FROM ARGUMENTATIVE DISCOURSE TO INFERENCE TREES: USING SYNTACTIC MARKERS AS CUES IN CHINESE TEXT ABSTRACTION

從議論文體篇章到推理樹－基於語法標記的中文篇章摘要系統

鄒嘉彥(B. K. Tsou) ； 連興隆(H. L. Lin) ； 何慶昌(H. C. Ho) ； 黎邦洋(B. Y. Lai)

《Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series》 9期 (1996/12) Pp. 199-222+252

摘要

Argumentative discourse is characterized by the flow of message consisting of propositions which are hierarchically linked through logical inferencing. They can be represented as rhetorical structures involving facts and opinions usually labeled, for example, as premises, conditions, deductions and conclusions, etc. Linearly concatenated propositions in the source text are frequently marked off by punctuation marks or overt language specific markers. Drawing on previous successful experience in text generation based on inference trees, this paper presents an approach for capturing the flow of argumentation by a reverse process: going from syntactic to rhetorical structure and then to inference tree. It attempts to show that beginning with derived conclusions, an appropriate abstract may be generated by utilizing the inference tree to generate abstracts with differential coverage of the details of the underlying argumentation.

並列摘要

論文體的特色，在於通過邏輯推理，將作者想要傳遞的信息，用多層次互相結合的各個命題表達出来。在語言的表層結構上，這個推理過程，會使用包含各種事實或意見的修辭關係表達出来，例如前題、條件、推導及結論等等。基於語言的本質，這個多層次的推理結構，在篇章中只能表示爲直線串聯起來的各個命題，再用標點符號和具有特定功能的語法標記，標誌出各命題相互間的層次關係。本研究提出一個篇章處理的方法，可以用來分析及獲知ー篇議論文的篇章結構，及其論証的過程。這個處理方法經由對篇章進行語法及修辭結構的分析，最終推導出作者推論時所依據的推理法則〔即推理樹〕。其中修辭結構的分析，主要是基於對語法標記功能的辨別。這個篇章處理方法其中一個重要的應用，就是自動化中文篇章摘要。通過一連串的實例，本文論証了如何利用篇章處理後得到的推理樹來生成涵蓋原文不同細節、或詳或簡的多個摘要。用戶可根據實際需要，指定所想看的摘要的長度，從而達到篇章摘要系統的主要目標。