Module 9

Syllabus: Strong slots and filler structures, Conceptual Dependency, Scripts, CYC

Strong Slot and Filler Structures typically:

• Represent links between objects according to more rigid rules.

• Specific notions of what types of object and relations between them are provided.
• Represent knowledge about common situations.
• Examples:
o Conceptual Dependency (CD)
o Scripts
o CYC

Conceptual Dependency(CD)

4.2. Conceptual Dependency (CD)

● CD theory was developed by Schank in 1973 to 1975 to represent the

meaning of NL sentences.

– It helps in drawing inferences

– It is independent of the language

● CD representation of a sentence is not built using words in the sentence

rather built using conceptual primitives which give the intended
meanings of words.

● CD provides structures and specific set of primitives from which

representation can be built.

Primitive Acts of CD theory

● ATRANS Transfer of an abstract relationship (i.e. give)

● PTRANS Transfer of the physical location of an object (e.g., go)

● PROPEL Application of physical force to an object (e.g. push)

● MOVE Movement of a body part by its owner (e.g. kick)

● GRASP Grasping of an object by an action (e.g. throw)

● INGEST Ingesting of an object by an animal (e.g. eat)

 ● EXPEL Expulsion of something from the body of an animal
(e.g. cry)

● MTRANS Transfer of mental information (e.g. tell)

● MBUILD Building new information out of old (e.g decide)

● SPEAK Producing of sounds (e.g. say)

● ATTEND Focusing of a sense organ toward a stimulus

(e.g. listen)

Conceptual category

● There are four conceptual categories

− ACT Actions {one of the CD primitives}

− PP Objects {picture producers}

− AA Modifiers of actions {action aiders}

− PA Modifiers of PP’s {picture aiders}

Example:

I gave a book to the man. CD representation is as follows:

● It should be noted that this representation is same for different saying

with same meaning. For example

– I gave the man a book,

– The man got book from me,

– The book was given to man by me etc.

Few conventions
 ● Arrows indicate directions of dependency

● Double arrow indicates two way link between actor and action.

O – for the object case relation

R – for the recipient case relation

P – for past tense

D - destination

Some of Conceptualizations of CD

● Dependency structures are themselves conceptualization and can serve

as components of larger dependency structures.

● The dependencies among conceptualization correspond to semantic

relations among the underlying concepts.

● We will list the most important ones allowed by CD.

Remaining can be seen from the book.

Rule 1: PP  ACT

● It describes the relationship between an actor and the event he or she

causes.

– This is a two-way dependency, since neither actor nor event can be

considered primary.

– The letter P in the dependency link indicates past tense.

● Example: John ran

CD Rep: John  PTRANS

Rule 2: ACT  PP

● It describes the relationship between a ACT and a PP (object) of ACT.

– The direction of the arrow is toward the ACT since the context of
the specific ACT determines the meaning of the object relation.

– Example: John pushed the bike

 CD Rep: John  PROPEL  bike

Rule 3: PP  PP

● It describes the relationship between two PP’s, one of which belongs to

the set defined by the other.

● Example: John is doctor

CD Rep: John  doctor

Rule 4: PP  PP

● It describes the relationship between two PP’s, one of which provides a

particular kind of information about the other.

– The three most common types of information to be provided in this

way are possession ( shown as POSS-BY), location (shown as LOC), and
physical containment (shown as CONT).

– The direction of the arrow is again toward the concept being

described.

– Example: John’s dog

poss-by

CD Rep dog  John

Rule 5: PP  PA

● It describes the relationship between a PP and a PA that is asserted to

describe it.

– PA represents states of PP such as height, health etc.

● Example: John is fat

CD Rep John  weight (> 80)

Rule 6: PP  PA

● It describes the relationship between a PP and an attribute that already

has been predicated of it.
 – Direction is towards PP being described.

– Example: Smart John

CD Rep John  smart

● It describes the relationship between an ACT and the source and the
recipient of the ACT

● Example: John took the book from Mary

● It describes the relationship that describes the change in state.

● Example: Tree grows

● It describes the relationship between one conceptualization and another
that causes it.

– Here {x} is causes {y} i.e., if x then y

Example: Bill shot Bob

● It describes the relationship between one conceptualization with another

that is happening at the time of the first.

– Here {y} is happening while {x} is in progress.

– Example: While going home I saw a snake

I am going home

I saw a snake
CD Representations:

Sentence CD Representation

o r One
Since One  INGEST  durgs
drugs can Mouth
kill, I
stopped. c
health = -10
One
health > -10

tfp o r I
I  INGEST  durgs
mouth

Sentence CD Representation

John  Do1
p o r Mike
John warned John  MTRANS
Mike with dire John
consequence.

f
State bad
 poss-by
Mike

Poss-by
r memory  Mike
Mike  MTRANS
o John
Mike  Do2

Mike
 poss-by
John  Do1 State bad
f
4.3. Script Structure:

● Scripts were introduced by Schank and Abelson introduced in 1977 that

used CD framework.

● The scripts are useful in describing certain stereotyped situations such

as going to theater

● It consists of set of slots containing default values along with some

information about the type of values similar to frames.

● It differs from FS as the values of the slots in scripts must be ordered

and have more specialized roles.

● In real world situations, we see that event tends to occur in known

patterns because of clausal relationship to the occurrence of events

4.8.1. Script Components:

● Each script contains the following main components.

– Entry Conditions: Must be satisfied before events in the script

can occur.

– Results: Conditions that will be true after events in script

occur.

– Props: Slots representing objects involved in the events.

– Roles: Persons involved in the events.

– Track: Specific variation on more general pattern in the

script. Different tracks may share many components of the same
script but not all.

– Scenes: The sequence of events that occur. Events are

represented in conceptual dependency form.
 Script : Play in theater Various Scenes

Scene 1: Going to theater

Track: Play in Theater
• P PTRANS P into theater
Props: • P ATTEND eyes to ticket counter
• Tickets
• Seat Scene 2: Buying ticket
• Play
• P PTRANS P to ticket counter
Roles: • P MTRANS (need a ticket) to TD
• Person (who wants to see a play) – P • TD ATRANS ticket to P
• Ticket distributor – TD
• Ticket checker – TC Scene 3: Going inside hall of theater and sitting
on a seat

Entry Conditions: • P PTRANS P into Hall of theater

• P wants to see a play • TC ATTEND eyes on ticket POSS_by P
• P has a money • TC MTRANS (showed seat) to P
• P PTRANS P to seat
• P MOVES P to sitting position
Results:
• P saw a play Scene 4: Watching a play
• P has less money
• P is happy (optional if he liked the • P ATTEND eyes on play
play) • P MBUILD (good moments) from play
Scene5: Exiting

• P PTRANS P out of Hall and theater

Script Invocation:

● It must be activated based on its significance.

● If the topic is important, then the script should be opened.

● If a topic is just mentioned, then a pointer to that script could be held.

● For example, given “John enjoyed the play in theater”, a script “Play in
Theater” suggested above is invoked.

● All implicit questions can be answered correctly.

● Here the significance of this script is high.

– Did john go to theater?

 – Did he buy ticket?

– Did he have money?

● If we have a sentence like “John went to theater to pick his daughter”,

then invoking this script will lead to many wrong answers.

– Here significance of the script theater is less.

Getting significance from the story is not straightforward. However, some

heuristics can be applied to get the value.

Advantages / Disadvantages of Script

● Advantages

– Capable of predicting implicit events

– Single coherent interpretation may be build up from a collection of

observations.

● Disadvantage

– More specific (inflexible) and less general than frames.

– Not suitable to represent all kinds of knowledge.

● To deal with inflexibility, smaller modules called memory organization

packets (MOP) can be combined in a way that is appropriate for the
situation.

4.4. CYC

What is CYC?

• An ambitious attempt to form a very large knowledge base aimed at

capturing commonsense reasoning.
• Initial goals to capture knowledge from a hundred randomly selected.
• Both Implicit and Explicit knowledge encoded.

Example: Suppose we read that Wellington learned of Napoleon's death

Then we (humans) can conclude Napoleon never new that Wellington had died.How

do we do this?
We require special implicit knowledge or commonsense such as:

• We only die once.

• You stay dead.
• You cannot learn of anything when dead.
• Time cannot go backwards.

Why build large knowledge bases:

Brittleness
-- Specialised knowledge bases are brittle. Hard to encode new
situationsand non-graceful degradation in performance.
Commonsense based knowledge bases should have a firmer
foundation.
Form and Content
-- Knowledge representation may not be suitable for AI.
Commonsensestrategies could point out where difficulties in
content may affect the form.
Shared Knowledge
-- Should allow greater communication among systems with
commonbases and assumptions.

How is CYC coded?

• By hand.
• Special CYCL language:
o LISP like.
o Frame based
o Multiple inheritance
o Slots are fully fledged objects.
o Generalised inheritance -- any link not just isa and
instance.