NHAAS@IBM.COM.UUCP (05/07/87)
Two speech recognition trickies from Eng. Lit.: Our Glass Lake (Hourglass Lake) -- Nabokov Make-Believe Express (Maple Leaf Express) -- Thurber
mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) (05/13/87)
It is usually claimed that sentential or speech ambiguities can be
resolved by knowing the context. I heard one on TV the other night
that cannot be so resolved. It could be disambiguated only by
asking the talker. Here is the situation:
A nature program was describing the return of salmon from the sea to
their native river. During the salt-to-fresh water transition, they
congregate in teh shallow water at the mouth of the river. One after
another, they are picked off by swooping sea-birds. The commentator
said " ... they are picked off by {terns|turns}." Knowing completely
the context, it is impossible to know which he meant, although the two
meanings are very different.
--
Martin Taylor
{allegra,linus,ihnp4,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt
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mmt@zorac.arpa
Magic is just advanced technology ... so is intelligence. Before computers,
the ability to do arithmetic was proof of intelligence. What proves
intelligence now?