Yael Netzer and Michael ElhadadDep. of Computer Science, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel

{yaeln, elhadad}@cs.bgu.ac.il

USING SEMANTIC AUTHORING FOR BLISSYMBOLS COMUNICATION BOARDSUSING SEMANTIC AUTHORING FOR BLISSYMBOLS COMUNICATION BOARDS

Natural language generation (NLG) refers to the process of producing text in a spoken language, starting from an internalknowledge representation structure. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) deals with the developmentof devices and tools to enable basic conversation for language-impaired people. We present an applied prototype of an AAC-NLG system generating written output in English and Hebrew from a sequence of Bliss symbols. The system does not “translate” the symbols sequence, but instead, it dynamically changes the communication board as the choice of symbols proceeds according to the syntactic and semantic content of selected symbols, generating utterances in natural language through a process of semantic authoring.

Selected References Ofer Biller, Michael Elhadad, and Yael Netzer. 2005. Interactiveauthoring of logical forms for multilingual generation.In Proceedings of the 10th workshop of ENLG, Aberdeen, Scotland. Charles K. Bliss. 1965. Semantography (Blissymbolics). Semantography Press, Sidney. D. Jeffery Higginbotham. 1995. Use of nondisabled subjects in AAC research: Confessions of a research infidel. AAC Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 11, March.AAC Research forum. Kathleen F. McCoy and Dave Hershberger. 1999. The role of evaluation in bringing NLP to AAC: A case to consider. In Filip T. Loncke, John Clibbens, Helen H. Arvidson, and Lyle L. Lloyd, editors, AAC: New Directions in Research and Practice, pages 105–122. Whurr Publishers, London. Kathleen F. McCoy. 1997. Simple NLP techiques for expandingtelegraphic sentences. In Proceedings of workshop on NLP forCommunication Aids, Madrid, July. ACL/EACL. Pascal Vaillant. 1997. A semantic-based communication systemfor dysphasic subjects. In Proc. of the 6th conference on AI in Medicine Europe (AIME’97), Grenoble, France, March.

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is concerned with studying methods of communication that can be added to natural communication (speech and writing), especially when an individual lacks some of the skills to achieve it.AAC devices are characterized by three aspects [Hill and Romich, 2002]:

1. Selection method2. Input language3. Output medium

In a computerized system [McCoy and Hershberger, 1999], a processing method aspect is added to this list. This method refers to the process which creates the output once symbols are inserted.

This CG is transformed into an FD of the appropriate form and is unified with the lexical chooser, using the information on the verb play as embedded in the concept representation:<description descriptionNumber="0.2" primary="Intransitive" secondary="+ with-NP" xtag="0.2"/>The intransitive structure is chosen since there is only one participant given, and the resulting string generated is I play.However, once Pablo was chosen as the second actor relation and the CG is complete: [Play]-(Actor1)->[Person:{I}](Actor2)->[Person:Pablo]

The system consults the lexical chooser again and unifies the given input with the verb's possible syntactic structures following its alternation,

Each time a symbol is chosen, the system converts the current expression to a conceptual graph (CG), maps the CG to a FUF Functional Description (FD), which serves as input to the lexical chooser; lexical choice and syntactic realization are performed, and feedback is provided in English or Hebrew.If the chosen symbols so far were I and to play, the conceptual graph built is:[Play]-(Actor1)->[Person:{I}]

Blissymbolics (bliss in short) is a graphic meaning-referenced language, created by Charles Bliss to be used as a written universal language. It was first published in 1949 and elaborated later in 1965 in his book Semantography [Bliss, 1965]. Bliss, a survivor of the Holocaust, was infuenced by the Chinese orthography system and his life experience, and wished to establish an understandable written language that could be used by people of different nations and languages {as he believed that language misunderstanding is a main cause of wars in the world.In 1971, the bliss symbol system was first used for communication with severely language-impaired children.

in this case:Alternation alternation-of-verb-play-simple_reci_intrans: [struct with-np] [structsubj-and-np-v]This syntactic alternation indicates that the clause: I play with Pablo can be generated. Alternatively, following the possible choice of the alternation which is available for the verb play with its current sense, the structure (STRUCT SUBJ-AND-NP-V) can be chosen as well, with the final output Pablo and I play. In the GUI of the system, a button can switch the generation of the clause from one argument structure to the next, according to the alternations supported by the verb. Next, the system offers the opportunity to add sentence modifiers such as time and location and other possible circumstances.

Generation Process (lexical choice and syntactic realization)

Ontology fragments of concepts and relations

Abstract BLISSYMBOLS

Augmentative and AlternativeCommunication (AAC)

Symbol types of Blissymbols

Indicators modify the lexical category of the symbol

Modifiiers in Blissymbols

Various realizations of the verb ‘to be’ in Blissymbols