Enabling rhetorical analysis via the use of communicative discourse trees
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
- accessing a sentence comprising a plurality of fragments, wherein at least one fragment comprises a verb and a plurality of words, each word comprising a role of the words within the fragment, wherein each fragment is an elementary discourse unit;
generating a discourse tree that represents rhetorical relationships between the plurality of fragments, wherein the discourse tree comprises a plurality of nodes, each nonterminal node representing a rhetorical relationship between two of the plurality of fragments, each terminal node of the nodes of the discourse tree is associated with one of the plurality of fragments;
matching each fragment that has a verb to a verb signature, thereby creating a communicative discourse tree, the matching comprising;
accessing a plurality of verb signatures, wherein each verb signature comprises the verb of a fragment and a sequence of thematic roles, wherein each thematic role describes a respective relationship between the verb and related words;
determining, for each verb signature of the plurality of verb signatures, a plurality of thematic roles of the respective verb signature, wherein each of the thematic roles matches a role of a word in the fragment;
selecting a particular verb signature from the plurality of verb signatures based on the particular verb signature comprising a highest number of matches of roles; and
associating the particular verb signature with the fragment;
identifying a correspondence between the communicative discourse tree and an additional communicative discourse tree from a plurality of communicative discourse trees; and
sending text associated with the additional communicative discourse tree to an external device.
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Abstract
Systems, devices, and methods of the present invention calculate a rhetorical relationship between one or more sentences. In an example, a computer-implemented method accesses a sentence comprising a plurality of fragments. At least one fragment includes a verb and a words. Each word includes a role of the words within the fragment. Each fragment is an elementary discourse unit. The method generates a discourse tree that represents rhetorical relationships between the sentence fragments. The discourse tree includes nodes including nonterminal and terminal nodes, each nonterminal node representing a rhetorical relationship between two of the sentence fragments, and each terminal node of the nodes of the discourse tree is associated with one of the sentence fragments. The method matches each fragment that has a verb to a verb signature, thereby creating communicative discourse tree.
74 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
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accessing a sentence comprising a plurality of fragments, wherein at least one fragment comprises a verb and a plurality of words, each word comprising a role of the words within the fragment, wherein each fragment is an elementary discourse unit; generating a discourse tree that represents rhetorical relationships between the plurality of fragments, wherein the discourse tree comprises a plurality of nodes, each nonterminal node representing a rhetorical relationship between two of the plurality of fragments, each terminal node of the nodes of the discourse tree is associated with one of the plurality of fragments; matching each fragment that has a verb to a verb signature, thereby creating a communicative discourse tree, the matching comprising; accessing a plurality of verb signatures, wherein each verb signature comprises the verb of a fragment and a sequence of thematic roles, wherein each thematic role describes a respective relationship between the verb and related words; determining, for each verb signature of the plurality of verb signatures, a plurality of thematic roles of the respective verb signature, wherein each of the thematic roles matches a role of a word in the fragment; selecting a particular verb signature from the plurality of verb signatures based on the particular verb signature comprising a highest number of matches of roles; and associating the particular verb signature with the fragment; identifying a correspondence between the communicative discourse tree and an additional communicative discourse tree from a plurality of communicative discourse trees; and sending text associated with the additional communicative discourse tree to an external device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable program instructions, wherein when executed by a processing device, the program instructions cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:
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accessing a sentence comprising a plurality of fragments, wherein at least one fragment comprises a verb and a plurality of words, each word comprising a role of the words within the fragment, wherein each fragment is an elementary discourse unit; generating a discourse tree that represents rhetorical relationships between the plurality of fragments, wherein the discourse tree comprises a plurality of nodes, each nonterminal node representing a rhetorical relationship between two of the plurality of fragments, each terminal node of the nodes of the discourse tree is associated with one of the plurality of fragments; matching each fragment that has a verb to a verb signature, thereby creating a communicative discourse tree, the matching comprising; accessing a plurality of verb signatures, wherein each verb signature comprises the verb of a fragment and a sequence of thematic roles, wherein each thematic role describes a respective relationship between the verb and related words; determining, for each verb signature of the plurality of verb signatures, a plurality of thematic roles of the respective verb signature, wherein each of the thematic roles matches a role of a word in the fragment; selecting a particular verb signature from the plurality of verb signatures based on the particular verb signature comprising a highest number of matches of roles; and associating the particular verb signature with the fragment; identifying a complementarity between the communicative discourse tree and an additional communicative discourse tree from a plurality of communicative discourse trees; and sending text associated with the additional communicative discourse tree to an external device. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A system comprising:
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a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable program instructions; and a processing device communicatively coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable medium for executing the computer-executable program instructions, wherein executing the computer-executable program instructions configures the processing device to perform operations comprising; accessing a sentence comprising a plurality of fragments, wherein at least one fragment comprises a verb and a plurality of words, each word comprising a role of the words within the fragment, wherein each fragment is an elementary discourse unit, and wherein the sentence corresponds to a question; generating a discourse tree that represents rhetorical relationships between the plurality of fragments, wherein the discourse tree comprises a plurality of nodes, each nonterminal node representing a rhetorical relationship between two of the plurality of fragments, each terminal node of the nodes of the discourse tree is associated with one of the plurality of fragments; matching each fragment that has a verb to a verb signature, thereby creating a communicative discourse tree, the matching comprising; accessing a plurality of verb signatures, wherein each verb signature comprises the verb of a fragment and a sequence of thematic roles, wherein a thematic role describes a relationship between the verb and related words; determining, for each verb signature of the plurality of verb signatures, a plurality of thematic roles of the respective signature, wherein each of the thematic roles matches a role of a word in the fragment; selecting a particular verb signature from the plurality of verb signatures based on the particular verb signature comprising a highest number of matches; and associating the particular verb signature with the fragment; determining a plurality of candidate answer communicative discourse trees by creating, for each candidate answer of a plurality of candidate answers, a candidate answer communicative discourse tree; determining, for each of the candidate answers, a score based on a comparison between a respective candidate answer communicative discourse tree and the communicative discourse tree; and providing, to a device, an answer corresponding to the candidate answer communicative discourse tree with a highest score. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification