Determining the types of temporal relations in discourse
The ability to describe the order of events is crucial for effective communication. It is used to describe causality, to plan and to relay stories. Event ordering can be thought of in terms of binary temporal relations which hold between event pairs or pairs of times and events. Complex event structures can be modelled as compositions of these pairs. Temporal relations can be expressed linguistically in a variety of ways. For example, one may use tense to describe the relation between the time of speaking and other events, or use a temporal conjunction to temporal situate an event relative to time. In the area of automatic temporal information extraction, determining the type of temporal relation between a given pair of times or events is currently the hardest task. Very sophisticated approaches have yielded only small improvements over initial attempts. Rather than develop a generic approach to event ordering through relation typing, a failure analysis informs grouping and segmentation of these temporal relations according to the type of information that can be used to temporally relate them. Two major sources of information are identified that provide typing information for two segments: relations explicitly
Derczynski, Leon
Determining the types of temporal relations in discourse. The ability to describe the order of events is crucial for effective communication. It is used to describe causality, to plan and to relay stories. Event ordering can be thought of in terms of binary temporal relations which hold between event pairs or pairs of times and events. Complex event structures can be modelled as compositions of these pairs. Temporal relations can be expressed linguistically in a variety of ways. For example, one may use tense to describe the relation between the time of speaking and other events, or use a temporal conjunction to temporal situate an event relative to time. In the area of automatic temporal information extraction, determining the type of temporal relation between a given pair of times or events is currently the hardest task. Very sophisticated approaches have yielded only small improvements over initial attempts. Rather than develop a generic approach to event ordering through relation typing, a failure analysis informs grouping and segmentation of these temporal relations according to the type of information that can be used to temporally relate them. Two major sources of information are identified that provide typing information for two segments: relations explicitly
determining type temporal_relation discourse ability describe order event crucial effective communication use_describe causality plan relay story event order thought term binary temporal_relation hold event pair pair time event complex event_structure model composition pair temporal_relation express linguistically variety_way example may_use tense describe relation time speak event use temporal conjunction temporal situate event relative time area automatic temporal information extraction determine_type temporal_relation give pair time event currently task sophisticated approach yield small improvement initial_attempt rather develop generic event order relation failure analysis informs group segmentation temporal_relation accord type information use temporally relate them two_major source_information identify provide type information segment relation explicitly