The Confusor Set

The confusor set is the set of entities which a partially constructed NP unintentionally refers to. For instance, if we have only selected the head noun, brooch, then the confusor set is all brooches known to the system apart from the intended referent.

The process of building a referring expression can be seen as successively reducing the confusor set until it is empty. Assuming a common-np, the steps in this reduction are:

1. Set Initial Confusors based on focus status:
   • Sem is member of Focal-objects: Deixis: proximal (this/these). Confusors: Focal-objects, without Sem.
   • Entity has an assimilated Owner fact: Deixis: Owner. Confusors: other entities owned by Owner.
   • Entity has been mentioned already on this page: Deixis: nonproximal (the). Confusors: Other entities mentioned on page.
   • Default: Deixis: nonproximal (the). Confusors: Shared-Entities.
2. Restrict on class: Choose a head noun for the item, and eliminate all confusors which do not take the class.
3. Add Restrictive Modifiers: Choose a subset of assimilated facts which eliminates all confusors (see next sub-section).
4. Insert ``One of" if needed: (not yet implemented) If insufficient assimilated facts to eliminate all confusors, insert ``one of" or ``another of" into the Pre-Deictic slot. ``another of" is used if the confusor is already mentioned on the page.