Semantic interpretation of temporal information by abductive inference

TL;DR

This paper presents a logical theory and abductive inference method for extracting and interpreting temporal information from texts, considering both explicit cues and background world knowledge.

Contribution

It introduces a formal logical framework linking verbs, tenses, and adjuncts to temporal events, enabling automated temporal interpretation using abductive reasoning.

Findings

Effective extraction of temporal information demonstrated

Logical framework aligns with linguistic and world knowledge

Abductive inference improves temporal resolution accuracy

Abstract

Besides temporal information explicitly available in verbs and adjuncts, the temporal interpretation of a text also depends on general world knowledge and default assumptions. We will present a theory for describing the relation between, on the one hand, verbs, their tenses and adjuncts and, on the other, the eventualities and periods of time they represent and their relative temporal locations. The theory is formulated in logic and is a practical implementation of the concepts described in Ness Schelkens et al. We will show how an abductive resolution procedure can be used on this representation to extract temporal information from texts.