Making Sense of Sentences Working Note 26

1. Making Sense of SentencesWorking Note 26 Peter Clark Knowledge Systems Boeing Maths and Computing Technology

2. Preamble This is an informal, brief note on making sense of sentences. The note looks at several variant ways of expressing the same basic idea (namely: hydraulic systems power some particular artifact). Each sentence can be seen as giving a highly incomplete description of some common, underlying system of relationships between events and artifacts (thus setting the context), and then adding or specializing some fact in that system. The sentence interpretation process can thus be seen as aligning the input with the appropriate general, background system of relationships, and then seeing what the new/specialized information is which the sentence is providing. Peter Clark 23rd May 2001

3. Some sentence variants... • Hydraulic power moves the flight control surfaces • The power supply for the flight control surfaces is hydraulic • The hydraulic system provides power for the flight controls • The hydraulic systems power the brakes • Hydraulic power is used to extend and retract the landing gear • The landing gear uses hydraulic power to deploy

4. Some Background Knowledge... Using isa Consuming doer Artifact object Power object involves Power-Type type object isa Deploying object Extending enables type Moving Supplying isa doer isa Retracting Power-Supply Providing involves involves Controlling Monitoring involves Operating In the next slides: = points of alignment of the sentence with the knowledge Blue text = assertions/specializations made by the sentence

5. Using isa Flight control surfaces Consuming doer Artifact Hydraulic object Power object involves Power-Type type object isa Deploying object Extending enables type Moving Supplying isa doer isa Retracting Power-Supply Providing involves involves Controlling Monitoring involves Operating “Hydraulic power moves the flight control surfaces”

6. Using isa Flight control surfaces Consuming doer Artifact Hydraulic object Power object involves Power-Type type object isa Deploying object Extending enables type Moving Supplying isa doer isa Retracting Power-Supply Providing involves involves Controlling Monitoring involves Operating “The power supply for the flight control surfaces is hydraulic”

7. Using isa Flight control surfaces Consuming doer Artifact object Power object involves Power-Type type object isa Deploying object Extending enables type Moving Supplying isa doer isa Retracting Power-Supply Providing involves involves Controlling Monitoring Hydraulic system involves Operating “The hydraulic system provides power for the flight controls”

8. Using Brakes isa Consuming doer Artifact object Power object involves Power-Type type object isa Deploying object Extending enables type Moving Supplying isa doer isa Retracting Power-Supply Providing involves involves Controlling Monitoring Hydraulic system involves Operating “The hydraulic systems power [supply power to] the brakes”

9. Using Landing gear isa Consuming doer Artifact Hydraulic object Power object involves Power-Type type object isa Deploying object Extending enables type Moving Supplying isa doer isa Retracting Power-Supply Providing involves involves Controlling Monitoring involves Operating “Hydraulic power is used to extend and retract the landing gear”

10. Using Landing gear isa Consuming doer Artifact Hydraulic object Power object involves Power-Type type object isa Deploying object Extending enables type Moving Supplying isa doer isa Retracting Power-Supply Providing involves involves Controlling Monitoring involves Operating “The landing gear uses hydraulic power to deploy”