Review
Zhan Weidong1 , Chang Baobao2 , Yu Shiwen2
1999, 13(3): 10-18.
This paper analyses the ambiguity of determining boundaries of Chinese phrases in automatic parsing by computer. The type of ambiguity can be classified from three different perspectives. As viewed from component of ambiguous structures , ambiguous phrases can be classified into two kinds : one including terminal symbols , the other not including terminal symbols but only non - terminal symbols. As viewed f rom the influence of ambiguity , ambiguous phrases can also be classified into two kinds : self - confined ambiguous phrases and non - self - confined ambiguous phrases. The influence of the former ambiguity is mainly inside the ambiguous phrases. The influence of the latter ambiguity is outside of the ambiguous phrases. As viewed from differentiated types of relation between type and token , ambiguous phrases can be classified into three kinds : the true - ambiguity , the quasi - ambiguity , and the pseudo - ambiguity. Furthermore , the distribution of these types of ambiguous phrases in Modern Chinese is also surveyed depending on the above analysis and a set of rules used for a Chinese - English Machine Translation system. The authors hope that the analysis on various types of ambiguities mentioned above conduces to solve the problem of phrase structure ambiguities in Chinese.