Funding

The project DAWAI is funded by the DFG (German Research Foundation). The second phase continues at least until December 2000 under support number Me-1472/1-2. From January 1997 to December 1998, the first phase was sponsored under support numbers Ku-811/3-1 and Me-1472/1-1.

Overview

Spoken language processing requires the abilities to cope with deviant input and to adapt to constantly changing temporal restrictions. Within the framework of structural disambiguation by constraint satisfaction the realization of such a behaviour by anytime algorithms is investigated. `Soft' constraints will be used to assess structural configurations. Multiple loosely coupled levels of interpretation guarantee some kind of redundancy which is necessary to compensate errors on one level by strong evidence on others. Different kinds of scheduling schemas of constraint application enables the system to cope with temporal restrictions. Hopefully these methods cover both a robust treatment against unexpected input as well as graceful degradation under time pressure.