Knowledge elicitation, semantics and inference
The elicitation of knowledge from experts for the purpose of building expert systems has been automated with varying degrees of sophistication. The extent of which a human being or a machine can comprehend verbalised expertise depends in part on knowledge of the basic or non-technical words of the language and the domain-independent inferences that it is possible to make from them concerning the technical words of the discourse. Lexical entailments have traditionally been characterised in terms of selectional restrictions. These tend to proscribe all metaphorical language from the most abstruse and poetic to the most ubiquitous and prosaic. A principled method of semantic inference and disambiguation is needed. The Introduction gives an account of the history of the research and its provenance. Chapter 1 surveys existing knowledge elicitation techniques and Chapters 2 and 3 give an account of philosophical and linguistic approaches to the problem of word meaning. Chapters 4 to 7 outline a principled method of lexical inference and disambiguation characterised by the Principles of Prediction and Coercion and Chapter 8 discusses semantic inference in general, from strong uncancellable logical entailments to
Martin Pittock, A. G. T.
Knowledge elicitation, semantics and inference. The elicitation of knowledge from experts for the purpose of building expert systems has been automated with varying degrees of sophistication. The extent of which a human being or a machine can comprehend verbalised expertise depends in part on knowledge of the basic or non-technical words of the language and the domain-independent inferences that it is possible to make from them concerning the technical words of the discourse. Lexical entailments have traditionally been characterised in terms of selectional restrictions. These tend to proscribe all metaphorical language from the most abstruse and poetic to the most ubiquitous and prosaic. A principled method of semantic inference and disambiguation is needed. The Introduction gives an account of the history of the research and its provenance. Chapter 1 surveys existing knowledge elicitation techniques and Chapters 2 and 3 give an account of philosophical and linguistic approaches to the problem of word meaning. Chapters 4 to 7 outline a principled method of lexical inference and disambiguation characterised by the Principles of Prediction and Coercion and Chapter 8 discusses semantic inference in general, from strong uncancellable logical entailments to
knowledge elicitation semantics inference elicitation knowledge expert purpose build expert system automate vary_degree sophistication extent human machine comprehend expertise depend part knowledge basic non technical word language domain independent inference possible make concern technical word discourse lexical entailment traditionally characterise term selectional restriction tend metaphorical_language poetic ubiquitous principled method semantic inference disambiguation need introduction_give account history provenance survey_exist knowledge elicitation technique give_account philosophical linguistic_approach problem word_meaning outline principled method lexical inference disambiguation characterise principles prediction coercion discus semantic inference general strong logical entailment