions on metaphor understanding process in pragmatics and metaphor mapping representation in cognitive linguistics. In this paper, a theoretical framework for metaphor understanding based on the embodied mechanism of concept inquiry is proposed. Based on this framework, ontology is introduced as the knowledge representation method in metaphor understanding, and metaphor mapping is formulated as ontology mapping. In line with the conceptual blending theory, a revised conceptual blending framework is presented by adding a lexical ontology and context as the fifth mental space, and a metaphor mapping algorithm is proposed.     

汉语隐喻理解的逻辑描述初探

隐喻在语篇中出现非常普遍,是语言认知和计算机语篇理解中重要的一环。但无论是其逻辑基础或实验系统的探索都处于初级阶段。本文从逻辑角度给出了隐喻逻辑的定义、建构和性质。同时,针对汉语文本中名词性隐喻、动词性隐喻等类型,细化了隐喻逻辑的规则,并利用细化后的规则,分析了隐喻句中隐含信息的发掘方法,为隐喻的计算提供了新的解决方案。分析的结果表明,本文所提出的隐喻逻辑对汉语隐喻意义的生成有很好的解释能力,为后续隐喻句的计算机处理提供了理论基础。     

CONCEPTUAL SCAFFOLDING: A SPATIALLY FOUNDED MEANING REPRESENTATION FOR METAPHOR COMPREHENSION

Once viewed as a rhetorical and superficial language phenomenon, metaphor is now recognized to serve a fundamental role in our conceptual structuring and language comprehension processes. In particular, it is argued that certain experiential metaphors based upon intuitions of spatial relations are inherent in the conceptual organization of our most abstract thoughts. In this paper we present a two-stage computational model of metaphor interpretation which employs a spatially founded semantics to broadly characterize the meaning carried by a metaphor in terms of a conceptual scaffolding , an interim meaning structure around which a fuller interpretation is fleshed out over time. We then present a semantics for the construction of conceptual scaffolding which is based upon core metaphors of collocation, containment and orientation. The goal of this scaffolding is to maintain the intended association of ideas even in contexts in which system knowledge is insufficient for a complete interpretation. This two-stage system of scaffolding and elaboration also models the common time lapse between initial metaphor comprehension and full metaphor appreciation. Several mechanisms for deriving elaborative inference from scaffolding structures, particularly in cases of novel or creative metaphor, are also presented. While the system developed in this paper has significant practical application, it also demonstrates that core spatial metaphors clearly play a central role in metaphor comprehension.     

METAPHORIC COHERENCE: DISTINGUISHING VERBAL METAPHOR FROM "ANOMALY"

Theories and computational models of metaphor comprehension generally circumvent the question of metaphor versus "anomaly" in favor of a treatment of metaphor versus literal language. Making the distinction between metaphoric and "anomalous" expressions is subject to wide variation in judgment, yet humans agree that some potentially metaphoric expressions are much more comprehensible than others. In the context of a program which interprets simple isolated sentences that are potential instances of cross-modal and other verbal metaphor, I consider some possible coherence criteria which must be satisfied for an expression to be "conceivable" metaphorically. Metaphoric constraints on object nominals are represented as abstracted or extended along with the invariant structural components of the verb meaning in a metaphor. This approach distinguishes what is preserved in metaphoric extension from that which is "violated", thus referring to both "similarity" and "dissimilarity" views of metaphor. The role and potential limits of represented abstracted properties and constraints is discussed as they relate to the recognition of incoherent semantic combinations and the rejection or adjustment of metaphoric interpretations.     

基于聋人案例的空间隐喻语义认知计算

我们从心理语言学的角度,对空间隐喻进行相似性分类和计算,使用多维量表和聚类方法,以聋人为被试分别进行了两个实验。实验结果表明,聋人为实现空间隐喻理解的计算,使用了地形空间和语法空间的特征信息,同时受手语语言特点的影响,其空间隐喻的认知主题包括手势者自身参照系、参照物的相对坐标系、手势空间的饱和度、以手部或胸部为边界。同时表明由于两种空间的存在,聋人大脑对空间隐喻的理解存在着层次,并且在长期使用手语交流的过程中,其地形空间和语法空间相互作用,影响了聋人大脑空间隐喻的结构和表征,从而导致了独特的高效快速空间隐喻计算。
     

Agent Programming in 3APL

An intriguing and relatively new metaphor in the programming community is that of an intelligent agent. The idea is to view programs as intelligent agents acting on our behalf. By using the metaphor of intelligent agents the programmer views programs as entities which have a mental state consisting of beliefs and goals. The computational behaviour of an agent is explained in terms of the decisions the agent makes on the basis of its mental state. It is assumed that this way of looking at programs may enhance the design and development of complex computational systems.To support this new style of programming, we propose the agent programming language 3APL. 3APL has a clear and formally defined semantics. The operational semantics of the language is defined by means of transition systems. 3APL is a combination of imperative and logic programming. From imperative programming the language inherits the full range of regular programming constructs, including recursive procedures, and a notion of state-based computation. States of agents, however, are belief or knowledge bases, which are different from the usual variable assignments of imperative programming. From logic programming, the language inherits the proof as computation model as a basic means of computation for querying the belief base of an agent. These features are well-understood and provide a solid basis for a structured agent programming language. Moreover, on top of that 3APL agents use so-called practical reasoning rules which extend the familiar recursive rules of imperative programming in several ways. Practical reasoning rules can be used to monitor and revise the goals of an agent, and provide an agent with reflective capabilities.Applying the metaphor of intelligent agents means taking a design stance. From this perspective, a program is taken as an entity with a mental state, which acts pro-actively and reactively, and has reflective capabilities. We illustrate how the metaphor of intelligent agents is supported by the programming language. We also discuss the design of control structures for rule-based agent languages. A control structure provides a solution to the problem of which goals and which rules an agent should select. We provide a concrete and intuitive ordering on the practical reasoning rules on which such a selection mechanism can be based. The ordering is based on the metaphor of intelligent agents. Furthermore, we provide a language with a formal semantics for programming control structures. The main idea is not to integrate this language into the agent language itself, but to provide the facilities for programming control structures at a meta level. The operational semantics is accordingly specified at the meta level, by means of a meta transition system.     

隐喻的计算研究与进展

隐喻作为自然语言处理最棘手的问题之一逐渐引起了学者们的关注,国外学者在隐喻模型设计和隐喻知识库建设方面进行了很多尝试,也取得了一定效果。相比较而言,中文隐喻计算研究却显得有些薄弱,因此本文在传统隐喻研究的基础上综述了隐喻计算模型和隐喻知识库建设方面的进展,重点介绍了基于优选限制思想的Met5系统,基于实例方法的MIDAS系统,以及以统计为手段,基于大规模语料库提取的隐喻分析模型CorMet系统。通过总结国外的相关研究成果,探索面向信息处理的汉语隐喻形式化的研究方向。     

隐喻自动处理研究进展

隐喻在人类语言中普遍存在,是自然语言理解必须面对的问题。该文首先探讨了对隐喻的认识及语言中隐喻表达的分类。把隐喻自动处理分为隐喻识别、隐喻理解和隐喻生成三个子任务,对以往的研究成果进行梳理,着重介绍近几年来隐喻自动处理研究的新成果、新特点。隐喻自动处理离不开隐喻知识库的支持,文章也介绍了国内外隐喻知识库建设的主要成果。隐喻自动处理的目的是为了提高自然语言处理的智能化水平,文章探讨了隐喻处理在自然语言处理任务中的应用。最后展望了汉语隐喻自动处理研究的前景。     

一种基于聚类与分类结合的汉语隐喻短语识别方法

隐喻识别是自然语言处理的一个重要研究分支。目前人们越来越清楚地认识到隐喻在思维及语言中所处的重要地位。本研究在前人工作的实验和考察基础上,发现基于分类器来识别隐喻的方法存在数据稀疏的问题,即当训练语料中缺少需要识别的源域词数据时,分类的结果将不会太好。应对数据稀疏问题,该文提出了一种基于聚类与分类结合的隐喻短语获取方法。该方法将包含源域词S的短语进行聚类。将聚类的结果作为分类的一类特征。实验表明,使用聚类产生的特征训练出来的分类器,不仅能很好地识别训练语料中存在源域词数据的情况,也能很好地识别训练语料中缺少源域词数据的情况,具有很高的召回率。     

基于词典的名词性隐喻识别

隐喻是用一个事物来类比另外一个事物的语言表达,在自然语言中非常普遍,要实现自然语言理解隐喻处理不可避免。该文针对最基本的隐喻类型——名词性隐喻,提出基于词典的识别方法。结合同义词词林的语义距离与HowNet的语义关系来识别隐喻,考察隐喻与语义距离及语义关系之间的关联。     

Abstraction as a basis for the computational interpretation of creative cross-modal metaphor

Various approaches to computational metaphor interpretation are based on pre-existing similarities between source and target domains and/or are based on metaphors already observed to be prevalent in the language. This paper addresses similarity-creating cross-modal metaphoric expressions. It is shown how the “abstract concept as object” (or reification) metaphor plays a central role in a large class of metaphoric extensions. The described approach depends on the imposition of abstract ontological components, which represent source concepts, onto target concepts. The challenge of such a system is to represent both denotative and connotative components which are extensible, together with a framework of general domains between which such extensions can conceivably occur. An existing ontology of this kind, consistent with some mathematic concepts and widely held linguistic notions, is outlined. It is suggested that the use of such an abstract representation system is well adapted to the interpretation of both conventional and unconventional metaphor that is similarity-creating.     

From metaphors to microworlds. The challenge of creating educational software

Every time we use a computer we are working with metaphors. In some cases the metaphor is obvious, and in others not. This aspect of the computer is what makes it so useful. User interface metaphors like desktops, menus and windows can make computing appear more like the “real” activities in which we take part. In the realm of educational software, the task of programming boils down to the creation of a metaphorical microworld in which the user can interact with tasks and simulations that are designed to aid the acquisition and development of knowledge.Programming is hard no matter which language is used. The reasons why traditional authoring languages such as PILOT have failed to sweep through educational computing have nothing to do with the syntax or structure of programming languages but more to do with the failure of the underlying metaphor. The major difference between various high level languages are not to be found in their syntaxes, grammars, or vocabularies, but in their metaphors. A Pascal programmer sees a program as a collection of procedures, a Smalltalk programmer as objects and messages. The trick to making programming easy is to make the metaphor of the language match that of the application.Construction set languages including good spreadsheet programs have become immensely popular tools arising from their ease of use as a direct consequence of the consistency of the metaphor as one moves from programming to execution. Construction sets have a strong limitation; they are not general-purpose tools. The closest we have come to general purpose direct manipulation languages is with products like Filevision (a Macintosh-based visual database) and Guide.Paper-based media are very well suited to linear progression from one topic to another. As soon as it becomes important to branch between two activities, they become cumbersome to use. It is the ability of computer programs to branch which gives them quite different functions from documents. While programming languages allow the creation of branching programs, there is a new class of application programs which provide the same capability based on metaphors that are a natural evolution from the linear world of paper-based documents. Hypermedia is a term that refers to this class of software, not to one particular application; for example, Filevision is a hypermedia database tool. Hypermedia tools have great potential as authoring systems and they can make life much more exciting for those of us involved in educational computing.     

基于区分词的汉语隐喻短语识别

隐喻识别是自然语言处理的一个重要研究分支。目前人们越来越清楚地认识到隐喻在思维及语言中所处的中心地位。从计算语言学和自然语言处理的角度来考虑,隐喻问题若不能得到很好的处理,语言理解和机器翻译的效果都会受到影响。通过观察隐喻短语和非隐喻短语在汉语中的上下文发现,有一批词可用于有效地识别隐喻短语,称之为区分词。首先从Web中自动抽取了一部分区分词,进而提出了一种基于区分词的隐喻短语识别方法。实验表明基于区分词的识别方法是有效的。     

隐喻计算模型及其在隐喻分类上的应用

隐喻理解是语篇理解中的难点,也是认知科学研究中的热点。本文针对汉语中普遍存在隐喻的现象,从计算的角度,首先提出了一套汉语句子形式化方法,并在此基础上针对隐喻的特点构建出隐喻语义网络计算模型。为了阐述隐喻网络模型的应用,文章后半部分提出了一套基于隐喻网络模型的隐喻分类体系,并对其合理性以及实用性进行了分析,为后续的隐喻自动识别以及隐喻理解奠定了基础。     

METAPHOR RECOGNITION: CHMETA, A PATTERN-BASED SYSTEM

Metaphor recognition presents a computational challenge, in part due to metaphoric deviation from literal thinking, and also because of a metaphor's various linguistic expressions. This article forwards a new computational method, an integrated treatment of metaphor recognition from the computational perspective, which recent related studies have not entirely addressed. The authors differentiate metaphor recognition from complex metaphor inference and interpretation employing psychological clues. To accomplish this, we have developed a formalized system of metaphorical expression in metaphor role dependency schema, which specifically defines, classifies, and quantifies metaphorical anomalies, building a computable classification system for metaphors (incorporating 32 major patterns of metaphorical expressions) by providing a strategy to locate potential metaphorical anomalies in a target input sentence through a pattern recognition method and a metaphor components' tagging approach. This metaphor recognition and tagging system is named and implemented as "CHMeta." Experiment results support the validity and efficiency of this metaphor recognition system. Compared with most metaphor computation systems, which work mainly on a few examples, this system classifies major metaphorical expressions from a computational perspective and is able to recognize a variety of different kinds of metaphors, including nested ones. Thus, this is the first integrated work in computable classification, recognition, and tagging of large-scale metaphors in Chinese.     

Computational Mechanisms for Metaphor in Languages: A Survey

Metaphor computation has attracted more and more attention because metaphor, to some extent, is the focus of mind and language mechanism. However, it encounters problems not only due to the rich expressive power of natural language but also due to cognitive nature of human being. Therefore machine-understanding of metaphor is now becoming a bottle-neck in natural language processing and machine translation. This paper first suggests how a metaphor is understood and then presents a survey of current computational approaches, in terms of their linguistic historical roots, underlying foundations, methods and techniques currently used, advantages, limitations, and future trends. A comparison between metaphors in English and Chinese languages is also introduced because compared with development in English language Chinese metaphor computation is just at its starting stage. So a separate summarization of current progress made in Chinese metaphor computation is presented. As a conclusion, a few suggestions are proposed for further research on metaphor computation especially on Chinese metaphor computation.     

METABANK: A KNOWLEDGE-BASE OF METAPHORIC LANGUAGE CONVENTIONS

The frequent and conventional use of nonliteral language has been a major stumbling block for natural language processing systems since the early machine translation efforts. Metaphor, metonymy, and indirect speech acts are among the most troublesome phenomena. Recent computational efforts addressing these problems have taken an approach that emphasizes the use of systematic knowledge about nonliteral language conventions. We are currently engaged in an effort to supply this knowledge in the case of conventional metaphor. We are constructing MetaBank: an empirically derived and theoretically motivated knowledge-base of English metaphorical conventions. This article describes our three-part approach to the construction of MetaBank: the collection of on-line textual resources and databases of linguistic generalizations, the development of a methodology for analyzing these resources, and the construction of a knowledge-base based on the preceding analyses.     

隐喻计算研究进展

作为自然语言处理中的普遍现象,隐喻若不得到解决,将成为制约自然语言处理和机器翻译的瓶颈问题.结合相关的隐喻理论基础,从隐喻识别和隐喻解释这两个隐喻计算的子任务出发,介绍了现有的隐喻计算模型以及隐喻语料资源,并对这些隐喻模型的优缺点和适用范围进行了比较.