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 [Link]

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.