An Estimate of Referent of Noun Phrases in Japanese Sentences

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method for identifying the referents of noun phrases in Japanese sentences, crucial for machine translation and dialogue systems, by leveraging referential properties, modifiers, and possessors.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach that combines referential properties, modifiers, and possessors to determine noun phrase referents in Japanese, addressing the challenge posed by the absence of articles.

Findings

Achieved 82% precision and 85% recall on training data.

Achieved 79% precision and 77% recall on test data.

Demonstrated effectiveness of using referential properties, modifiers, and possessors.

Abstract

In machine translation and man-machine dialogue, it is important to clarify referents of noun phrases. We present a method for determining the referents of noun phrases in Japanese sentences by using the referential properties, modifiers, and possessors of noun phrases. Since the Japanese language has no articles, it is difficult to decide whether a noun phrase has an antecedent or not. We had previously estimated the referential properties of noun phrases that correspond to articles by using clue words in the sentences. By using these referential properties, our system determined the referents of noun phrases in Japanese sentences. Furthermore we used the modifiers and possessors of noun phrases in determining the referents of noun phrases. As a result, on training sentences we obtained a precision rate of 82% and a recall rate of 85% in the determination of the referents of noun phrases that have antecedents. On test sentences, we obtained a precision rate of 79% and a recall rate of 77%.