Chunshen Zhu

Semantic pattern-based user interactive question answering: user interface design and evaluation

This paper presents two user interfaces for a pattern-based User Interactive Question Answering system, which are designed to encourage users to ask questions by using semantic patterns. One is a Guide-Based User Interface (GBUI), which can guide users with clear instructions. However, it involves many steps and the operation may become tedious. The other is a Recommendation-Based User Interface (RBUI), which recommends a few relevant patterns containing automatically suggested details for each free-text question. However, the recommended patterns may not always be satisfactory and sometimes the users revision is needed. In comparing these two user interfaces, we propose a new Complexity Evaluation Model (CEM) to evaluate the complexity on the basis of user log study and a realistic focused user study. The results of the study user logs, which cover a test set of 1605 users and 488 semantic patterns, show that RBUI can improve the complexity of GBUI by 39.8% on average. The improvement is also confirmed by the user study. It has thus become clear that RBUI can improve the usability of the UIQA system in terms of helping the system accumulate high quality pattern-based questions.

Towards A Comprehensive Semantic Annotation Method for Knowledge Acquisition from Classical Chinese Poetry

In this paper, we propose a comprehensive semantic annotation method supported by a user-oriented markup language named Olan to facilitate semantic annotation for the purpose of acquisition of knowledge from classical Chinese poetry so as to build a high quality knowledge base. Olan is a language readable and operable by human annotators and transformable to formal knowledge representation languages such as OWL (Web Ontology Language) for knowledge reasoning. To ensure the effectiveness of the method, we develop a multi-language semantic annotation tool. With the features of online and offline searching, ontology visualizing, knowledge transforming and reasoning, the method is applicable of knowledge acquisition for semantic annotation of classical Chinese poetry.

A user-oriented semantic annotation approach to knowledge acquisition and conversion:

Semantic annotation on natural language texts labels the meaning of an annotated element in specific contexts, and thus is an essential procedure for domain knowledge acquisition. An extensible and coherent annotation method is crucial for knowledge engineers to reduce human efforts to keep annotations consistent. This article proposes a comprehensive semantic annotation approach supported by a user-oriented markup language named UOML to enhance annotation efficiency with the aim of building a high quality knowledge base. UOML is operable by human annotators and convertible to formal knowledge representation languages. A pattern-based annotation conversion method named PAC is further proposed for knowledge exchange by utilizing automatic pattern learning. We designed and implemented a semantic annotation platform Annotation Assistant to test the effectiveness of the approach. By applying this platform in a long-term international research project for more than three years aiming at high quality knowledge acquisition from a classical Chinese poetry corpus containing 52,621 Chinese characters, we effectively acquired 150,624 qualified annotations. Our test shows that the approach has improved operational efficiency by 56.8%, on average, compared with text-based manual annotation. By using UOML, PAC achieved a conversion error ratio of 0.2% on average, significantly improving the annotation consistency compared with baseline annotations. The results indicate the approach is feasible for practical use in knowledge acquisition and conversion.

Integration of form and content for communication through translation : With reference to pronouns in Chinese discourse

The paper deals with the relationship between form, content and communication in translation by way of implicit and explicit presentation of information. It argues that form and content should not be conceived of as two vying elements, one surviving in translating at the expense of the other, but as two components integrated to enable communication; and form, as the structured linguistic means to secure actual communication, is thus held accountable for translation. As the decision upon explicit or implicit presentation is based on the assumption of the extent of shared knowledge and on the purpose of imparting the new information to the reader, as well as facilitated and constrained by the grammatical apparatus of the language used, the whole functional complexity of translation in a communicative context can thus boil down to one primary issue - the matching between what has been left out, or taken in, in the existing source text and what ought to be left out, or taken in, for cultural, textual and/or linguistic considerations in an emerging target text. The point is illustrated in the use of pronouns in Chinese discourse for translation purposes.