Temporal Reasoning Intro to TimeML

1
Temporal ReasoningIntro to TimeML

• cs112
• October, 2004

2
TimeML what it is

• Standard language for the mark-up of
• temporal expressions
• events
• temporal anchoring of events
• (relations between events and temporal
  expressions)
• temporal ordering of events
• (relations between events and other events)

3
TimeML goals

• Long term aim provide the basic background for
• Temporal inference
• QAS to be able to answer questions like
• Is Gates currently CEO of Microsoft?
• Were there any meetings between the hijackers and
  Iraq before the WTC event?
• Creation of a gold standard corpus with temporal
  expressions, events and basic temporal relations
  marked up.

4
An example

• Two Russians and a Frenchman left the Mir and
  endured a rough landing on the snow-covered
  plains of Central Asia on Thursday. The two
  Russians arrived on the Mir last August. Solovyou
  celebrated his 50th birthday during his six-month
  space voyage.

5
An example

• Two Russians and a Frenchman left the Mir and
  endured a rough landing on the snow-covered
  plains of Central Asia on Thursday. The two
  Russians arrived on the Mir last August. Solovyou
  celebrated his 50th birthday during his six-month
  space voyage.

6
What to annotate

• Time Expressions (timex)
• Events
• Signals
• Links

Well mark them up with a set of attributes.
7
What to annotate TIMEX3
8
What to annotate TIMEX3

• Durations
• 4 hours, the whole week, half a year,
• Calendar dates (points in time equal or bigger
  than a day)
• Precise dates March 16, 2003 two years ago
  today yesterday
• Vague dates few days ago ending of March
• Week references the 2nd week of January
  several weeks later
• Yearly quarters and halves the 4th quarter
  beginning last semester
• Seasons last Summer Fall 1998
• Year references the 60s, 1920
• Decades, centuries and millenia the last decade
• Times of Day (points in time smaller than a
  day)
• Precise times 730am Tuesday, March 25 at
  1200pm
• Vague times several minutes before
• Parts of day Saturday afternoon, yesterday
  early in the morning
• Sets (reoccurring time expressions)
• Two times a week, every day,

9
Attributes for the tag TIMEX3

• Timex ID (automatically assigned)
• Type
• DATE, for expressions describing a calendar
  date
• the second of December, yesterday, the summer of
  1971, Tuesday, ...
• TIME, for expressions describing a times of day
• five minuts past eight 730am 900 am Friday,
  October 1, 1755
• DURATION
• 2 months, 48 hours, all last night, three weeks.
• SET
• Value
• ISO value for the time expression.
• Feb 27, 1998 0814 1998-02-27T081400
• twelve weeks P12W

10
Attributes for the tag TIMEX3 (2)

• Mod

11
Attributes for the tag TIMEX3 (3)

• temporalFunction binary attribute
• F the timex provides all the info
• Twelve oclock January 3, 1969
• Summer of 1964
• T the timex doesnt contain all the info needed
  to locate it at a specific point of time
  (therefore, a temporal function needs to be
  applied)
• eleven in the morning
• yesterday
• next year
• anchorTimeID
• Use only when temporalFunction attribute is set
  to TRUE
• Refers to the temporal anchor for the
  incomplete timex.

12
Attributes for the tag TIMEX3 (4)

• functionInDocument
• CREATION TIME
• MODIFICATION TIME
• PUBLICATION TIME
• RELEASE TIME
• RECEPTION TIME
• NONE
• At most, once per document
• Generally CREATION TIME

13
Example of annotated TIMEXs

• Mary left on Thursday and John arrived the day
  after.
• Mary left
• on
• ltTIMEX3 tid"t1" type"DATE value"1998-WXX-4"
  temporalFunction"true anchorTimeID"t0"gt
• Thursday
• lt/TIMEX3gt
• and John arrived
• ltTIMEX3 tid"t2" type"DATE value"1998-WXX-5"
  temporalFunction"true anchorTimeID"t1"gt
• the day
• lt/TIMEX3gt
• after

14
Example of annotated TIMEXs

• TERQAS Workshop will resume Monday, July 15. The
  session will start at 900 a.m.
• TERQAS Workshop will resume
• ltTIMEX3 tid"t1" type"DATE" value"2002-07-15
• temporalFunction"true" anchorTimeID"t0"gt
• Monday, July 15
• lt/TIMEX3gt
• . The session will start at
• ltTIMEX3 tid"t2" type"TIME" value" 2002-07-15
  T900" temporalFunction"true" anchorTimeID"t1"gt
• 900 a.m.
• lt/TIMEX3gt

15
What to annotate EVENTs
16
What to annotate EVENTs

• Tensed Verbs
• A fresh flow of lava, gas and debris erupted
  there Saturday.
• Untensed verbs
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the
  prime minister of the Netherlands to thank him
  for thousands of gas masks his country has
  already contributed.
• Nominalizations
• Israel will ask the US to delay a military strike
  against Iraq until the Jewish state is fully
  prepared for a possible Iraqi attack.
• Adjectives
• A Philippine volcano, dormant for six centuries,
  began exploding with searing gases, thick ash and
  deadly debris.
• Prepositional phrases
• All 75 people on board the Aeroflot Airbus died.
• Predicative Clauses
• "There is no reason why we would not be
  prepared," Mordechai told the Yediot Ahronot
  daily.

17
Attributes for the tag EVENT

• Event ID (automatically assigned)
• Class
• REPORTING say, report, announce,
• PERCEPTION see, hear, watch, feel.
• ASPECTUAL begin, start, finish, stop, continue.
• I_ACTION attempt, try, promise, offer, regret,
• I_STATE believe, want, wish,
• STATE be on board, kidnapped, recovering, love,
  ..
• OCCURRENCE die, crash, build, merge, sell, take
  advantage of, ..

18
Example of annotated EVENTs

• Israel may ask the United States to delay a
  military strike against Iraq until the Jewish
  state is fully prepared for a possible Iraqi
  attack.
• Israel may
• ltEVENT eid"e1" class"I_ACTIONgt
• ask lt/EVENTgt
• the United States not to
• ltEVENT eid"e2" class"I_ACTIONgt
• delay lt/EVENTgt
• a military
• ltEVENT eid"e3" class"OCCURRENCEgt
• strike lt/EVENTgt
• against Iraq until the Jewish state is fully
• ltEVENT eid"e4" class"I_STATEgt
• prepared lt/EVENTgt
• for a possible Iraqi
• ltEVENT eid"e5" class"OCCURRENCEgt
• attack lt/EVENTgt

19
What to annotate MAKEINSTANCEs
20
Attributes for MAKEINSTANCE

• Event Instance ID (automatically assigned)
• Event ID (automatically assigned)
• Tense (only pertinent for verbs)
• PAST John decided/had decided not to go.
• PRESENT John decides/has decided not to go.
• FUTURE John will decide/will have decided not to
  go.
• NONE John decided not to go / Johns decision
  ...
• Aspect (only pertinent for verbs)
• PROGRESSIVE BE -ing John is/was/will
  be eating
• PERFECTIVE HAVE Ppart John
  has/had/will have eaten
• PERFECTIVE_PROGRESSIVE John has/had been
  eating
• NONE John eats/ate/will eat

21
Attributes for MAKEINSTANCE

• nf_morph
• NOUN Johns decision was not to go.
• ADJECTIVE Sue was ashamed of Johns decision.
• INFINITIVE John decided not to go.
• PRESPART While playing, John broke his leg.
• PASTPART Steel plates found at the scene are
  being analyzed by experts.
• Polarity
• POS no negation present John went.
• NEG negation present John did not go.
• Modality
• Modal Auxiliars like could, can, might, may,
  must, should,
• Signal_ID --see the guidelines
• Cardinality --see the guidelines

22
Example of annotated MIs
Israel may ask the United States to delay a
military strike against Iraq Israel may ltEVENT
eid"e1" class"I_ACTIONgt ask lt/EVENTgt ltMI
eiidei1 eide1 tenseNONE aspectNONE
nf_morphNONE modalitymay/gt the United
States to ltEVENT eid"e2" class"I_ACTIONgt
delay lt/EVENTgt ltMI eiidei2 eide2
tenseNONE aspectNONE nf_morphINFINITIVE/gt
a military ltEVENT eid"e3" class"OCCURRENCE"gt
strike lt/EVENTgt ltMI eiidei3 eide3
tenseNONE aspectNONE nf_morphNOUN/gt
23
What to annotate SIGNALs
24
What to annotate SIGNALs

• Temporal prepositions
• on, in, at, from, to, before, after, during,
  etc.
• Temporal conjunctions
• before, after, while, when, etc.
• Temporal modifiers (only when modifying events)
• twice, every, three times, etc.
• Special characters
• - and /, in temporal expressions denoting
  ranges (September, 4-6, Apr. 1999/Jul. 1999,
  etc.).

25
Attributes for the tag SIGNAL

• Signal ID automatically assigned
• (they are very boring!)

26
Example of annotated SIGNALs

• Temporal Prepositions, Conjunctions and
  Modifiers
• John taught ltSIGNAL sid"s1"gtonlt/SIGNALgt Monday
• All passengers died ltSIGNAL sid"s1"gtwhenlt/SIGNAL
  gt the plane crashed into the mountain.

27
What to annotate LINKs
28
What to annotate LINKs

• Temporal TLINK
• It represents the temporal relationship holding
  between events or between an event and a timex
• Mary arrived in Boston last Thursday.
• Aspectual ALINK
• It represent the relationship between an
  aspectual event and its argument event.
• She finished assembling the table.
• Subordination SLINK
• It is used for contexts introducing relations
  between an I-ACTION/I-STATE event and its event
  argument, or an event and a negation or modal
• She tried to buy some wine.

29
relType the attribute for TLINK

• Simultaneous (only for pairs of events)
• Mary was watching TV while John was frying the
  eggs.
• Before/After
• Mary had decided not to help him. (wrt
  watching or frying in the previous sentence).
• Immediately before/Immediately after
• One of the eggs crashed as soon as it touched
  the pan.
• Including/Being included
• Mary arrived in Boston last Thursday.
• During (states or events that persist through a
  duration)
• John fried eggs for 20 minutes on Monday.
• Beginning/Begun by
• John fried eggs from 600pm to 620pm.
• Ending/Ended by
• John fried eggs from 600pm to 620pm.
• Identity (only for pairs of events)
• Mary was resting for a while. After her rest,
  she took a bath.

30
relType the attribute for SLINK

• Modal, introduced mainly by
• I_States Mary wanted John to buy some wine.
• I_Actions John tried to get ticket for the
  final.
• Factive, for I-events introducing some
  presupposition
• John forgot he was in Boston last year.
• Counter-factive, for I-events introducing a
  presupposition about the non-veracity of its
  argument
• forget (to), prevent, cancel, avoid, decline,
  etc.
• Evidential, mainly introduced by Reporting and
  Perception events
• say, report, see, hear, ..
• Negative Evidential, introduced by Reporting
  events that convey negative polarity
• John denied he bought only beer.

31
relType the attribute for ALINK

• Initiation
• John started to read.
• Culmination
• John finished assembling the table.
• Termination
• John stopped talking.
• Continuation
• John kept talking.

32
Final remark

• Please, read the Annotation Guidelines!