There is a signup schedule for this event.

Speaker Name

/Affiliation: Hermann Helbig/University of Hagen Germany

Date/Time

: March 9 2007 11:00a.m.

Location: ACE 6.304

Host: Bruce
Porter

Talk Abstract:
The talk gives an overview of Multilayered
Extended Semantic
Networks (abbreviated MultiNet) which is one of the

most
comprehensively described knowledge representation paradigms
use

d as a semantic interlingua in large-scale NLP applications
and for ling

uistic investigations into the semantics and
pragmatics of natural langu

age.

As with other semantic networks concepts are represented
in
MultiNet by nodes and relations between concepts are
represented as ar

cs between these nodes. Additionally to
that every node is classified a

ccording to a predefined
conceptual ontology forming a hierarchy of sort

s and the
nodes are embedded in a multidimensional space of layer
at

tributes and their values.

MultiNet provides a set of about 150 stan

dardized relations
and functions which are described in a very concise w

ay
including an axiomatic apparatus where the axioms are classified

according to predefined types. The representational means
of MultiNet cl

aim to fulfill the criteria of universality
homogeneity and cognitive

adequacy. In the talk it is
also shown how MultiNet can be used for th

e semantic representation
of different semantic phenomena.

To ove

rcome the quantitative barrier in building large knowledge
bases and sem

antically oriented computational lexica MultiNet
is associated with a s

et of tools including a semantic interpreter
NatLink for automatically t

ranslating natural language expressions
into MultiNet networks a workbe

nch LIA for the computer
lexicographer and a workbench MWR for the know

ledge engineer
for managing and graphically manipulating semantic networ

ks.

The applications of MultiNet as a semantic interlingua range

from natural language interfaces to the Internet and to
dedicated databa

ses over question-answering systems to systems
for automatic knowledge
acquisition.

Speaker Bio:
Hermann Helbig is Professor at the Uni

versity of Hagen Germany and head of the chair Intelligent Information an

d Communication Systems. He received his Dr.rer.nat. (Ph.D.)in 1976 in Auto

matic Symbolic Formula Manipulation and his Dr.rer.nat.habil. (Habilitation

) in 1986 in Knowledge Representation. His experiences in AI research cove

r a period of more than 30 years. His main contributions lie in the fields

of question answering (question-answering system FAS-80) natural language

interfaces to data bases (NLI-AIDOS) word-class controlled
functional a

nalysis (WCFA) knowledge representation (MultiNet
paradigm) and comput

ational lexicography (semantically based computational lexicon HaGenLex). H

e is author of several monographs in AI his last book relevant to the talk
is Knowledge Representation and the Semantics of Natural Language.

His research interests cover issues in Natural Language Processing Computa

tional Lexicography Knowledge Representation and Management Semantics of

NL and Electronic Distance Teaching in AI.