RESOLUTION OF AMBIGUITIES IN CARTOONS AS AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE ROLE OF PRAGMATICS IN NATURAL LANGUAGE UNDERSTANDING BY COMPUTERS

Newspaper cartoons can graphically display the results of ambiguity in human speech; the result can be unexpected and funny. Likewise, computer analysis of natural language statements also needs to successfully resolve ambiguous situations. Computer techniques already developed use restricted world knowledge in resolving ambiguous language use. This paper illustrates how these techniques can be used in resolving ambiguous situations arising in cartoons.