![COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS AND LINGUISTIC MODELS
6
ting now on student benches. This book on computational linguis-
tics models and their applications is targeted at these students,
namely, at those students of the Latin American universities study-
ing computer science and technology who are interested in the de-
velopment of natural language processing software.
Thus, we expect the students to have already some background in
computer science, though no special training in the humanities and
in linguistics in particular.
On the modern book market, there are many texts on Natural
Language Processing (NLP), e.g. [1, 2, 7, 9]. They are quite appro-
priate as the further step in education for the students in computer
science interested in the selected field. However, for the novices in
linguistics (and the students in computer science are among them)
the available books still leave some space for additional manuals
because of the following shortages:
• Many of them are English-oriented. Meanwhile, English, in spite
of all its vocabulary similarities with Spanish, is a language with
quite a different grammatical structure. Unlike Spanish, English
has a very strict word order and its morphology is very simple, so
that the direct transfer of the methods of morphologic and syntac-
tic analysis from English to Spanish is dubious.
• Only few of these manuals have as their objective to give a
united and comparative exposition of various coexisting theories
of text processing. Moreover, even those few ones are not very
successful since the methodologies to be observed and compared
are too diverse in their approaches. Sometimes they even contra-
dict each other in their definitions and notations.
• The majority of these manuals are oriented only to the formal-
isms of syntax, so that some of them seemingly reduce computa-
tional linguistics to a science about English syntax. Nevertheless,
linguistics in general investigates various linguistic levels,
namely, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. For each
of these levels, the amount of purely linguistic knowledge rele-](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/538425-250701032150-89ab90d6/85/Computational-Linguistics-Models-Resources-Applications-Bolshakov-Igor-A-18-320.jpg)
![COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS AND LINGUISTIC MODELS
12
other complex structures, sometimes with backtracking, are appli-
cable also to linguistic software systems.
Because of this, many specialists in AI consider computational
linguistics a part of AI [2, 40, 54]. Though such an expansion ham-
pers nothing, it is not well grounded, in our opinion, since computa-
tional linguistics has its own theoretical background, scientific
neighbors, methods of knowledge representation, and decision
search. The sample systems of natural language processing, which
wander from one manual on AI to another, seem rather toy and ob-
solete.
Though the two fields of research are different, those familiar
with both fields can be more productive. Indeed, they do not need to
invent things already well known in the adjacent field, just taking
from the neighborhood what they prefer for their own purposes.
Thus, we encourage our readers to deeply familiarize themselves
with the area of AI. We also believe that our books could be useful
for students specializing in AI.
SELECTION OF TOPICS
Since the MTT described below in detail improves and enriches
rather than rejects the previous tradition in general linguistics, we
will mainly follow the MTT in description and explanation of facts
and features of natural languages, giving specific emphasis on
Spanish.
To avoid a scientific jumble, we usually do not mark what issues
are characteristic to the MTT, but are absent or are described in a
different way in other theories. We give in parallel the point of view
of the HPSG-like formalisms on the same issue only in the places
where it is necessary for the reader to be able to understand the cor-
responding books and articles on computational linguistics written
in the tradition originated by Chomsky.
We should assert here that the MTT is only a tool for language de-
scription. It does not bind researchers to specific algorithms or to
specific formats of representation of linguistic data. We can find the](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/538425-250701032150-89ab90d6/85/Computational-Linguistics-Models-Resources-Applications-Bolshakov-Igor-A-24-320.jpg)
Computational Linguistics Models Resources Applications Bolshakov Igor A
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- 3. Computational Linguistics And Intelligent Text Processing Third International Conference Cicling 2002 Mexico City Mexico February 1723 2002 Proceedings 1st Edition Ivan A Sag https://ebookbell.com/product/computational-linguistics-and- intelligent-text-processing-third-international-conference- cicling-2002-mexico-city-mexico-february-1723-2002-proceedings-1st- edition-ivan-a-sag-2263118 Computational Linguistics And Talking Robots Processing Content In Database Semantics 1st Edition Roland Hausser Auth https://ebookbell.com/product/computational-linguistics-and-talking- robots-processing-content-in-database-semantics-1st-edition-roland- hausser-auth-2471844 Computational Linguistics And Intelligent Text Processing 12th International Conference Cicling 2011 Tokyo Japan February 2026 2011 Proceedings Part Ii 1st Edition Leonardo Lesmo https://ebookbell.com/product/computational-linguistics-and- intelligent-text-processing-12th-international-conference- cicling-2011-tokyo-japan-february-2026-2011-proceedings-part-ii-1st- edition-leonardo-lesmo-2532728 Computational Linguistics And Intelligent Text Processing 11th International Conference Cicling 2010 Iai Romania March 2127 2010 Proceedings 1st Edition Nicoletta Calzolari https://ebookbell.com/product/computational-linguistics-and- intelligent-text-processing-11th-international-conference- cicling-2010-iai-romania-march-2127-2010-proceedings-1st-edition- nicoletta-calzolari-4141018 Computational Linguistics And Intelligent Text Processing 12th International Conference Cicling 2011 Tokyo Japan February 2026 2011 Proceedings Part I 1st Edition Eduard Bejek https://ebookbell.com/product/computational-linguistics-and- intelligent-text-processing-12th-international-conference- cicling-2011-tokyo-japan-february-2026-2011-proceedings-part-i-1st- edition-eduard-bejek-4141022
- 7. CIENCIA DE LA COMPUTACIÓN _________________________________________________________ COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS Models, Resources, Applications
- 9. COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS Models, Resources, Applications Igor A. Bolshakov and Alexander Gelbukh
- 10. FIRST EDITION: 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. D.R. © 2004 INSTITUTO POLITÉCNICO NACIONAL Dirección de Publicaciones Tresguerras 27, 06040, DF D.R. © 2004 UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO Torre de Rectoría, 9° Piso, Ciudad Universitaria, 045100, México DF D.R. © 2004 FONDO DE CULTURA ECONÓMICA Carretera Picacho-Ajusco 227, 14200, México DF ISBN: 970-36-0147- 2 Impreso en México / Printed in Mexico
- 11. Serie Ciencia de la Computación The growth of the amount of available written information origi- nated in the Renaissance with the invention of printing press and increased nowadays to unimaginable extent has obliged the man to acquire a new type of literacy related to the new forms of media besides writing. One of such forms is the computer—an object of the modern world that increases the degree of freedom of human action and knowledge, where the fantasy becomes reality, and the new common alphabet penetrates the presence marked by such a phenomenon as computing. However, even though this phenomenon has become a part of our everyday life, the printed text has not been substituted by the elec- tronic text; on the contrary, they have become into symbiotic ele- ments that constitute fundamental means for accelerating the transi- tion to the advance society and economy restructured towards the science, technology, and promotion and dissemination of knowl- edge. Only through such spread of knowledge is it possible to create a scientific culture founded on the permanent quest for the truth, informed criticism, and the systematic, rigorous, and intelligent way of human actions. In this context, the Computer Science Series published by the Cen- ter for Computing Research (CIC) of the National Polytechnic Insti- tute in collaboration with the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Economic Culture Fund editorial house (Fondo de Cultura Económica) presents the works by outstanding Mexican and foreign specialists—outstanding both in their research and educa- tional achievements—in the areas of tutoring systems, system mod- eling and simulation, numerical analysis, information systems, software engineering, geoprocessing, digital systems, electronics, automatic control, pattern recognition and image processing, natural language processing and artificial intelligence.
- 12. In this way, the publishing effort of the CIC—which includes the journal Computación y Sistemas, the Research on Computing Sci- ence series, the technical reports, conference proceedings, catalogs of solutions, and this book series—reaffirms its adherence to the high standards of research, teaching, industrial collaboration, guid- ance, knowledge dissemination, and development of highly skilled human resources. This series is oriented to specialists in the field of computer science, with the idea to help them to extend and keep up to date their in- formation in this dynamic area of knowledge. It is also intended to be a source of reference in their everyday research and teaching work. In this way one can develop himself or herself basing on the fundamental works of the scientific community—which promotion and dissemination of science is. We believe that each and every book of this series is a must-have part of the library of any professional in computer science and allied areas who consider learning and keeping one’s knowledge up to date essential for personal progress and the progress of our country. Helpful support for this can be found in this book series character- ized first and foremost by its originality and excellent quality. Dr. Juan Luis Díaz De León Santiago Center For Computing Research Director
- 13. 1 CONTENTS OVERVIEW PREFACE............................................................................................................... 5 I. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................ 15 II. A HISTORICAL OUTLINE ...................................................................... 33 III. PRODUCTS OF COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS: PRESENT AND PROSPECTIVE ......................................................... 53 IV. LANGUAGE AS A MEANING ⇔ TEXT TRANSFORMER........... 83 V. LINGUISTIC MODELS ........................................................................... 129 EXERCISES....................................................................................................... 153 LITERATURE................................................................................................... 167 APPENDICES ................................................................................................... 173 DETAILED CONTENTS PREFACE............................................................................................................... 5 A NEW BOOK ON COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS .....................................5 OBJECTIVES AND INTENDED READERS OF THE BOOK...............................9 COORDINATION WITH COMPUTER SCIENCE.............................................10 COORDINATION WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE..................................11 SELECTION OF TOPICS ...............................................................................12 WEB RESOURCES FOR THIS BOOK ............................................................13 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................................................................13 I. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................ 15 THE ROLE OF NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING...................................15 LINGUISTICS AND ITS STRUCTURE ...........................................................17 WHAT WE MEAN BY COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS..............................25 WORD, WHAT IS IT?...................................................................................26 THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF THE FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE .......................28 CURRENT STATE OF APPLIED RESEARCH ON SPANISH ...........................30 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................31
- 14. COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS AND LINGUISTIC MODELS 2 II. A HISTORICAL OUTLINE ...................................................................... 33 THE STRUCTURALIST APPROACH .............................................................34 INITIAL CONTRIBUTION OF CHOMSKY.....................................................34 A SIMPLE CONTEXT-FREE GRAMMAR ......................................................35 TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMARS...........................................................37 THE LINGUISTIC RESEARCH AFTER CHOMSKY: VALENCIES AND INTERPRETATION..............................................................................39 LINGUISTIC RESEARCH AFTER CHOMSKY: CONSTRAINTS.....................42 HEAD-DRIVEN PHRASE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR ....................................44 THE IDEA OF UNIFICATION........................................................................45 THE MEANING ⇔ TEXT THEORY: MULTISTAGE TRANSFORMER AND GOVERNMENT PATTERNS ........................................................47 THE MEANING ⇔ TEXT THEORY: DEPENDENCY TREES .......................49 THE MEANING ⇔ TEXT THEORY: SEMANTIC LINKS .............................50 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................52 III. PRODUCTS OF COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS: PRESENT AND PROSPECTIVE ......................................................... 53 CLASSIFICATION OF APPLIED LINGUISTIC SYSTEMS...............................53 AUTOMATIC HYPHENATION......................................................................54 SPELL CHECKING .......................................................................................55 GRAMMAR CHECKING ...............................................................................58 STYLE CHECKING.......................................................................................60 REFERENCES TO WORDS AND WORD COMBINATIONS ............................61 INFORMATION RETRIEVAL ........................................................................63 TOPICAL SUMMARIZATION .......................................................................66 AUTOMATIC TRANSLATION ......................................................................70 NATURAL LANGUAGE INTERFACE............................................................73 EXTRACTION OF FACTUAL DATA FROM TEXTS .......................................75 TEXT GENERATION ....................................................................................76 SYSTEMS OF LANGUAGE UNDERSTANDING .............................................77 RELATED SYSTEMS ....................................................................................78 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................81 IV. LANGUAGE AS A MEANING ⇔ TEXT TRANSFORMER........... 83 POSSIBLE POINTS OF VIEW ON NATURAL LANGUAGE.............................83 LANGUAGE AS A BI-DIRECTIONAL TRANSFORMER.................................85 TEXT, WHAT IS IT?.....................................................................................90 MEANING, WHAT IS IT? .............................................................................94 TWO WAYS TO REPRESENT MEANING......................................................96
- 15. CONTENTS 3 DECOMPOSITION AND ATOMIZATION OF MEANING ...............................99 NOT-UNIQUENESS OF MEANING ⇒ TEXT MAPPING: SYNONYMY ......102 NOT-UNIQUENESS OF TEXT ⇒ MEANING MAPPING: HOMONYMY......103 MORE ON HOMONYMY ............................................................................106 MULTISTAGE CHARACTER OF THE MEANING ⇔ TEXT TRANSFORMER ...............................................................................110 TRANSLATION AS A MULTISTAGE TRANSFORMATION..........................113 TWO SIDES OF A SIGN ..............................................................................116 LINGUISTIC SIGN......................................................................................116 LINGUISTIC SIGN IN THE MMT ................................................................117 LINGUISTIC SIGN IN HPSG .......................................................................118 ARE SIGNIFIERS GIVEN BY NATURE OR BY CONVENTION? ..................119 GENERATIVE, MTT, AND CONSTRAINT IDEAS IN COMPARISON ...........120 CONCLUSIONS ..........................................................................................127 V. LINGUISTIC MODELS ........................................................................... 129 WHAT IS MODELING IN GENERAL?.........................................................129 NEUROLINGUISTIC MODELS....................................................................130 PSYCHOLINGUISTIC MODELS ..................................................................131 FUNCTIONAL MODELS OF LANGUAGE....................................................133 RESEARCH LINGUISTIC MODELS.............................................................134 COMMON FEATURES OF MODERN MODELS OF LANGUAGE ..................134 SPECIFIC FEATURES OF THE MEANING ⇔ TEXT MODEL ....................137 REDUCED MODELS...................................................................................141 DO WE REALLY NEED LINGUISTIC MODELS?.........................................143 ANALOGY IN NATURAL LANGUAGES .....................................................145 EMPIRICAL VERSUS RATIONALIST APPROACHES ..................................147 LIMITED SCOPE OF THE MODERN LINGUISTIC THEORIES .....................149 CONCLUSIONS ..........................................................................................152 EXERCISES....................................................................................................... 153 REVIEW QUESTIONS.................................................................................153 PROBLEMS RECOMMENDED FOR EXAMS................................................157 LITERATURE................................................................................................... 167 RECOMMENDED LITERATURE .................................................................167 ADDITIONAL LITERATURE ......................................................................168 GENERAL GRAMMARS AND DICTIONARIES ...........................................169 REFERENCES ............................................................................................170
- 16. COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS AND LINGUISTIC MODELS 4 APPENDICES ................................................................................................... 173 SOME SPANISH-ORIENTED GROUPS AND RESOURCES ..........................173 ENGLISH-SPANISH DICTIONARY OF TERMINOLOGY .............................177 INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS ......................................................................180 INDEX OF AUTHORS, SYSTEMS, AND TERMINOLOGY ............................182
- 17. 5 PREFACE WHY DID WE DECIDE to propose a new book on computational lin- guistics? What are the main objectives, intended readers, the main features, and the relationships of this book to various branches of computer science? In this Preface, we will try to answer these ques- tions. A NEW BOOK ON COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS The success of modern software for natural language processing impresses our imagination. Programs for orthography and grammar correction, information retrieval from document databases, and translation from one natural language into another, among others, are sold worldwide in millions of copies nowadays. However, we have to admit that such programs still lack real in- telligence. The ambitious goal of creating software for deep lan- guage understanding and production, which would provide tools powerful enough for fully adequate automatic translation and man- machine communication in unrestricted natural language, has not yet been achieved, though attempts to solve this problem already have a history of nearly 50 years. This suggests that in order to solve the problem, developers of new software will need to use the methods and results of a funda- mental science, in this case linguistics, rather than the tactics of ad hoc solutions. Neither increasing the speed of computers, nor re- finement of programming tools, nor further development of numer- ous toy systems for language “understanding” in tiny domains, will suffice to solve one of the most challenging problems of modern science—automatic text understanding. We believe that this problem, yet unsolved in the past century, will be solved in the beginning of this century by those who are sit-
- 18. COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS AND LINGUISTIC MODELS 6 ting now on student benches. This book on computational linguis- tics models and their applications is targeted at these students, namely, at those students of the Latin American universities study- ing computer science and technology who are interested in the de- velopment of natural language processing software. Thus, we expect the students to have already some background in computer science, though no special training in the humanities and in linguistics in particular. On the modern book market, there are many texts on Natural Language Processing (NLP), e.g. [1, 2, 7, 9]. They are quite appro- priate as the further step in education for the students in computer science interested in the selected field. However, for the novices in linguistics (and the students in computer science are among them) the available books still leave some space for additional manuals because of the following shortages: • Many of them are English-oriented. Meanwhile, English, in spite of all its vocabulary similarities with Spanish, is a language with quite a different grammatical structure. Unlike Spanish, English has a very strict word order and its morphology is very simple, so that the direct transfer of the methods of morphologic and syntac- tic analysis from English to Spanish is dubious. • Only few of these manuals have as their objective to give a united and comparative exposition of various coexisting theories of text processing. Moreover, even those few ones are not very successful since the methodologies to be observed and compared are too diverse in their approaches. Sometimes they even contra- dict each other in their definitions and notations. • The majority of these manuals are oriented only to the formal- isms of syntax, so that some of them seemingly reduce computa- tional linguistics to a science about English syntax. Nevertheless, linguistics in general investigates various linguistic levels, namely, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. For each of these levels, the amount of purely linguistic knowledge rele-
- 19. PREFACE 7 vant for computational linguistics seems now much greater than that represented in well-known manuals on the subject. Reckoning with all complications and controversies of the quickly developing discipline, the main methodological features of this book on computational linguistics are the following: • Nearly all included examples are taken from Spanish. The other languages are considered mainly for comparison or in the cases when the features to be illustrated are not characteristic to Span- ish. • A wide variety of the facts from the fundamental theory—general linguistics—that can be relevant for the processing of natural lan- guages, right now or in the future, are touched upon in one way or another, rather than only the popular elements of English- centered manuals. • Our educational line combines various approaches coexisting in computational linguistics and coordinates them wherever possi- ble. • Our exposition of the matter is rather slow and measured, in or- der to be understandable for the readers who do not have any background in linguistics. In fact, we feel inappropriate to simply gather disjoint approaches under a single cover. We also have rejected the idea to make our manual a reference book, and we do not have the intention to give always well-weighted reviews and numerous references through our texts. Instead, we consider the coherence, consistency, and self- containment of exposition to be much more important. The two approaches that most influenced the contents of this book are the following: • The Meaning ⇔ Text Theory (MTT), developed by Igor Mel’čuk, Alexander Žolkovsky, and Yuri Apresian since the mid-sixties, facilitates describing the elements, levels, and structures of natu- ral languages. This theory is quite appropriate for any language,
- 20. COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS AND LINGUISTIC MODELS 8 but especially suits for languages with free word order, including Spanish. Additionally, the MTT gives an opportunity to validate and extend the traditional terminology and methodology of lin- guistics. • The Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), developed by Carl Pollard and Ivan Sag in the last decade, is probably the most advanced practical formalism in natural language descrip- tion and processing within the modern tradition of generative grammars originated by Noam Chomsky. Like the MTT, HPSG takes all known facts for description of natural languages and tries to involve new ones. As most of the existing formalisms, this theory was mainly tested on English. In recent years, how- ever, HPSG has acquired numerous followers among researchers of various languages, including Spanish. Since the main part of the research in NLP has been fulfilled till now in the Chomskian paradigm, it is very important for a specialist in computational linguistics to have a deeper knowledge of the generative gram- mar approach. The choice of our material is based on our practical experience and on our observations on the sources of the problems which we ourselves and our colleagues encountered while starting our careers in computational linguistics and which still trouble many program- mers working in this field due to the lack of fundamental linguistic knowledge. After coping with this book, our reader would be more confident to begin studying such branches of computational linguistics as • Mathematical Tools and Structures of Computational Linguistics, • Phonology, • Morphology, • Syntax of both surface and deep levels, and • Semantics. The contents of the book are based on the course on computa- tional linguistics that has been delivered by the authors since 1997
- 21. PREFACE 9 at the Center for Computing Research, National Polytechnic Insti- tute, Mexico City. This course was focused on the basic set of ideas and facts from the fundamental science necessary for the creation of intelligent language processing tools, without going deeply into the details of specific algorithms or toy systems. The practical study of algorithms, architectures, and maintenance of real-world applied linguistic systems may be the topics of other courses. Since most of the literature on this matter is published in English regardless of the country where the research was performed, it will be useful for the students to read an introduction to the field in Eng- lish. However, Spanish terminological equivalents are also given in the Appendix (see page 173). The book is also supplied with 54 review questions, 58 test ques- tions recommended for the exam, with 4 variants of answer for each one, 30 illustrations, 58 bibliographic references, and 37 references to the most relevant Internet sites. The authors can be contacted at the following e-mail addresses: igor| @| cic.| ipn.| mx, gelbukh| @| gelbukh| .| com (gelbukh| @| cic| .| ipn.| mx); see also www.Gelbukh.com (www.cic.ipn.mx/~gelbukh). The web- page for this book is www.Gelbukh.com/clbook. OBJECTIVES AND INTENDED READERS OF THE BOOK The main objectives of this book are to provide the students with few fundamentals of general linguistics, to describe the modern models of how natural languages function, and to explain how to compile the data—linguistic tables and machine dictionaries— necessary for the natural language processing systems, out of in- formally described facts of a natural language. Therefore, we want to teach the reader how to prepare all the necessary tools for the development of programs and systems oriented to automatic natural language processing. In order to repeat, we assume that our readers are mainly students in computer sciences, i.e., in software develop- ment, database management, information retrieval, artificial intelli- gence or computer science in general.
- 22. COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS AND LINGUISTIC MODELS 10 Throughout this book, special emphasis is made on applications to the Spanish language. However, this course is not a mere manual of Spanish. A broader basis for understanding the main principles is to be elucidated through some examples from English, French, Por- tuguese, and Russian. Many literature sources provide the reader with interesting examples for these languages. In our books, we provide analogous examples for Spanish wherever possible. Significant difficulties were connected with the fact that Latin American students of technical institutes have almost no knowledge in linguistics beyond some basics of Spanish grammar they learned in their primary schooling, at least seven years earlier. Therefore, we have tried to make these books understandable for students without any background in even rather elementary grammar. Neither it should be forgotten that the native language is studied in the school prescriptively, i.e., how it is preferable or not recom- mendable to speak and write, rather than descriptively, i.e., how the language is really structured and used. However, only complete scientific description can separate cor- rect or admissible language constructions from those not correct and not belonging to the language under investigation. Meantime, with- out a complete and correct description, computer makes errors quite unusual and illogical from a human point of view, so that the prob- lem of text processing cannot be successfully solved. COORDINATION WITH COMPUTER SCIENCE The emphasis on theoretical issues of language in this book should not be understood as a lack of coordination between computational linguistics and computer science in general. Computer science and practical programming is a powerful tool in all fields of information processing. Basic knowledge of computer science and programming is expected from the reader. The objective of the book is to help the students in developing applied software systems and in choosing the proper models and data structures for these systems. We only reject the idea that the
- 23. PREFACE 11 computer science’s tools of recent decades are sufficient for compu- tational linguistics in theoretical aspects. Neither proper structuring of linguistic programs, nor object-oriented technology, nor special- ized languages of artificial intelligence like Lisp or Prolog solve by themselves the problems of computational linguistics. All these techniques are just tools. As it is argued in this book, the ultimate task of many applied lin- guistic systems is the transformation of an unprepared, unformatted natural language text into some kind of representation of its mean- ing, and, vice versa, the transformation of the representation of meaning to a text. It is the main task of any applied system. However, the significant part of the effort in the practical devel- oping of an NPL system is not connected directly with creating the software for this ultimate task. Instead, more numerous, tedious, and inevitable programming tasks are connected with extraction of data for the grammar tables and machine dictionaries from various texts or human-oriented dictionaries. Such texts can be originally com- pletely unformatted, partially formatted, or formalized for some other purposes. For example, if we have a typical human-oriented dictionary, in the form of a text file or database, our task can be to parse each dictionary entry and to extract all of the data necessary for the ultimate task formulated above. This book contains the material to learn how to routinely solve such tasks. Thus, again, we consider programming to be the every- day practical tool of the reader and the ultimate goal of our studies. COORDINATION WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE The links between computational linguistics and artificial intelli- gence (AI) are rather complicated. Those AI systems that contain subsystems for natural language processing rely directly on the ideas and methods of computational linguistics. At the same time, some methods usually considered belonging only to AI, such as, for example, algorithms of search for decision in trees, matrices, and
- 24. COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS AND LINGUISTIC MODELS 12 other complex structures, sometimes with backtracking, are appli- cable also to linguistic software systems. Because of this, many specialists in AI consider computational linguistics a part of AI [2, 40, 54]. Though such an expansion ham- pers nothing, it is not well grounded, in our opinion, since computa- tional linguistics has its own theoretical background, scientific neighbors, methods of knowledge representation, and decision search. The sample systems of natural language processing, which wander from one manual on AI to another, seem rather toy and ob- solete. Though the two fields of research are different, those familiar with both fields can be more productive. Indeed, they do not need to invent things already well known in the adjacent field, just taking from the neighborhood what they prefer for their own purposes. Thus, we encourage our readers to deeply familiarize themselves with the area of AI. We also believe that our books could be useful for students specializing in AI. SELECTION OF TOPICS Since the MTT described below in detail improves and enriches rather than rejects the previous tradition in general linguistics, we will mainly follow the MTT in description and explanation of facts and features of natural languages, giving specific emphasis on Spanish. To avoid a scientific jumble, we usually do not mark what issues are characteristic to the MTT, but are absent or are described in a different way in other theories. We give in parallel the point of view of the HPSG-like formalisms on the same issue only in the places where it is necessary for the reader to be able to understand the cor- responding books and articles on computational linguistics written in the tradition originated by Chomsky. We should assert here that the MTT is only a tool for language de- scription. It does not bind researchers to specific algorithms or to specific formats of representation of linguistic data. We can find the
- 25. Other documents randomly have different content
- 26. MUNDOMES AND HUTS. A wonderful field has been opened up along the mighty Congo for missionary effort. Ten years ago the king of Belgium entered upon the development of the Congo region and the establishment of a new African State. An official report of the progress attained has just been rendered, giving these facts: The Lower Congo has been opened up to navigation by large vessels as far as Boma, soundings having been made and the course marked out by buoys; a cadastral survey of the Lower Congo has been made as a step towards the preparation of a general map of the entire region; justice is regularly administered in the Lower Congo, and a trustworthy and cheap postal service has been established. At Banana, Boma, and Leopoldville medical establishments, under the direction of Belgian doctors, have been founded, and a considerable armed force of blacks, officered by Europeans, has been called into existence. The caravan route between Matadi and Leopoldville is as free from danger as a European road, and a complete service of porterage by natives has been established. A railway has been projected and the
- 27. route almost entirely surveyed. The state has established herds of cattle at various stations, and in the very heart of Africa; on the waters of the Upper Congo there is a fleet of steamers every year increasing in number. A loan of 150,000,000 francs has been authorized and the first issue subscribed. Many of the more intelligent natives from the country drained by the Upper Congo have taken service with the State, and numerous trading factories have been established as far up the river as Bangala and Leuebo. In addition several private companies have been formed for developing the country, and finally geographical discoveries of the greatest importance have been made, either by the officers of the State or by travelers who received great assistance in their work from the State. Speaking of the Congo Mission Dr. Pierson in the Missionary Review says: “A grand open door is that which God has set before our Baptist brethren in the Congo basin! a million square miles in the heart of equatorial Africa, made accessible by the great Congo and its tributaries. “The great lakes, Nyassa, Victoria, Tanganyika, are comparatively isolated; but the Congo and its branches present from 4,000 to 6,000 miles of river roadway, needing only steamers or canoes to give access to these teeming millions. One starts at the mouth of this imperial stream and ascends 125 miles of navigable river, then for 185 miles encounters rapids and cataracts; but beyond that for over 1,000 miles, from Stanley Pool to Stanley Falls, is one grand stretch of navigable river, with branches running each way navigable from 100 to 800 miles, and leading into the heart of this rich and populous territory. “The people from the river-mouth up to Stanley Pool and the Equator line are being civilized by contact with white traders, and their pagan customs largely modified. They speak one language, musical, of large capacity of expression and easy of acquisition, and along this line the seven Congo stations are already planted. Beyond the point where the Congo crosses the Equator, lies another vast
- 28. population, more degraded, less civilized, and needing at once the full array of Christian institutions, but yet entirely destitute. “Their moral and spiritual state is hardly conceivable without contact with them. With no idea of God or immortality, they worship fetish charms; sickness is not brought about by natural causes, but is the result of enchantment; hence the medicine-man must trace disease and death to some unhappy human victim or victims, who must suffer the witch’s penalty. One death therefore means another —it may be a dozen. Here runaway slaves are crucified, robbers buried alive, young men cruelly decapitated, and human beings are even devoured for meat. “And yet this people, after centuries of virtual seclusion, are now both literally and morally accessible. They welcome missionaries, come to the chapels, and prove teachable. Even now cruel customs and superstitious notions are giving way before patient, humble, scriptural instruction. The walls are down, and the hosts of God have but to march straight on and take what Dr. Sims calls ‘the last stronghold of Paganism,’ “Wonderfully indeed has God linked Protestant, Greek, Roman Catholic, and even Moslem nations in the administration of the Congo Free State. Never was such a highway open for the Gospel since our Lord ascended. “The Arabs from Zanzibar and the coast are moving toward Stanley Falls and the north country, establishing themselves in large villages to capture slaves and carry on nefarious traffic, while the Protestant forces slowly move upward from the west. The question is, Who is to occupy the Congo Basin? and the question is to be settled at once. This great highway of rivers means traffic and travel; this rich and splendid tropical country invites trade and settlement. Into whose hands shall such a heritage be surrendered? The Christian Church must give prompt answer by action, her reply must be a taking possession, and the old law is the new one: ‘Every place that the sole of your feet shall tread upon shall be yours,’ the
- 29. resolutions of enthusiastic missionary conventions, the prayers of all Christendom, the planting of the banner of the cross at a few commanding points—all this will not do. We must send out enough Christian laborers to measure off that soil with their own feet. “‘But it is unhealthy?’ So are all tropical and especially equatorial climes to those who are not accustomed to the intense and steady heat, and do not use common sense in adapting their clothing, eating and drinking, and habits of life, to these peculiar surroundings. One must not go from temperate to torrid zone, and wear the garments, eat the heating food, use the stimulating drinks, risk the exhausting labors, or even live in the same unventilated houses which are permissible in cooler latitudes. A trip to New Orleans or Florida has proved fatal to many a fool who would not take advice. Even the heroism of the Gospel does not demand needless exposure or careless venture. “Here is a grand opportunity. It may be doubted whether there has been anything like it since the clarion voice of our Great Captain trumpeted forth the last commission. Ethiopia is stretching forth her hands unto God. On those hands are the marks of manacles which England and America helped to rivet there. There is but one atonement we can make for Africa’s wrongs—it is to lay down our lives, if need be, to redeem her sable sons from the captivity of sin.
- 30. NATIVE GRASS HOUSE ON THE CONGO. “We ought to turn this Congo into a river of life, crowd its waters with a flotilla of Henry Reeds, line its banks with a thousand chapel spires, plant its villages with Christian schools, let the Congo Free State mark its very territory with the sign of Christian institutions, so that to cross its border will be to pass from darkness into light. Where is our Christian enterprise, that such a work, with such a field and such promise, should wait for workmen and for money! What do our converted young men want, as a chance to
- 31. crowd life with heroic service, that the Congo Basin does not attract them! Here what a century ago would have taken fifty years to accomplish, may be done in five. The unexplored interior is open, the ‘Dark Continent’ waits to be illuminated. Nature has cast up her highway of waters, and there is no need to gather out the stones. Give us only the two-wheeled chariot, with steam as the steed to draw it, and the men and women to go in it bearing the Gospel, and from end to end of this highway we can scatter the leaves of that tree which are for the healing of the nations. “Where are the successors of Moffatt and Livingstone! What a hero was he who dared forty attacks of fever and then died on his knees beside Lake Bangweolo, that he might open up the dark recesses of Africa to the missionary! Let us pour men and money at the feet of our Lord. We have not yet paid our debt to Simon the Cyrenean and the Eunuch of Ethiopia!” The Baptist church has for years carried on energetic mission work in Africa. The English Baptist Missionary Society, working in co- operation with American Baptists, has pushed its way, by means of flourishing stations far up the Congo and into the interior. In 1885, it presented a steamer, on the Upper Congo, to the American missionaries, and then proceeded to build another for its own use. Dr. Guinness, the president of this large and prosperous society, on a visit to the United States in 1889, spoke thus of the missionary field in Africa: “Stanley was three years in discovering the source of the Congo, and though he met hundreds of strange tribes in that journey of 1000 miles, he never saw a mission station. He found difficulty in coming down this region, but our missionaries sent out to evangelize this country found their difficulty in going up. We found it comparatively easy to found a station near the mouth, and as far as a hundred miles up. After years of labor we reached Stanley Pool, which is the key to the interior, but not without the loss of hundreds of lives. “The mission in Africa is in its infancy. Africa is a world in itself. The languages spoken would take more than ten hours to
- 32. enumerate, as there are over 600. They are principally the great Soudanese groups. I gave a year to making the first grammar of the Congo language that was ever prepared. More than 1000 natives have been converted. In this work there is the stage of pure indifference, succeeded by one of inquiry, then hostility, and finally acquiescence. The natives themselves become in many cases messengers of the Gospel. “I don’t know under Heaven, unless it be in China, a more hopeful mission than that Congo field, and here it is for you. You have now water-way to the whole of it. It is healthy, notwithstanding all statements to the contrary. The interior is healthy, because it is high land, well watered, richly wooded, moderate in its climate, and rich in population. The trouble with missionaries has been that they stick to the coast line, which is malarious. Instead of keeping up in the ordinary way in red-tape style a particular station with a few missionaries, you want to make an advance into this great interior parish. It is no use for your people in this country to say: ‘This is the colored men’s work, let them do it,’ They are not suited to be the explorers and controllers of such movements. White men must be the leaders and lay the foundation, when the colored men will be the helpers.” Mr. Guinness is maturing plans for a grand advance of three columns of missionaries to go simultaneously up the three branches of the Congo—northern, central and southern. The central one may be considered as started a fortnight since, by the departure of eight missionaries from London, to work as an English auxiliary to the American Baptist Missionary Union. Mr. Richards, of the American Baptist Missionary Union, reports that the work at Banza Manteke, the place where so many converts have been baptized, is still prospering. The young church has been greatly tried by persecution as well as by sickness and death. Not less than twenty of those baptized have died, and the fatality has been a great stumbling-block to the heathen, who have asserted that the sickness was sent by their gods because they have been
- 33. neglected. This has prevented many from accepting the Christian faith. The heathen are bitterly opposed, and would take the lives of the Christians if they could. Recently 17 were baptized, and others are asking for the ordinance, and the knowledge of the truth is spreading far and wide. Those who become intimately acquainted with the negro race as found in various parts of Africa bear testimony to its good qualities. The coast negro who has learned some of the vices of civilization is undoubtedly a sorry specimen of humanity; but where native tribes can be found uncontaminated by contact with foreigners, they exhibit sterling qualities. Rev. George Grenfell, who has visited all the tribes along the Congo, says that the negro would stand his ground before the white man. “There is a vitality of race and power about him that is going to make him take his place some day among the nations of earth.” In support of this opinion, he gives several incidents showing the vigor and fidelity of the natives, and especially mentioned an incident which he witnessed at Banza Manteka, the station at which the American Baptists have recently received so many converts. Three years ago their place was a stronghold of grossest superstitions, and there seemed no hope of a spiritual harvest; but as Mr. Grenfell was coming down the river, on his way to England, he met a band of native evangelists going forth on an evangelistic tour. They had set out of their own accord, without even the knowledge of the missionary, evidently taking upon themselves the Lord’s command to go and preach the Gospel. They had not only forsaken their own superstitions, but were vigorously seeking to propagate their new faith. We have thus given in brief outline a sketch of the work done on the west coast of Africa and some of the countries in Central Africa which are reached through the west coast. In no part of the world has the Gospel achieved more signal triumphs than here, among this barbarous people. When the present century opened, the slave trade, with its untold horrors, held everywhere undisputed sway. Human sacrifices and other cruelties were fearfully prevalent.
- 34. Revellings and abominable idolatries, with the other works of the flesh described in the fifth chapter of Galatians, were indulged in to a frightful extent and without the slightest restraint. There was then not one ray of light to relieve the dense darkness that universally prevailed. It is otherwise now. Though little has been done compared with what remains to be done, still the slave trade and many other cruel practices have received their death blow. The standard of the Cross has been planted all along the western shores, and even far into the interior of that great continent. In all West Africa, called “The White Man’s Grave,” from Senegambia on the north, where the Paris Society is laboring, to Benguella on the south, where the American Board has begun to work, there are more than a hundred stations and over 200 English, German, French and native missionaries, belonging to sixteen societies, with 120,000 converts. And were it not for the evils of civilization, which are so much easier for the poor barbarians to learn than the virtues, there would be nothing to prevent the universal spread of the Gospel in Western Africa, for the people there are willing to receive the simple proclamation of Divine truth, and the Christian church is awaking to the glorious privilege of making it known unto them. Little mention has been made of the work of Bishop Taylor in this sketch of the missions of Western Africa. His work is of such recent date, and of so unique a character that we deemed it of sufficient importance to warrant a fuller treatment than could be given in connection with the other missions. By this method also we can give a much clearer idea of what he has done. As his mission stations are confined to Western Africa, and regions entered by way of the west coast, this is the proper place to speak of his enterprise. Perhaps the most notable missionary movement of the age is that started by Bishop Wm. Taylor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, on the continent of Africa. Bishop Taylor is of Scotch-Irish parentage, his grand parents having immigrated from County Armah, Ireland, to Virginia about 130 years ago. They were Revolutionary patriots and so hostile to slavery that they set all slaves free,
- 35. belonging to the family. His father, Stuart Taylor, married Martha A. Hickman, and they settled in Rockbridge County in 1819. They were Presbyterians, but eventually became converts to Methodism. The son, William, was born May 21, 1821. In 1843 he was attached to the Baltimore Conference. He came into notice as a Methodist street preacher, of extraordinary power, in San Francisco, in 1849. He established a church there and continued to preach till 1856. Being a natural pioneer in the mission field, full of pluck and original ideas, he visited other parts of the United States and went into Canada and England. Then he went to the West Indies and into British Guiana, preaching and founding churches. Next, he visited Australia, where he met with a success which may well be called phenomenal. The same success attended his trip to Tasmania and New Zealand. With a foot that never tired, he went to South Africa and then to the Island of Ceylon, awakening the people by his eloquence and earnestness. He returned through India, arousing the sleeping nations, and leaving as a permanent monument to his fame the fully organized South India Methodist Conference.
- 36. SOME OF BISHOP TAYLOR’S MISSIONARIES. 1: Rev. B. F. Kephart, St. Paul, Minn. 2: Mrs. Kephart. 3: Agnes McAllister, Troy, Ohio. 4: Barbara Millard, Hemmingford, Quebec. 5: Eddy H. Greely, Fostoria, Ohio. 6: Georgina Dean, Des Moines, Iowa. 7: Clara Binkley, Bristol, Ontario. 8: K. Val. Eckman, Fulda, Minn. 9: Robt. C. Griffith, Gotland, Sweden. He was now in the midst of his powers, and with well defined aims as to the plan and scope of mission establishments. As to himself, personal work was what was required; as to the missions, a sense of independence which would conduce to their growth and perpetuity. No mission was to be an asylum for lazy, superannuated men and women, drawing on a home fund for support, but each was to be self-supporting as far as possible, after its period of juvenility was over. Full of this impression he entered the Brazilian country, or for that matter, South America at large, and began a work of founding missions which astounded his church and the world by its success. Schools and churches sprang up as if by magic, right in the
- 37. midst of populations wedded to the old Catholic creeds and forms, and the effect of his evangelism is as far reaching as time. After this he turned his attention to Africa, as a field calling most loudly for civilization and Christianity; and more, as the field best suited to his evangelizing methods. He was elected Bishop of Africa by the General Conference of the Methodist Church, in May, 1884, and sailed for his new and limitless parish in December, 1884. After four years of heroic struggle, with successes which in every way justified his labors and plans, he returned to the United States in April, 1888, and sailed again for Africa in December of the same year, having equipped and sent in advance, November 13, 1888, twenty new missionaries. His Transit and Building Fund bore the expense, and it was well supplied for the emergency by voluntary contributions from the United States and Canada. Fifteen homes in Africa became a requisite for these Christian workers, together with at least a year’s sustenance. Still the fund failed not, but had to spare for the Bishop’s personal comfort. Thus at one end of the Christian line work inured to the supply of necessities which should lead up to self- support in the missionary field, and at the other end it shaped for the development of those indigenous resources which should establish independence. The characteristics of his work, aside from his individual energy, wonderful ingenuity, and magnetic power, are: (1) Self-supporting Missions. Missionaries are provided with a suitable outfit, have their passage paid, are provided with a home and seeds for planting. They are expected to do the best with the first year’s equipment, and to take such steps as will put them on an independent footing by the second year. This is not more a test of their own industry and efficiency, than an example to the natives to live in peace and adopt civilized means of obtaining a livelihood. It is an invitation to heroic spirits to enter the mission field, and is an earnest of tact and endurance which must prove of infinite value to
- 38. those with whom they are in contact. It is the nearest approach any church has ever made to the thought, that a spiritual avenue to the heathen, and especially the shrewd African heathen, is most direct when it leads up through his business and work-a-day instincts to his heart. (2) Native Coöperation. This is best assured by appearing to be on an equality with them. The missionary who is backed by a home exchequer and who is not compelled to resort to ordinary means of subsistence, is apt to grow exclusive and become a source of envy and suspicion. He is far more potential when he is as much one of his people as circumstances will allow, and like them dependent on the ordinary laws of industry for subsistence. There is but little risk in this to the man of energy, skill and health, where climate and soil are favorable for production, and all nature conspires to reward industry. It attracts the natives, secures their confidence and coöperation, and adapts them for the almost unconscious receipt of enlightenment and Christianity. Nothing so disarms them of suspicion, or serves better to silence controversy, than this quiet show of permanent settlement in their midst and the atmosphere of thrifty contentment which surrounds a newly-made mission home and vegetable garden. (3) Elements of a Pure Civilization. The school goes with the mission, the garden and field with the school. Sermons there are, but not to the neglect of school work. School-hours there are, but not to the neglect of soil cultivation. Practical education is paramount. The seeds, the trees, the plants, which are fitted for the climate, are planted and tended, and the natives are asked to come and work by the side of the missionary and to learn the art of turning the earth to account. Thus a primitive Industrial School is started in every mission, and the laws of thrift and self-dependence go hand in hand with those of morality and spirituality. As things have gone, it is surely a novel, and perhaps a hard, life for a missionary, but in that it is an effective means of conversion and enlightenment, the sacrifice does not seem too great. After all, does
- 39. it not entirely meet the objections of those who so vehemently urge that the only way to make missionary work successful among African natives is to wait until commerce has reconciled them to contact with the outer world? (4) Not Confined to the Ordinary Ministry. It opens the field of missionary endeavor to earnest, moral men of every occupation. Teachers, artisans, laborers in every branch of industry, become invaluable servants of the Lord, under this system. Children as well as parents may share the honors of introducing Christ in this practical way, the key to which is example. What so inspiring as the confidence of equality and co-labor! To be like a teacher in what appertains to material welfare, is father to a wish to be like him or her in what appertains to spiritual welfare. (5) Coast-Line Missions. These are practicable and necessary at first. But they are only evangelical bases for the more numerous and grander structures soon to be erected within the continent. In support of his system the Bishop brings to bear an experience wider than that of any living missionary, to which must be added a special study of the African natives and the entire African situation. He says that the untutored heathen of Africa have no vain philosophy by which to explain away their perception of God as a great personal being. They have their “greegrees,” “charms” and “armulets,” but they never pray to them, they cry to God in the day of trouble. In the extreme south God’s name is “Dahlah,” “Tixo” and “Enkosi.” In south central Africa His name is “En Zambe.” The Zambesi river is called after God. On the west coast his name is “Niswah.” All these words express clear perceptions of one great God of heaven and earth. He further relates that one day he was preaching to King Damassi of the Ama Pondo nation, about the resurrection. One of the king’s counsellors expressed dissent from the Bishop’s doctrine.
- 40. The king, a giant in physique, frowned at him and said: “Hold your tongue you scoundrel! You know well our fathers believed in the resurrection of the dead, and so do we.” When a Kaffirman dies they dig a grave about two feet wide and five deep and let the corpse down in a squatting position. But before it is lowered they seat him beside the grave, to allow anyone who wishes to talk with it. This is consequence of their belief that though the spirit has left the body it still lingers near for a last communication with friend or foe. If any present has an unadjusted quarrel with the hovering spirit, he approaches and makes his peace, and then begs that the shade will not return to bewitch his children or cattle. Others come and send messages of peace to their fathers by means of the departing spirit, and still others send word very much as if the departure of a spirit were a sure means of communication between this and the final home of good people. When analyzed, their belief is supreme that the body returns to dust at death, but that the spirit is immortal; that the spirit retains all its faculties and forces, and has independent senses corresponding with the bodily senses; that good spirits dwell with God in happiness and that those who follow will commune with them. These things they have never learned from books, nor teachers. They are intuitions. In February, 1888, Bishop Taylor visited a dead chief, near Tataka on the Cavalla river. He had been a prominent man, a giant in size, and had given leave to found a mission in his tribe. But he knew no language but his own and had never heard the Gospel preached. He was found sleeping tranquilly in death, and inquiry revealed the fact that he had talked all through the night of his death with “Niswah”—God—and had called on Him repeatedly —“Niswah I am your man!” “Niswah, I trust you!” “Niswah, I accept you!” Belief, even unto salvation, could not have been seemingly stronger. To translate the Christian Bible into the languages spoken by those among whom missionary effort is put forth, has always been regarded as a necessary step to successful apostolic work. It would
- 41. be an herculean, if not impossible task in a country where languages are so numerous and dialects so diverse as in Africa. Even if not so, the task requires scholarship of a high order, patience such as few mortals possess, time which might count for much if otherwise employed, and an exchequer which can be drawn upon indefinitely. Bishop Taylor has reversed the old procedure in his missionary contact with the African natives. Still recognizing the necessity for learning their languages in order to facilitate communication, he, however, insists that they shall learn ours, as a means of fuller expression of ideas, and especially of those ideas which represent newly acquired knowledge and quickened spiritual emotions. But how should he overcome the formidable obstacle our language presents, in its complicated grammar and orthography, to all foreigners? Especially, how should the African boy and girl, in the mission school, be taught what our own more favored boys and girls find so appallingly difficult? The Bishop’s way out of it was to introduce the phonetic, or natural sound, element into his mission schools. It proved, in common parlance, a hit from the start. Here is a sample of his English, as phonetically adapted for his African pupils: “Bishop Taylor findz our English mod ov speling wun ov the gratest drabaksin teching the nativz; and also wun ov the gratist obstiklz in redusing the nativ languajez to riting. Mishunarez evri whar hav kompland ov thez dificultez. Bishop Taylor haz kut the Gordian not; or at lest haz so far swung los from komun uzaj az to adopt Pitman’z fonetik stil ov reding, riting and teching. “Just rit a fu pajz, speling az we do her; and then, ‘just for the fun ov it,’ rit a few letrz to frendz in the sam stil. Bi the tim u hav dun so, u wil be enamrd with its ez, and son will pronouns it butiful az wel az ezi. Tech it to sum children and se how qikli tha wil mastr it.” Probably no better description can be given of what has already been accomplished, than that found in his report to the Missionary
- 42. Committee, which we give in full, and in extracts from his recent letters. BISHOP TAYLOR’S REPORT TO THE MISSIONARY COMMITTEE. “Dear Brethren and Fellow-laborers in the work of the Lord: “I respectfully submit the following report of our new missions in Africa. The report of the African Conference I sent, as usual, to the missionary secretaries immediately after its adjournment last February. I might repeat the same here, but did not retain a copy, and leaving Liberia in April, and ever since moving on, I have not received a copy of the printed minutes. “I will, in this report, note the stations in the order in which I visited them this year, and not in the order of time in which they were founded. “West Coast Stations.—Most of these stations commenced, with mission-houses erected on them, two years ago, when a portion of them were supplied with missionaries, a portion not till March of this year; and two or three remain to be supplied. Miss Dingman and Miss Bates have gone out since I left Liberia, and I have not heard where Brother Kephart has stationed them. It was understood from the beginning that we could not take boarding-scholars, nor open our school-work regularly till we could produce from the soil plenty of native food for their sustenance, and build school-houses. I arranged for building fourteen houses in our missions on the west coast this year for chapel and school purposes. I have received no general report since I left in April; hence, I cannot say how many of these houses have been completed. They were to be good frame and weather-boarded and shingle-roofed houses, 18×25 feet, and will, I doubt not, be all finished before the end of this year. “Cavalla River District.—B. F. Kephart, P. E. “(1) Wissikah Station, about forty miles up from the mouth of the river. Its king, chiefs and people received a missionary, built him
- 43. a good native house and supported him for several months, when he was removed to supply a larger station vacated by one who withdrew from our work; so Wissikah remains to be supplied. Probable value of our land and improvements on Wissikah Station, $500. “(2) Yubloky, ascending the stream, also on the west bank of Cavalla river. Missionary, J. R. Ellery. A good basis of self-sustentation already laid. Probable value, $1,000. “(3) Yorkey.—Andrew Ortlip, missionary. Regular preaching in both of these stations, and some progress in teaching. Probable value, $1,000. “(4) Tataka, on the east bank of the river, Miss Rose Bowers and Miss Annie Whitfield, missionaries. These are very earnest missionaries, and have done an immense amount of hard work, teaching, talking of God and salvation to the people in their own houses and growing most of their own food. Probable value of land improvements, $1,000. “(5) Beabo.—H. Garwood, missionary. Brother Garwood was appointed to Beabo last March, and will, I trust, make a success, which was but limited under the administration of his predecessor, who is a good man but not a self-supporting success, and has hence returned home. Beabo is on the west bank of the river, and has adequate resources of self-support, and of opportunities for usefulness. Probable value, $900. “(6) Bararobo, on the east bank. Chas. Owens and E. O. Harris, missionaries. This station, with two energetic young men to develop its capabilities, will, I hope, in the near future prove a success. Probable value, $900. “(7) Gerribo, west bank. A mission-house built two years ago, but the station remains to be supplied. Probable value, $800.
- 44. “(8) Wallaky is the big town of the Gerribo tribe, twelve miles west of Gerribo town, on west bank of the river. Our missionary at Wallaky is Wm. Schneidmiller, a zealous young man from Baltimore. Having been brought up in a city, he has much to learn to become an effective backwoods pioneer; but he has faith, love, push, and patience and is succeeding. Probable value, $900. “We have traveled nearly a hundred miles up the river, almost equal to the Hudson, and then west twelve miles to Wallaky. Now we go south by a narrow path over rugged mountain, hills and dales, a distance of about forty miles to— “(9) Plebo.—Wm. Yancey and wife, missionaries. A hopeful young station of good possibilities. Probable value, $900. “Nine miles walking westerly we reach “(10) Barreky.—Wm. Warner and wife, missionaries. They are hard workers, and are bound to make self-support. Brother Warner is mastering the native language, and when ready to preach in it, will have open to him a circuit of eleven towns belonging to the Barreky tribe. Probable value, $900. “On eight of the ten stations just named, we have frame, weather-boarded, shingle-roofed houses, the floors elevated about six feet above ground; the whole set on pillars of native logs from the forest. In all these places, also, school-houses, as before intimated, are being built. Each station is in a tribe entirely distinct and separate from every other tribe, and each river town represents a larger population far back in the interior of the wild country. “Cape Palmas District.—B. F. Kephart, P. E. Brother Kephart is Presiding Elder of Mt. Scott and Tubmantown Circuit. Sister Kephart is a grand helper. They are teaching the people the blessedness of giving adequately to support their pastors. These people are confronted by two formidable difficulties, their old-established habits of being helped, and their poverty and lack of ability to help
- 45. themselves; but they are being blest in giving like the Widow of Serepta, and will, I hope, work their way out. “Clarence Gunnison, our missionary carpenter, and Prof. E. H. Greely. B. A., to be principal of our academy and missionary training- school in Cape Palmas, as soon as we shall get the seminary repaired, have their headquarters at Cape Palmas, but are engaged in building school-houses, and will then (D.V.) repair the seminary buildings, both in Cape Palmas and in Monrovia. We had unexpected detention in getting suitable lumber for repairs, but can now get the best Norway pine delivered on the ground at a cheap rate. “(11) Pluky, across Hoffman River, from Cape Palmas, is the beginning of our Kru coast line of stations. Miss Lizzie McNeal is the missionary. Though two years in the station, we have not yet built a mission-house in Pluky. Miss McNeal teaches school in a native house in the midst of the town, and preaches on Sabbath days under the shade of a bread-fruit tree. Her school-house is crowded, and she has six of her boys and three girls converted to God, who testify for Jesus in her meetings, and help her in her soul-saving work. Probable value, $800, in land. Miss Barbara Miller assists her temporarily, but her specialties are kindergarten and music, awaiting the opening of the academy.
- 46. GARAWAY MISSION HOUSE. “(12) Garaway, twenty miles northwest of Cape Palmas. Miss Agnes McAllister is in charge of the station, and Miss Clara Binkley has special charge of our educational department, both working successfully as missionaries. Aunt Rachel, a Liberian widow woman, runs the farm, and produces indigenous food enough to feed two or three stations. This is a station of great promise. Probable value, $1,200. We have a precious deposit in a little cemetery on the plain, in sight of the mission-house, of the consecrated blood and bones of dear Brother Gardner and dear Sister Meeker. “(13) Piquinini Ses.—Miss Anna Beynon is in special charge of the household department. Miss Georgianna Dean has charge of the school-work, and Victor Hugo, a young German missionary, has charge of the school farm. Mrs. Nelson, a Liberian widow, is chief cook. They are succeeding hopefully for beginners. This station is about thirty miles northwest of Cape Palmas. Probable value, $1,100.
- 47. “(14) Grand Ses.—Jas. B. Robertson, assisted by Mr. Hanse, a Congo young man, who was saved at a series of meetings I conducted in Cape Palmas, in 1885. They are just getting started in their work, but already see signs of awakening among the people. Probable value, $1,100. “(15) Sas Town.—Missionaries, K. Valentine Eckman, R. C. Griffith. I spent a month in Sas Town last spring, and we have there a church organization of probationers, numbering twenty-five Krumen. Probable value, $1,400. “(16) Niffu. To be supplied. Probable value, $1,000. “(17) Nanna Kru.—Henry Wright appointed last April, not heard from since. Probable value, $1,000. “(18) Settra Kru.—B. J. Turner and wife. A fair promise of success in farming, teaching and preaching. Probable value, $1,100. “On each of these Kru stations named, except Pluky, we have a mission-house of frame, elevated on pillars, six feet above ground; floors of boards from the saw-pits of Liberia, siding and roofing of galvanized iron; each house measuring in length thirty-six feet, breadth twenty-two feet, beside veranda, providing space for a central hall, 12x22 feet, and two rooms at each end, 11x12 feet. There is not a Liberian or foreigner of any sort in any of the stations named on Cavalla River or Kru Coast, except our missionaries, all heathens, as nude as any on the Congo, except a few men of them who ‘follow the sea,’ hence, our houses, which would not be admired in New York City, are considered to be ‘houses of big America for true.’ “(19) Ebenezer, west side of Sinou River, nearly twenty miles from Sinou. New house just completed. Z. Roberts in charge. A school of over twenty scholars opened. The king of the tribe has proclaimed Sunday as God’s, and ordered his people not to work on God’s day, but go to his house and hear his Word. This mission supersedes Jacktown, on the east bank of Sinou River, where we
- 48. proposed last spring to found a mission, but did not. Ebenezer is worth to us $800 at least. “(20) Benson River.—Missionary, Dr. Dan Williams. This is in Grand Bassa Country, difficult of access; hence, in my hasty voyages along the coast I have not yet been able to visit the Doctor, and cannot report definitely. He is holding on, and will, I hope, hold out and make a success in all his departments of work. The station ought to be worth $800. “The Benson River Station is in the bounds of Grand Bassa District. We arranged for building on two other stations in Grand Bassa Country at the same time that I provided for Benson River; namely, King Kie Peter’s big town, and Jo Benson’s town; but at last account the houses were not built, so for the time we drop them off our list. They are on a great caravan trail to the populous interior. We will take them up or better ones by and by. “From the west coast we proceed by steamer to the great Congo country. Two days above Congo mouth we land at Mayumba, and proceed in boats seventeen miles up an inland lake to Mamby, where Miss Martha E. Kah is stationed, and where our Brother A. I. Sortore sleeps in Christ. When we settled there it was in the bounds of the ‘Free State of Congo,’ but later the published decrees of the Berlin Conference put it under the wing of the French Government. The French authorities have recognized and registered our native title to 100 acres of good land, and are not unfriendly to us by any means, but ‘by law’ forbid us to teach any language but French. Good has been done at Mamby, and is being done. Owing to this disability we have proposed to abandon it, but Martha Kah is entirely unwilling to leave, and as it is our only footing in French territory, and as they hold a vast region, peopled by numerous nations of African heathen, we have thought it best thus far to hold on to Mamby. Probable value, $1,000. “(21) Kabinda, near the Congo mouth. I never have had time to make the acquaintance of any person at Kabinda. Having full
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