Learning Context-Free Grammars with a Simplicity Bias

  • Authors:
  • Pat Langley;Sean Stromsten

  • Affiliations:
  • -;-

  • Venue:
  • ECML '00 Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Machine Learning
  • Year:
  • 2000

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Abstract

We examine the role of simplicity in directing the induction of context-free grammars from sample sentences. We present a rational reconstruction of Wolff's SNPR - the GRIDS system - which incorporates a bias toward grammars that minimize description length. The algorithm alternates between merging existing nonterminal symbols and creating new symbols, using a beam search to move from complex to simpler grammars. Experiments suggest that this approach can induce accurate grammars and that it scales reasonably to more difficult domains.