Partiality and Underspecification in Information, Languages, and Knowledge

Book excerpt: In recent years, there has been a proliferation of technological developments that incorporate processing of human language. Hardware and software can be specialized for designated subject areas, and computational devices are designed for a widening variety of applications. At the same time, new areas and applications are emerging by demanding intelligent technology enhanced by the processing of human language. These new applications often perform tasks which handle information, and they have a capacity to reason, using both formal and human language. Many sub-areas of Artificial Intelligence demand integration of Natural Language Processing, at least to some degree. Furthermore, technologies require coverage of known as well as unknown agents, and tasks with potential variations. All of this takes place in environments with unknown factors. The book covers theoretical work, advanced applications, approaches, and techniques for computational models of information, reasoning systems, and presentation in language. The book promotes work on intelligent natural language processing and related models of information, thought, reasoning, and other cognitive processes. The topics covered by the chapters prompt further research and developments of advanced systems in the areas of logic, computability, computational linguistics, cognitive science, neuroscience of language, robotics, and artificial intelligence, among others.