The following is a list of articles, conference papers and reports authored or co-authored by researchers of the Cognitive and Communication Technologies division at ITC-irst (Istituto per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica). Entries refer to papers published internally or which have appeared in refereed media - in particular, journals, conference proceedings, and books - in 1997.
The publications in the list are organized alphabetically by the first author.

Books

• Giorgi A., Pianesi F., 'Tense and Aspect: from Semantics to Morphosyntax', Oxford University Press, New York, 1997 (copies cannot by obtained from the Institute).

  Ref. No. 9608-13

• Higginbotham J., Pianesi F., Varzi A., 'Speaking of Events', to be published by Oxford University Press, New York, 1997 (copies cannot by obtained from the Institute).

  Ref. No. 9712-13

• Stock O. (ed.), 'Spatial and Temporal Reasoning', Book, Kluver Academic Publishers, Dortrecht, 1997 [ISBN 0-7923-4644-0] (copies cannot by obtained from the Institute).

  Ref. No. 9608-06
  

• Magnini B., Not E., Stock O., Strapparava C., 'Natural Language Processing for Transparent Communication Between Public Administration and Citizens', 1997. Also to be published in Artifical Intelligence and Law.

  In this paper we present two projects concerned with the application of natural language processing technology for improving communication between Public Administration and citizens. The first project, GIST, is concerned with automatic multilingual generation of instructional text for form-filling. The second project, TAMIC, aims at providing an interface for interactive access to information, centered on natural language processing and supposed to be used by the clerk but with the active participation of the citizen.

  Ref. No. 9707-16

• Stock O.'Elaborazione automatica del linguaggio naturale quale strumento per la comunicazione tra Pubblica Amministrazione e cittadini', in Amministrare 3 (1997) 449-461.

  Ref. No. 9707-18

• Stock O., 'Ricerche e applicazioni di elaborazione del linguaggio naturale all'IRST', to be published in 'La comunicazione'.

  Viene presentata una sintetica panoramica dell'attività svolta all'IRST sui temi dell'elaborazione del linguaggio naturale con particolare attenzione per gli sviluppi applicativi.

  Ref. No. 9705-03

• Stock O., Strapparava C., Zancanaro M., 'Looking at ALFresco from the Standard Reference Model Viewpoint', in Computer Standards and Interfaces 18 (1997) 631-637.

  In the last years the development of intelligent multimedia/multimodal presentation systems has led to various experimental efforts that have shown and confirmed the involved issues and potentials. Yet it is important to find both a common language and a generic reference architecture for this kind of systems. The standard Reference Model (SRM) is valuable in the context. In this paper the AlFresco system, a natural language multimodal dialogue prototype for information access, is described in terms of SRM.

  Ref. No. 9703-06

• Stock O., Strapparava C., Zancanaro M., 'Multimodal Information Exploration', in Journal of Educational Computing Research, 17 (1997) 3.

  Exploration is a fundamental aspect of learning. In computer-based systems, advanced interfaces to a rich information space can become a key element in this connection. Tools adaptable to different modes of exploring information and to the characteristics of different users are needed. In this paper, the integration of hypermedia and natural language dialogue are discussed and reference is made to alfresco, a natural language-centered multimodal system developed at IRST. The discussion is mainly focussed on the role and the structure of the communicative context.

  Ref. No. 9611-20

Conference Papers

• Artale A., Magnini B., Strapparava C.,'Lexical Discrimination with the Italian Version of WordNet', in Proceedings of the ACL-97 Workshop on Automatic Information Extraction and Building of Lexical Semantic Resources for NLP Applications, Madrid, 7-12 August 1997.

  We present a prototype of the Italian version of WordNet, a general computational lexical resource. Some relevant extensions are discussed to make it usable for parsing: in particular we add verbal selectional restrictions to make lexical discrimination effective. Italian WordNet has been coupled with a parser and a number of experiments have been performed to individuate the methodology with the best trade-off between disambiguation rate and precision. Results confirm intuitive hypothesis on the role of selectional restrictions and show evidences for a WordNet-like organization of lexical senses.

  Ref. No. 9705-04

• Artale A., Magnini B., Strapparava C., 'WordNet for Italian and Its Use for Lexical Discrimination', in Proceedings of the Quinto Congresso della Associazione Italiana per l'Intelligenza Artificiale [AI*IA], Roma, 16-19 settembre 1997.

  We present a prototype of the Italian version of WordNet, a general computational lexical resource. Some relevant extensions are discussed to make it usable for parsing: in particular we add verbal selectional restrictions to make lexical discrimination effective. Italian WordNet has been coupled with a parser and a number of experiments have been performed to individuate the methodology with the best trade-off between disambiguation rate and precision. Results confirm intuitive hypothesis on the role of selectional restrictions and show evidences for a WordNet-like organization of lexical senses.

  Ref. No. 9707-05

• Cancedda N., Kamstrup G., Pianta E., Pietrosanti ,'A Hybrid Approach to Hypertext Generation', in Proceedings of the Quinto Congresso della Associazione Italiana per l'Intelligenza Artificiale [AI*IA], Roma, 16-19 September 1997. [Gzipped Postscript - 105k] [HTML]

  In this paper we present SAX, a system that generates hypertext descriptions of conceptual models designed with the SADT methodology. The combination of natural language and hypertext significantly lowers the communicative barrier between the analyst and the domain expert, thus increasing the effectiveness of conceptual model validation. The application of hybrid techniques for text generation guarantees an optimal trade-off between robustness and portability across domains on one side and text fluency on the other.

  Ref. No. 9707-08

• Cancedda N., Kamstrup G., Pianta E., Pietrosanti E.,'SAX : Generating Hypertext from SADT Models', in Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Applications of Natural Language to Information Systems [NLDB'97], Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, June 25-27, 1997. [Gzipped Postscript - 92k] [HTML]

  Conceptual model validation is crucial in the information system development process, but it may be difficult to accomplish if the domain expert is not acquainted with the formal language used by the analyst. In this paper we present SAX, a system that generates hypertext descriptions of conceptual models designed with the SADT methodology. The combination of natural language and hypertext significantly lowers the communicative barrier between the analyst and the domain expert, thus increasing validation effectiveness. The application of hybrid techniques for text generation guarantees an optimal trade-off between robustness and portability across domains on one side and text fluency on the other.

  Ref. No. 9701-05
  

• Ciravegna F., Lavelli A.,'Controlling Bottom-Up Chart Parsers through Text Chunking', in Proceedings of the 1997 International Workshop on Parsing Technologies [IWPT'97], Cambridge (USA), 17-20 September 1997.

  In this paper we propose to use text chunking for controlling a bottom-up parser. As it is well known, during analysis such parsers produce many constituents not contributing to the final solution(s). Most of these constituents are introduced due to the parser inability of checking the input context around them. Preliminary text chunking allows to focus directly on the constituents that seem more likely and to prune the search space in the case some satisfactory solutions are found. Preliminary experiments show that a CYK-like parser controlled through chunking is definitely more efficient than a traditional parser without significantly losing in correctness. Moreover the quality of possible partial results produced by the controlled parser is high. The strategy is particularly suited for tasks like Information Extraction from text (IE) where sentences are often long and complex and it is very difficult to have a complete coverage. Hence, there is a strong necessity of focusing on the most likely solutions; furthermore, in IE the quality of partial results is important.

  Ref. No. 9707-25

• Ciravegna F., Lavelli A., Petrelli D., Pianesi F.,'Participatory Design for Linguistic Engineering: the Case of the GEPPETTO Development Environment', in ENVGRAM - Computational Environments for Grammar Development and Linguistic Engineering Workshop in Conjunction with The 35th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics - 8th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics [ACL-EACL'97 Joint Conference] Madrid, July 7-12, 1997.

  Current tools for Linguistic Engineering (LE) do not completely fit the requirements for scale development and deployment of real applications. What seems to lack in the available tools is a comprehensive study of user needs. This is a real limitation in a field where people with very different backgrounds (from computer scientists to linguists) are involved. To avoid such a shortcoming we adopted the Participatory Design (PD) methodology, i.e. a User Centered approach that favors the definition of tools suited to the real user needs. In this paper we show how such methodology was used in the design and implementation of a development environment for LE applications.

  Ref. No. 9705-12
  

• Ciravegna F., Lavelli A., Satta G., 'Efficient Full Parsing for Information Extraction', published in the Proceedings of Incontro dei Gruppi di Lavoro dell'Associazione Italiana per l'Intelligenza Artificiale (AI*IA): Apprendimento Automatico e Linguaggio Naturale, Torino, 9-10 December 1997.

  In this paper we propose an efficient deterministic approach to parsing texts for Information Extraction purposes that has been pursued by the natural language research group at ITC/IRST. The syntactic processing is split in two phases. During the first phase predicate/argument structures are recognized, whereas modifier attachment is delayed. In the second phase we use the syntactic/semantic constraints to compute modifier attachments. In both phases the processing is accomplished by exploiting cascades of finite state transducers.

  Ref. No. 9705-12
  

• Giorgi A., Pianesi A.,'Aspects of the Morphosyntax of Sequence of Tnese Phenomena', in Going Romance 97, Groningen, 11-13 December 1997.

  Ref. No. 9712-15

• Giorgi A., Pianesi A.,'On the Morphosyntax of Temporal Arguments', in Proceedings of the 27th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages [LSRL-27], Irvine, UC, 20-22 February 1997.

  Ref. No. 9711-06

• Giorgi A., Pianesi A.,'Present Tense, Perfectivity and the Anchoring Conditions', in Proceedings of the IATL-97, Bar-Ilan University, Israel, 4-5 June 1997.

  Ref. No. 9712-14
  

• Not E., Petrelli D., Stock O. Strapparava C., Zancanaro M.,'Augmented Space: Bringing the Physical Dimension into Play', in Proceedings of the Flexible Hypertext Workshop: Eight ACM Hypertext Conference [Hypertext '97], Southampton, 6-7 April 1997.

  Ref. No. 9702-08

• Not E., Petrelli D., Stock O., Strapparava C., Zancanaro M.,'Person-Oriented Guided Visits in a Physical Museum', in Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Hypermedia and Interactivity in Museums [ICHIM'97], Paris, September 3-5, 1997, pp. 162-172.

  The 'ideal guided visit' to a space (as an exhibition, a museum, an open-air exposition distributed in different areas of a city, an archaeological site and so on) allows the visitor to organise the tour throughout the different areas according to their own needs or preferred criteria: for example, looking for paintings coming from the same geographical region rather than paintings produced in the same period (following a geographical thread rather than a chronological one). However, when organising the physical layout of the exposition areas a specific criterion for items placement has to be chosen, according to a 'default' perspective of information presentation, either chosen by an architect or imposed by geographical constraints. It may happen that the default physical organisation does not meet directly the visitor's expectations, possibly making it difficult to build a personal route.

  Ref. No. 9705-13

• Petrelli D., De Angeli A., Gerbino W., Cassano G.,'Referring in Multimodal Systems: The Importance of User Expertise and System Features', in Proceedings of the Workshop on Referring Phenomena in a Multimedia Context and Their Computational Treatment [ACL/EACL 97], Madrid, July 12, 1997.

  This paper empirically investigates how humans use reference in space when interacting with a multimodal system able to understand written natural language and pointing with the mouse. We verified that user expertise plays an important role in the use of multimodal systems: experienced users performed 84% multimodal inputs while inexpert only 30%. Moreover experienced are able to efficiently use multimodality shortening the written input and transferring part of the reference meaning on the pointing. Results showed also the importance of the system layout: when very short labels (one character) are available users strongly adopt a redundant reference strategy, i.e. they referred to the object in a linguistic way and use pointing too. Starting from these facts some guidelines for future multimodal systems are suggested.

  Ref. No. 9705-11

• Stock O.,'Prospettive per l'elaborazione del linguaggio naturale', Conference Paper, Simposio Didattica e Informatica, Livorno, October 9-11, 1997.

  Il campo dell'elaborazione del linguaggio naturale è ormai maturo per applicazioni significative, purché si sappia integrare lo sviluppo scientfico del campo sullo sviluppo tecnologico dei sistemi informatici, in particolare per quanto concerne le interfacce. In questo articolo si fa riferimento ad alcuni prototipi applicativi realizzati all'IRST.

  Ref. No. 9710-03

• Stock O., Strapparava C., Zancanaro M., 'Explorations in an Environment for Natural Language Multimodal Information Access', in M. Maybur (ed.) Intelligent Mutimodal Information Retrieval, AAAI Press, Menlo Park, Ca./MIT Press, Cambridge. Mass. 1997.

  This paper addresses the problem of communication with a multimodal system for information access and exploration, in which communication integrates things other than words, and tries to give a unified and concrete, albeit simplified and limited, working solution for information access dialogues. Communicative acts in multimodal interaction are discussed and the concept of felicity conditions for such a situation is introduced. Felicity conditions make use of the attentional state, considered the most relevant element to model the context of the communicative act. References are made to examples of interaction with AlFresco, a working prototype in the art domain.

  Ref. No. 9608-07
  

• Stock O., Strapparava C., Zancanaro M.,'User Models in a Natural-Language Dialogue System for Information Access', in Workshop Embedding User Models in Intelligent Applications, in conjunction with the UM97: The Sixth International Conference on User Modeling, Sardinia, Italy, June 2-5, 1997.

  This paper shows the structure and the use of two components of the user model exploited in ALFRESCO, a multimodal natural language-centered system for information exploration. The user's knowledge model, or UK, is based on an initialization, depending on a user profile, and on a modelization of what the user has become aware of so far. The user's interest model, or UI, provides a model of the potential interest of the user.

  Ref. No. 9705-05

• Zancanaro M., Stock O., Strapparava C.,'A Discussion on Augmenting and Executing SharedPlans for Multimodal Communication', in Proceedings of the AAAI Fall 1997: Symposium on Communicative Action in Human and Machines, Cambridge, November 8-10, 1997, pp. 106-112.

  The adoption of SharedPlans as a basis for multimodal dialogues is discussed. An extension to the modal of plan augmentation for discourse is proposed so that it applies for multimodal interaction. The proposed process exploits SharedPlans and Adjacency Pairs in conjunction to account for global and local collaboration. Finally, multimedia coordination is taken into account. An example is followed throughout the paper to make the consequences of the proposal more concrete.

  Ref. No. 9705-06

• Artale A., Franconi E., 'A Temporal Description Logic for Reasoning about Actions and Plans', Technical Report, 1997.

  Ref. No. 9702-06

• Ciravegna F., Lavelli A., Mana N., Not E., Pianesi F., Zancanaro M., 'From Requirements to Tools to Applications: A Case Study in Information Extraction in the Financial Domain',1997.

  Recently, information extraction form text has been gaining market interest and a number of applications are now arising. There exists an increasing demand for rationalization of the methodology for moving from the application requirements to the information extraction application. In this paper we report on the lesson learned in defining a generic development environment for information extraction from text and in tailoring it to a specific domain.

  Ref. No. 9707-19
  

• Ciravegna F., Lavelli A., Petrelli D., Pianesi F., 'The GEPPETTO Development Environment. Version 2.1. User Manual', manuale, 1997.

  Ref. No. 9711-15

• Pianta E., Kamstrup G., 'SAX: Manuale d'uso del prototipo esteso',1997.

  Ref. No. 9708-03

• Pianta E., Kamstrup G., 'SAX: Specifiche del prototipo esteso',1997.

  Ref. No. 9708-04

• Pianta E., Not E., 'A Modular Text Planning Architecture for a Multilingual Setting', Technical Report, 1997.

  The design of a text planning component requires the identification of the knowledge resources needed by the planning process. This task should take into account the general mechanisms governing human communication (crucially based on intentions) and the constraints imposed by the domain and application scenario. In this paper we present the solution adopted in the XXX multilingual generation system, based on a distinction between domain specific and general communication knowledge. We propose a modular architecture, emphasizing the role of domain specific knowledge and we argue for the need for making this information available throughout the planning process.

  Ref. No. 9701-06