A neat theory of marker passing

摘要: We describe here the theory behind language comprehension program Wimp. Wimp understands by first finding paths between open-class words in a sentence using marker passing, or spreading-activation, technique. This paper is primarily concerned with "meaning" (or interpretation) of such paths. argue that they are best thought as backbones proofs terms (words) at either end exist story and show how viewing this way naturally leads to kinds inferences which normally characterize "understanding." In companion we interpretation also accomplishes much work expected parsing (noun-phrase reference, word-sense disambiguation, etc) so only briefly touch on topic here. has been implemented works all examples herein.