Strategies for effective paraphrasing

A new dimension to paraphrasing text in which characteristics of the original text motivate strategies for effective paraphrase is presented, which combines two existing robust components: the IRUS-II natural language understanding system and the SPOKESMAN generation system.

Abstract

In this paper we present a new dimension to paraphrasing text in which characteristics of the original text motivate strategies for effective paraphrasing. Our system combines two existing robust components: the IRUS-II natural language understanding system and the SPOKESMAN generation system. We describe the architecture of the system and enhancements made to these components to facilitate paraphrasing. We particularly look at how levels of representation in these two systems are used by specialists in the paraphraser which define potential problems and paraphrasing strategies. Finally, we look at the role of paraphrasing in a cooperative dialog system. We will focus here on paraphrasing in the context of natural language interfaces and particularly on how multiple interpretations introduced by various kinds of ambiguity can be conbasted in paraphrases using both sentence structure and highlighting and formating the text itself.