Using narrative functions as a heuristic for relevance in story understanding

Emmett Tomai*, Kenneth D Forbus

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Story understanding requires a degree of knowledge and expressiveness beyond the current state of natural language understanding. We present an approach that addresses these needs, using a large-scale knowledge base, simplified English grammar and a combination of compositional frame semantics and abductive reasoning. This in turn raises a significant challenge disambiguating complex semantic structures, which requires a pragmatics of narrative for constraint and guidance. We present a theory of narrative functions that serve as a heuristic for relevance in narrative, and provide evidence that this heuristic is effective for disambiguation that leads to consistent understanding.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the Intelligent Narrative Technologies III Workshop, INT3 '10
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010
EventIntelligent Narrative Technologies III Workshop, INT3 '10 - Monterey, CA, United States
Duration: Jun 18 2010Jun 18 2010

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Intelligent Narrative Technologies III Workshop, INT3 '10

Other

OtherIntelligent Narrative Technologies III Workshop, INT3 '10
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityMonterey, CA
Period6/18/106/18/10

Keywords

  • Abductive reasoning
  • Knowledge representation
  • Narrative
  • Natural language understanding
  • Semantics
  • Story

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Software

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