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NL-KR Digest Volume 01 No. 28
NL-KR Digest (12/12/86 14:52:27) Volume 1 Number 28
Today's Topics:
NL-KR List News
Talk: Kautz; A Circumscriptive Theory of Plan Recognition
Penn Linguistics Colloquium
Dissertation Defense: Nadathur; Logic for Logic Programming
Call for papers (updated)
From CSLI Calendar, December 11, No. 10
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 86 11:41 EST
From: Brad Miller <miller@ACORN.CS.ROCHESTER.EDU>
Subject: NL-KR List News
Phone: 716-275-7747
Hi all.
nl-kr is now available as nl-kr@cs.rochester.edu (as is nl-kr-request) for
those of you that are using the domain services. The hope is that in the
future (far-flung as it may be) that such domain names will generalize all
addresses on the various networks (e.g. arpa, csnet, etc.) so you won't have
to worry about relays. That isn't currently the case, of course, but those of
you on the arpanet might prefer the above address to the old rochester.arpa
one.
I am now putting back issues into a directory available for anonymous ftp.
ftp to rochester.arpa (cayuga.cs.rochester.edu) and cd to the nl-kr directory.
Each issue is stored in a file with a name like V1.N23 for volume 1 number 23.
No indexing is available at this time, but if anyone has any indexing programs
lying around that run on UNIX....
Brad Miller
------
miller@cs.rochester.edu
miller@acorn.cs.rochester.edu
miller@rochester.arpa
------------------------------
From: allegra!dlm
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 86 17:53:04 est
Subject: Talk: Kautz; A Circumscriptive Theory of Plan Recognition
TALK ANNOUNCMENT:
Title: A CIRCUMSCRIPTIVE THEORY OF PLAN RECOGNITION
Speaker: Henry Kautz
Dept. of Computer Science, University of Rochester
Date: December 12, 1986
Where: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Murray Hill
Abstract:
The problem of inferring an agent's plans and goals, given partial
information about the agent's actions, lies at the heart of much
research in artificial intelligence, including work in discourse,
story understanding, intelligent system interfaces, and multi-agent
planning. This talk describes a logical framework for plan
recognition that is more generally applicable and formally cleaner
than previous methods.
A plan library specifies the abstraction and decomposition relations
between actions. A first-order representation of such a library does
not, by itself, provide grounds for recognition. Several additional
assumptions are needed: that the abstraction hierarchy is complete;
that the decomposition hierarchy is complete; and that the agent's
actions are, if possible, all part of the same plan. These
assumptions are developed through the construction of a certain class
of minimal models of the plan library. Circumscription provides a
general non-constructive method for specifying a class of minimal
models. For the specific case at hand, however, we can mechanically
generate a set of first-order axioms which precisely capture the
assumptions. The result is a "competence theory" of plan recognition,
which correctly handles such difficult matters as disjunctive
information, shared steps, and concurrent unrelated plans. The
theory may be partially implemented by efficient (but limited)
algorithms.
Sponsor: Ron Brachman
------------------------------
From: Tim Finin <Tim@cis.upenn.edu>
Subject: Penn Linguistics Colloquium
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 86 21:45 EST
Call for Papers
PENN LINGUISTIC CLUB
announces
the Eleventh Annual
Penn Linguistics
Colloquium
February 6 & 7
Houston Hall
University of Pennsylvania
Papers on any topic in Linguistics are welcome. Speakers will have twenty
minutes for their presentations, and five minutes for discussion and questions.
Colloquium participants are invited to submit their paper to the Penn Review of
Linguistics which will be published in the spring.
Prospective speakers should submit an abstract no later than Wednesday,
January 14, 1987 to:
The Penn Linguistics Colloquium Committee
Department of Linguistics
619 Williams Hall
University of Pennsylvania
Phialdelphia, PA 19104-6305
Abstracts should be one single-spaced typewritten page. Please include name
and affiliation in the upper left hand corner, flush with text, and center the
title.
------------------------------
From: Tim Finin <Tim@cis.upenn.edu>
Subject: Dissertation Defense: Nadathur; Logic for Logic Programming
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 86 13:16 EST
Dissertation Defense
Computer and Information Science
University of Pennsylvania
A HIGHER-ORDER LOGIC AS THE BASIS FOR LOGIC PROGRAMMING
GOPALAN NADATHUR
(gopalan@cis.upenn.edu)
The objective of this thesis is to provide a formal basis for higher-order
features in the paradigm of logic programming. Towards this end, a
non-extensional form of higher-order logic that is based on Church's simple
theory of types is used to provide a generalisation to the definite clauses of
first-order logic. Specifically, a class of formulas that are called
higher-order definite sentences is described. These formulas extend definite
clauses by replacing first-order terms by the terms of a typed lambda calculus
and by providing for quantification over predicate and function variables. It
is shown that these formulas together with the notion of a proof in the
higher-order logic provide an abstract description of computation that is akin
to the one in the first-order case. While the construction of a proof in a
higher-order logic is often complicated by the task of finding appropriate
substitutions for predicate variables, it is shown that the necessary
substitutions for predicate variables can be tightly constrained in the context
of higher-order definite sentences. This observation enables the description of
a complete theorem-proving procedure for these formulas. The procedure
constructs proofs essentially by interweaving higher-order unification with
backchaining on implication, and constitutes a generalisation to the
higher-order context of the well-known SLD-resolution procedure for definite
clauses. The results of these investigations are used to describe a logic
programming language called lambda Prolog. This language contains all the
features of a language such as Prolog, and, in addition, possesses certain
higher-order features. The uses of these additional features are illustrated,
and it is shown how the use of the terms of a (typed) lambda calculus as data
structures provides a source of richness to the logic programming paradigm.
2:30 pm December 5, 1986
Room 23, Moore School
University of Pennsyulvania
Thesis Supervisor: Dale Miller
Committee: Tim Finin, Jean Gallier (Chairman), Andre Scedrov, Richard Statman
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 86 13:25:04 CST
From: Glenn Veach <veach%ukans.csnet@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: Call for papers (updated)
FINAL CALL
FOR PARTICIPATION
WORKSHOP ON LOGICAL SOLUTIONS TO THE FRAME PROBLEM
The American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is
sponsoring this workshop in Lawrence, Kansas, 13, 14, 15 April 1987.
The frame problem is one of the most fundamental problems in
Artificial Intelligence and essentially is the problem of describing in
a computationally reasonable manner what properties persist and what
properties change as action are performed. The intrinsic problem lies in
the fact that we cannot expect to be able to exhaustively list for every
possible action (or combination of concurrent actions) and for every
possible state of the world how that action (or concurrent actions) change
the truth or falsity of each individual fact. We can only list the obvious
results of the action and hope that our basic inferential system will be
able to deduce the truth or falsity of the other less obvious facts.
In recent years there have been a number of approaches to constructing
new kinds of logical systems such as non-monotonic logics, default logics,
circumscription logics, modal reflexive logics, and persistence logics which
hopefully can be applied to solving the frame problem by allowing the missing
facts to be deduced. This workshop will attempt to bring together the
proponents of these various approaches.
Papers on logics applicable to the problem of reasoning about such
unintended consequences of actions are invited for consideration. Two
copies of a full length paper should be sent to the workshop chairman
before Dec. 19, 1986. Acceptance notices will be mailed by December 26,
1986 along with instructions for preparing the final versions of accepted
papers. The final versions are due February 1, 1987.
In order to encourage vigorous interaction and exchange of ideas
the workshop will be kept small -- about 25 participants. There will
be individual presentations and ample time for technical discussions.
An attempt will be made to define the current state of the art and future
research needs.
Partial financial support for participants is available.
Workshop Chairman:
Dr. Frank M. Brown
Dept. Computer Science
110 strong Hall
The University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
(913) 864-4482
mail net inquiries to: veach%ukans@csnet-relay.csnet
------------------------------
Date: Wed 10 Dec 86 16:58:14-PST
From: Emma Pease <Emma@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: From CSLI Calendar, December 11, No. 10
Tel: (415) 723-3561
[Excerpted from CSLI calendar]
Persistence, Intention, and Commitment
Phil Cohen
December 11
This talk, presenting joint work with Hector Levesque (University of
Toronto), establishes basic principles governing the rational balance
among an agent's beliefs, actions, and intentions. Such principles
provide specifications for artificial agents, and approximate a theory
of human action (as philosophers use the term). By making explicit
the conditions under which an agent can drop his goals, i.e., by
specifying how the agent is `committed' to his goals, the
formalism captures a number of important properties of intention.
Specifically, the formalism provides analyses for Bratman's three
characteristic functional roles played by intentions, and shows how
agents can avoid intending all the foreseen side-effects of what they
actually intend. Finally, the analysis shows how intentions can be
adopted relative to a background of relevant beliefs and other
intentions or goals. By relativizing one agent's intentions in terms
of beliefs about another agent's intentions (or beliefs), we derive a
preliminary account of interpersonal commitments.
--------------
MORPHOLOGY/SYNTAX/DISCOURSE INTERACTIONS GROUP
Diachronic Processes in the Evolution of Reflexives
Suzanne Kemmer
Kemmer@csli.stanford.edu
12:30, Monday, December 15, Ventura Conference Room
The historical development of reflexive morphemes into middle voice
markers (roughly, markers of subject-affectedness) is well-attested in
a wide range of languages. This talk concentrates on what I call
`two-form systems', i.e., languages which apparently have two
reflexive markers, a full and a reduced form (e.g., Icelandic,
Russian, Djola). I discuss some ways in which cross-linguistic
generalizations about these languages bear on issues of
representation.
Despite the similarity of these systems from a synchronic
perspective, it turns out that they can develop via two distinct
diachronic processes. In one, an original reflexive splits into two
formally and functionally distinct forms; in the other the reflexive
function is renewed by a new marker while the old reflexive becomes a
middle marker. The typological and diachronic evidence, taken
together, present a coherent picture of the relation between reflexive
and non-reflexive middle semantics.
--------------
NEXT TINLUNCH
Resurrection of Metaphors
A Tool for Transdisciplinary Migration
Egon E. Loebner
System Performance Center
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
January 8, 1987
It is proposed that some techniques which can accelerate entry into a
second scientific professional practice are analogous to the well
established deductive techniques by which many adults approach the
acquisition of a second language in a deliberate fashion. A
successful migration from one language community to another relies on
the transference of linguistic, cognitive and societal skills of
individuals from one system to a different system, which nevertheless
shares many linguistic and cultural universals with the former system.
The claim put forward here is that the very same skills are
transferred during transdisciplinary migration.
Language acquisition data, collected on four continents, strongly
suggest that "being bilingual can have tremendous advantages not only
in terms of language competencies but also in terms of cognitive and
social development" (W. E. Lambert, 1981, NYAS, Vol. 379, pp. 9-22).
I believe that becoming multidisciplinary can lead to similar
advantages in terms of professional and scientific competencies and
can induce an expanded metadisciplinary development of cognitive and
communicative skills.
The talk concentrates on the role that can be played by a
remarkable analogy, invented 131 years ago, by the world's master
builder of theory construction, James Clerk Maxwell. He defined it as
"that partial similarity between the laws of one science and those of
another which makes each of them illustrate the other". I plan to
show how such partial similarities can be extracted using textual
analyses of now dead metaphors which, while alive, aided theory
construction by, in the words of T. S. Kuhn, "calling forth a network
of similarities which help to determine the way in which (scientific)
language attaches to the world". Buttressing my argument through
reference to recent findings of linguists, philosophers,
psychologists, and educators on the role of metaphor in theory
construction and reconstruction, I plan to argue that dead metaphors
in unrelated fields are relatable if their metaphoricity had a common
origin and that these interrelations constitute a transformational
grammar that can assist in interpreting concepts of one field in terms
of the other field.
Finally I wish to suggest that the transdisciplinary migration
technique can not only enhance new discipline acquisition but can also
provide the metascientific means to integrate and unify practices and
theories in different branches of science, even in those that appear
to be quite remote at this point in history.
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End of NL-KR Digest
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