PARIS: a parallel inference system

This paper presents an inferential system based on abductive interpretation of text. Inference to the best explanation is performed by the recognition of the most economic semantic paths produced by the propagation of markers on a very large linguistic knowledge base. The propagation of markers is controlled by their intrinsic propagation rules, devised from plausible semantic relation chains. An interpretation is inferred whenever two markers collide. Using a very large knowledge base, our inferential system aims at producing interpretations accountable for common sense reasoning. The novelty is that the inference rules model a large variety of implications, as suggested by the knowledge base relations. Textual implicatures are recognized as pragmatic inferences.