Stefan Riezler

Probabilistic Constraint Logic Programming


Arbeitspapiere des SFB 340, Bericht Nr. 117 (1997), 35pp.
DVI (134kb); Postscript (405kb)1-up; Postscript gzip-komprimiert (113kb) 1-up , 2-up.

Abstract

This paper addresses two central problems for probabilistic processing models: parameter estimation from incomplete data and efficient retrieval of most probable analyses. These questions have been answered satisfactorily only for probabilistic regular and context-free models. We address these problems for a more expressive probabilistic constraint logic programming model.

We present a log-linear probability model for probabilistic constraint logic programming. On top of this model we define an algorithm to estimate the parameters and to select the properties of log-linear models from incomplete data. This algorithm is an extension of the improved iterative scaling algorithm of Della-Pietra (1995). Our algorithm applies to log-linear models in general and is accompanied with suitable approximation methods when applied to large data spaces. Furthermore, we present an approach for searching for most probable analyses of the probabilistic constraint logic programming model. This method can be applied to the ambiguity resolution problem in natural language processing applications.


Graduiertenkolleg ILS
Seminar für Sprachwissenschaft
Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
Wilhelmstraße 113
72074 Tübingen
Germany

riezler@sfs.nphil.uni-tuebingen.de