Memo 288, AI Laboratory, Stanford University.

This paper describes a computer system for understanding English. The system answers questions, executes commands, and accepts information in an interactive English dialog. It is based on the belief that in modeling language understanding, we must deal in an integrated way with all of the aspects of language—syntax, semantics, and inference. The system contains a parser, a recognition grammar of English, programs for semantic analysis, and a general problem solving system. We assume that a computer cannot deal reasonably with language unless it can understand the subject it is discussing. Therefore, the program is given a detailed model of a particular domain.

Artificial Intelligence 8:241-274

Artificial Intelligence 7:21-49.

Among the largest university presses in the world, The MIT Press publishes over 200 new books each year along with 30 journals in the arts and humanities, economics, international affairs, history, political science, science and technology along with other disciplines. We were among the first university presses to offer titles electronically and we continue to adopt technologies that allow us to better support the scholarly mission and disseminate our content widely. The Press's enthusiasm for innovation is reflected in our continuing exploration of this frontier. Since the late 1960s, we have experimented with generation after generation of electronic publishing tools. Through our commitment to new products--whether digital journals or entirely new forms of communication--we have continued to look for the most efficient and effective means to serve our readership.

"The DENDRAL computer program uses established rules of molecular fragmentation to help chemists solve complex structural problems from mass spectral data. This paper describes a computer program called Meta-DENDRAL, that can aid in the discovery of such rules from empirical data on known components. The program uses heuristic methods to search for common structural environments around those bonds that are found to fragment and abstracts plausible fragmentation rules. The program has been tested on the well-characterized, low-resolution mass spectra of aliphatic amines and the high-resolution mass spectra of estrogenic steroids. The program has also discovered new fragmentation rules for mono-, di-, and triketoandrostanes."Journal of the American Chemical Society 98:6168-6178

Amsterdam: North-Holland

In L. Steels (Ed.), Advances in natural language processing. Antwerp, Belgium: University of Antwerp.

In L. Steels (Ed.), Advances in natural language processing. Antwerp, Belgium: University of Antwerp.

This paper presents a functional overview of the features and capabilities of QLISP, one of the newest of the current generation of very high level languages developed for use in Artificial Intelligence (AI) research.QLISP is both a programming language and an interactive programming environment. It embeds an extended version of QA4, an earlier AI language, in INTERLISP, a widely available version of LISP with a variety of sophisticated programming aids.The language features provided by QLISP include a variety of useful data types, an associative data base for the storage and retrieval of expressions, the ability to associate property lists with arbitrary expressions, a powerful pattern matcher based on a unification algorithm, pattern-directed function invocation, "teams" of pattern invoked functions, a sophisticated mechanism for breaking a data base into contexts, generators for associative data retrieval, and easy extensibility.System features available in QLISP include a very smooth interaction with the underlying INTERLISP language, a facility for aggregating multiple pattern matches, and features for interactive control of programs.A number of applications to which QLISP has been put are briefly discussed, and some directions for future development are presented. SRI Tech.Note 120, AI Center, SRI International, Inc., Menlo Park, Calif.