1. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 20071 Une approche basée sur la langue naturelle pour la modélisation de documents structurés Yves MARCOUX GRDS – EBSI Université de Montréal

2. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 20072 A natural-language approach to modeling Why is some XML so difficult to write? http://www.idealliance.org/papers/extreme/proceedings/html/2006/Marcoux01/EML2006Marcoux01.html

3. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 20073 Structure of the talk 1.The problem 2.Proposed direction for solution 3.Conclusion 4.Question period

4. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 20074 Writing well-formed XML: author’s choices FALSE It's a boy! ♂ = ♂

5. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 20075 Writing valid XML is collaborative work Modeler has chosen the markup (container) Author supplies the contents Much like a form Collaborative work  communication between parties: modeler and author But the modeler is gone…

6. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 20076 Problem Authoring environments are: –good at conveying the syntactic intentions (or decisions) of the modeler –not as good at conveying the semantic intentions of the modeler Often, all there is is a generic ID or some slightly more developed form –Ex.: “date” in a memo

7. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 20077 What is available? More or less developed forms of genIDs (and attribute names) General documentation of the model Per element (attribute) documentation OK for tooltips or popups Could we do better? (Applications / stylesheets are not appropriate)

8. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 20078 Could we aim at… Having a semantic conversation right in the editing window? In the same way that there is actually a syntactic conversation? Yes…

9. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 20079 Structure of the talk 1.The problem 2.Proposed direction for solution 3.Conclusion 4.Question period

10. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200710 Key idea Have modeler prepare bits of NL (prose) That can be intertwined with author- supplied contents to give them meaning Allows “fill-in”-like sentences And thus, a semantic conversation in the editing window NB: modeler segments can contain hyperlinks

11. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200711 Example Facts about some US cities CityPopulation Annual snowfall (inches) Denver850,00023 Rochester240,00088 Palm Spring48,0000

12. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200712 Raw XML Denver 850,000 23 Rochester 240,000 88...

13. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200713 Prose equivalent Here are facts about some US cities. The city of Denver has a population of 850,000 and an annual snowfall of 23 inches. The city of Rochester has a population of 240,000 and an annual snowfall of 88 inches. The city of Palm Spring has a population of 48,000 and an annual snowfall of 0 inches.

14. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200714 Modeler prepares “peritext” segments Elementtext-beforetext-after facts-about-US-cities "Here are facts about some US cities." empty city " The city ""." name "named "empty population " has a population of " empty annual-snowfall-in-inches " and an annual snowfall of " " inches"

15. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200715 Possible “semantic” view Here are facts about some US cities. The city named Denver has a population of 850,000 and an annual snowfall of 23 inches. The city named Rochester has a population of 240,000 and an annual snowfall of 88 inches. The city named Palm Spring has a population of 48,000 and an annual snowfall of 0 inches.

16. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200716 What it allows during editing (in semantic view) Peritexts convey the semantic intentions of the modeler A semantic conversation takes place in the editing window (instead of a syntactic one) Fill-in sentences: –Make “tag abuse” embarrassing… –Likely to reduce some kinds of errors Other views / fragment viewing / hyperlink

17. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200717 Discussion This is not like defining an application –Not a stylesheet mechanism Peritexts (fixed here) could be allowed to vary with some parameters: –position among siblings –attribute value –etc. (Attributes should be treated)

18. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200718 Why does it work? Sometimes tricky (see paper), but… NL has very high affordance NL can act as it’s own metalanguage XML contents + NL usually mix pretty well

19. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200719 Intertextual semantics Meaning of a text fragment is given by placing it in a network of other texts That network can simply consist in a sentence (or “quasi-sentence”) Or more elaborate topology: peritexts can contain hyperlinks, determining sense- making / learning paths –Too much hyperlinking can spoil the idea!

20. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200720 Interpretation workflow d is document or fragment, H is a human S(d) is the intertextual semantics of d S(d) is in NL S is machine computable Actual meaning of d for H may vary: –with H –for a same H, from one “reading” of S(d) to another d  S(d)  actual “meaning” of d for H S H

21. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200721 Interpretation workflow d d S(d) H1H1 H1H1 H2H2 H2H2 H3H3 H3H3

22. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200722 Suggests a modeling process Modeler starts with the prose Identify peritexts Work out more and more abbreviated forms –Will correspond to different “views” in the editor Tersest level gives markup Increase model usability?

23. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200723 Mixed content question revisited Known: can get rid of mixed content with Example: becomes: Why does it feel bad? –Tags “text” are not abbreviations of any reasonable peritexts!

24. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200724 Is NL too much to ask for? Relative to some “target” community Can go a long way (previous slide) Hyperlinks are allowed in peritexts –Allows defining “sense-making” or learning paths (Almost) anything formal can be turned into NL…

25. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200725 NL as formalism common denominator Expression in artificial formalism Textbook explaining formalism STAPLER Equivalent expression in NL

26. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200726 Editing setup without intertextual semantics Modeler Author Valid XML instance or fragment World NL and presupposed knowledge of target community XML EDITOR XML DTD Doc. / tr. material

27. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200727 Editing setup with intertextual semantics Modeler Author Valid XML instance or fragment World NL and presupposed knowledge of target community XML EDITOR XML DTD text-before and text-after segments NL equivalent

28. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200728 Structure of the talk 1.The problem 2.Proposed direction for solution 3.Conclusion 4.Question period

29. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200729 What it suggests Bring some of the discipline of producing “good documents” (manuals of style) into model & interface design –E.g., don’t abuse hyperlinking Litterate modeling, litterate interfaces –Litterate interface / interaction design Benefit: make explicit prerequisite knowledge & sense-making / learning paths

30. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200730 Other possible uses of intertextual semantics Legal documents with multiple renditions NLP systems that cannot treat markup –Including full-text indexing Hamlet “Exit Hamlet” Other data models –Ex.: relational Normal forms –A new look at expressivity

31. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200731 Future work Editing: –Work out a few existing / new models –Properly integrate attributes –More powerful peritext computation –Implement ideas in a real editor Display peritexts when chosing insertion Hyperlinks in displayed peritexts –Experiment with real authors

32. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200732 Future work More than peritexts? More than NL (icons, sound, …)? Compare with other semantic frameworks –Downstream semantics: Wrightson, Renear et al. Other models Tackle litterate modeling / interface design

33. Yves Marcoux - OLST-RALI - 21 mars 200733 Merci! Questions?