This document represents some of Jonathan Pool's test sentences for evaluating controlled languages. This document is executable by WebKB-1. To try that, click here or copy-paste the command "run ../doc/languages/PoolSentencesInFE.html;" (without the quotes) in WebKB-1's Knowledge-based Information Retrieval/Handling Tool. The results are printed in the Conceptual Graph Linear Form.
The FE statements with multi-line comments (/* ... */) cannot currently be parsed by WebKB-1. Furthermore, there seems to be bugs is the storage or presentation of "not" operators, intersentential coreferences, and lambda-expressions. However, these are minor problems. The major problems with many of the sentences, and the reason why I have currently represented only half of them in FE, is that directly representing their meaning (actually, some of their many possible meanings) involves comparing sets and defining functions on sets (e.g., statistical functions). FE is not adapted for that. KIF would be better adapted but it would still be quite technical. Furthermore, none of these direct representations would be usable for inferencing purposes. The background knowledge behind these sentences can and should be represented in much more precise ways, using much shorter statements, for a precise and formal modelling to be interesting and hence for the use of FE or another knowledge representation language to be interesting.
//1. Avoid prolonged exposure to excessive heat and humidity. (NLM 2005, art. 3217) Any [exposure with duration an important time and with object some humidity and with object some heat that is source of some pain] is object of an avoidance. //"should be" instead of "is" should rather be used //2. Mosquitoes have become resistant to the pyrethroid insecticide used to // treat mosquito netting. (NIAID 2002, p. 12) #p1 `Every mosquito can be agent of a resistance with object the pyrethroid_insecticide that can be instrument of a treatment with location a mosquito_netting'. Not `#p1 with time a time that has for successor 2002'. //3. Scientists do not think this is a serious limitation yet. (NIAID 2002, p. 12) Not `a scientist is agent of a thinking with object `*this is agent of a limitation with time *now''. //4. The investigators found that the incidence of cancers of the nervous system and the // blood was roughly 2.5 times higher in children whose mothers received pre-1963 // vaccine than in children whose mothers did not. (NCI 2005) /* Several cancers *c1 have for object {the nervous_system, the blood} that is part of a child that has for mother a woman that is object of an injection with object a vaccine and with time a time before 1963. Several cancers *c0 have for object {the nervous_system, the blood} that is part of a child that has for mother a woman that is object of no injection with object a vaccine and with time a time before 1963. The investigators *i are agent of a finding with object `the set of *c1 has for size a number that is close to a number that is result of a multiplication with parameter 2.5 and with parameter a number that is size of the set of *c0'. */ //5. Unless specific measures are taken to extend coverage and promote uptake in all // population groups simultaneously, improvement of aggregate population coverage // will go through a phase of increasing inequality. (WHO 2005, ch. 2, p. 30) /* Several [coverage with object a population that is object of an aggregation] *c are object of an improvement and have for time *futur. //I have no idea how to represent the proposition *p stating that // "the *c in the above set will go through a phase of increasing inequality". Not *p is a consequence of "specific measures are taken to extend coverage and promote uptake in all population groups". //similar problem as above; I give up. */ //6. What type of illness do you suffer from most? (ERP 2005, q. 8) //pm: what difference between illness and "type of illness"? /* What is the illness that is the_most_frequent of the set of [illness that is supertype of an illness that has for object *you]? */ //7. Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of // all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace // in the world. (UDHR 1948, Preamble) /* If there is a recognition *r with object `any person has for characteristic some dignity' and with object `any person is owner of a set of [right that have for characteristic an inelianability] equal to the set of [right that have for characteristic an inelianability] that has for owner any person' then *r is source of a foundation with object {the freedom, the justice, the peace} with location the world. */ //8. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or // religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. (UDHR 1948, Art. 16) //9. No State Party shall expel, return ("refouler") or extradite a person to another // State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in // danger of being subjected to torture. (CAT 1984, Art. 3) //10. The members of the Committee shall be elected by secret ballot from a list of // persons nominated by States Parties. (CAT 1984, Art. 17) //11. Each State Party may nominate one person from among its own nationals. (CAT 1984, Art. 17) //12. An employer is required to take reasonable steps to accommodate your disability // unless it would cause the employer undue hardship. (OCR n.d.)