A Survey and Classification of Controlled Natural Languages <s> English-based Controlled Languages <s> We describe a method for evaluating a grammar checking application with hand-bracketed parses. A randomly-selected set of sentences was submitted to a grammar checker in both bracketed and unbracketed formats. A comparison of the resulting error reports illuminates the relationship between the underlying performance of the parser-grammar system and the error critiques presented to the user. <s> BIB001 </s> A Survey and Classification of Controlled Natural Languages <s> English-based Controlled Languages <s> The Internet is a giant semiotic system. It is a massive collection of Peirce’s three kinds of signs: icons, which show the form of something; indices, which point to something; and symbols, which represent something according to some convention. But current proposals for ontologies and metadata have overlooked some of the most important features of signs. A sign has three aspects: it is (1) an entity that represents (2) another entity to (3) an agent. By looking only at the signs themselves, some metadata proposals have lost sight of the entities they represent and the agents – human, animal, or robot – which interpret them. With its three branches of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, semiotics provides guidelines for organizing and using signs to represent something to someone for some purpose. Besides representation, semiotics also supports methods for translating patterns of signs intended for one purpose to other patterns intended for different but related purposes. This article shows how the fundamental semiotic primitives are represented in semantically equivalent notations for logic, including controlled natural languages and various computer languages. <s> BIB002 </s> A Survey and Classification of Controlled Natural Languages <s> English-based Controlled Languages <s> In this paper we discuss a deployed application at Ford Motor Company that utilizes AI technology for the analysis of potential ergonomic concerns at our assembly plants. The manufacture of motor vehicles is a complex and dynamic problem and the costs related to workplace injuries and lost productivity due to bad ergonomic design can be very significant. We have developed two separate ergonomic analysis systems that have been integrated into the process planning for manufacturing system at Ford known as the Global Study and Process Allocation System (GSPAS). GSPAS has become the global repository for standardized engineering processes and data for assembling all Ford vehicles, including parts, tools and standard labor time. One of the more significant benefits of GSPAS is the use of a controlled language, known as Standard Language, which is used throughout Ford to write the process assembly instructions. AI is already used within GSPAS for Standard Language validation and direct labor management. The work described here shows how we built upon our previous success with AI to expand the technology into the new domain of ergonomics analysis. <s> BIB003
Below, twelve selected CNLs are introduced, roughly in chronological order of their first appearance or the first appearance of similar predecessor languages. For this small sample, languages are chosen that were influential, are well-documented, and/or are sufficiently different from the other languages of the sample. "Sowa's syllogisms" BIB002 ) are simple logic languages based on the syllogisms originally introduced by Aristotle (ca. 350 BC). Sowa was probably the first to bring them into the context of CNL, claiming that they are the first reported instance of a controlled natural language. Because this survey is restricted to English, Sowa's version of the syllogisms is listed here instead of Aristotle's original version in ancient Greek. The complete language can be described by just four simple sentence patterns: Every A is a B. Some A is a B. No A is a B. Some A is not a B. A and B can be any English common nouns such as cat and animal. This language is very similar to the language E 0 presented and studied by Pratt-Hartmann (2004), who used some additional patterns: Every A is not a B. No A is not a B. P is a B. P is not a B. Here, P can be any English proper name such as Socrates. We will use the term "Sowa's syllogisms" in a sense that includes such similar approaches. The semantics of syllogisms is also very easy to define. The first four patterns shown above can be mapped to first-order logic like this (and similarly for the other patterns): Computational Linguistics Hereby, we have an exact and comprehensive description of the language, taking just a couple of lines. Despite the simple structure of the language, the sentences are perfectly natural. Its expressiveness, however, is very restricted: Only very simple sentence structures are covered and only one-place relations are supported. Basic English  ) is a language presented in 1930 that should improve communication among people around the globe. It is the first reported instance of a controlled version of English, at least the first one that received broader recognition. It influenced Caterpillar Fundamental English, which became itself a very influential language. Basic English was designed as a common basis for communication in politics, economy, and science. It restricts the grammar and makes use of only 850 English root words. The restrictions are arguably most drastic in the case of verbs. Only 18 verbs are supported: put, take, give, get, come, go, make, keep, let, do, be, seem, have, may, will, say, see, and send. These verbs can be combined with prepositions to form more specific relations such as put in to express insert. Other verbs can be expressed with the help of nouns, such as give a move instead of using move as a verb. The usage of the given words and their variants is described by informal grammar rules, for example "Collective nouns may be formed from adjectives when used with the." These are two examples of sentences in Basic English: The camera man who made an attempt to take a moving picture of the society women, before they got their hats off, did not get off the ship till he was questioned by the police. It was his view that in another hundred years Britain will be a second-rate power. Many variations exist that use larger word sets. The Simple English version of Wikipedia, 3 for example, claims to use Basic English, but in fact uses a much less restricted language. Basic English is still used today and promoted by a dedicated BasicEnglish Institute. 4 Many texts have been written in this language, including textbooks, novels, and large parts of the bible. The drastic simplifications on the lexical level together with the grammatical restrictions constitute a significant gain in precision compared to full English. Still, any type of topic can be expressed with a natural text flow. The informal restrictions on the grammar, however, are not strong enough to significantly reduce the complexity of the language (in the PENS sense of complexity).  ) is a restricted version of English with the only restriction being that the verb to be is forbidden to use. This includes all inflectional forms such as are, was and being, regardless of whether used as auxiliary or main verb. The language was presented in 1965 but the idea goes back to the late 1940s. The motivation for the use of E-Prime is the belief that "dangers and inadequacies [...] can result from the careless, unthinking, automatic use of the verb 'to be'." E-Prime is claimed by its proponents to enhance clarity. The statement "We do this because it is right" would not be allowed, but one would have to rephrase it in a way that does not include to be, for example: We do this thing because we sincerely desire to minimize the discrepancies between our actions and our stated "ideals." In the area of natural language processing, however, the verb to be is not considered one of the most difficult problems, which is good evidence that E-Prime is not considerably more precise than full English in the PENS sense. Also in terms of complexity it is not considerably different from full English, because words such as become and exist are allowed that can replace the forbidden to be in most cases. On the other hand, it seems true that it is always possible to rephrase a text without the use of to be in a way that is fully natural though possibly longer than the original. -P  ) was an influential controlled language developed at Caterpillar. It was officially introduced in 1971, was based on Basic English  , and has been reported to be the earliest industry-based CNL BIB001 . The need for a controlled language emerged because of the increasing sophistication of Caterpillar's products and the need to communicate with non-English speaking service personnel in different countries  : "To summarize the problem: There are more than 20,000 publications that must be understood by thousands of people speaking more than 50 different languages." The idea of CFE was "to eliminate the need to translate service manuals" (Kamprath et al. 1998). A trained, non-English speaking mechanic familiar with Caterpillar's products should be able to understand the language after completing a course on CFE consisting of 30 lessons. The vocabulary of the language is restricted to around 800 to 1,000 words (Crabbe 2009), with only one meaning defined for each of them (e.g., right only as the opposite of left). Still, many of the words "had broad semantic scope and it was assumed that they would be disambiguated in context by the human reader" (Kamprath et al. 1998). The following ten rules summarize the grammatical restrictions  These are two examples of CFE sentences: The maximum endplay is .005 inch. Lift heavy objects with a lifting beam only. CFE was discontinued by Caterpillar in 1982, because (among other reasons) "the basic guidelines of CFE were not enforceable in the English documents produced" (Kamprath et al. 1998). As a result, Caterpillar Technical English (see appendix) was developed following a different approach: The restrictions on the language should be enforceable, and should reduce translation costs instead of trying to eliminate the need for translations altogether. The strong lexical restrictions together with some grammatical constraints make CFE more precise than full English, but it is not considerably different in terms of expressiveness, naturalness, and complexity. -P Vocabulary and semantics are restricted too, for example "Use the word gain and/or loss when describing to pilots the effects of wind shear on airspeed." Phraseology statements can be mixed with statements in full English in cases where no pattern exists to express the desired message. The language is heavily restricted and much less ambiguous than full English. It is inexpressive in the sense that no universal quantification is supported, and is not sufficiently restricted to make an exact and exhaustive description feasible. Originally inspired by a language called ILSAM (Adriaens and Schreors 1992), the language had its origins in 1979, but it was only in 1986 when it was officially presented for the first time, then under the name AECMA Simplified English. It received its current name in 2004 when AECMA merged with two other associations to form ASD. The main purpose of the language is to make texts easier to understand, especially for non-native speakers. While AECMA Simplified English was designed to make translation into other languages unnecessary, one of the original goals of ASD-STE was to improve translation. Today, the language is maintained by the Simplified Technical English Maintenance Group. ASD-STE is based on English with restrictions expressed in about 60 general rules. These rules restrict the language on the lexical level (e.g., "Use approved words from the Dictionary only as the part of speech given"), on the syntactic level (e.g., "Do not make noun clusters of more than three nouns"), as well as on the semantic level (e.g., "Keep to the approved meaning of a word in the Dictionary. Do not use the word with any other meaning."). There is a fixed vocabulary consisting of terms common to the aerospace domain. Additionally, user-defined "Technical Names" and "Technical Verbs" can be introduced. This is an exemplary excerpt of a text in ASD-STE: These safety precautions are the minimum necessary for work in a fuel tank. But the local regulations can make other safety precautions necessary. Even though its restrictions make ASD-STE considerably more precise than full English, it does not allow for reliable automatic interpretation. Full expressiveness and full naturalness of unconstrained English are retained, but also its complexity. -P Standard Language (SLANG)  BIB003 ) is a language developed at Ford Motor Company starting from 1990. It is designed for process sheets containing build instructions for component and vehicle assembly plants. It is still used at Ford and has been continually extended and updated to reflect technical and business-related advances. With SLANG, engineers can write instructions that are clear and concise and at the same time machine-readable. Based on these instructions, the system can, among other things, automatically generate a list of required elements and calculate labor times. In addition, the restricted nature of the language is exploited to translate such instructions with the help of machine translation for their use in assembly plants in different countries. All SLANG sentences are in imperative mood and follow a certain general pattern starting with a main verb and followed by a noun phrase. There are additional restrictions on vocabulary and semantics. These are two exemplary sentences: