More NLP

While the syntactic parsing of language is almost mechanical in nature these days, using that data to actually do something of value requires we break it down further into semantic units. These units which I call a concept are standard objects with dynamic boundaries. The fact that the boundaries change is of no concern since the more difficult work is to derive meaning and structure from the syntactic input. 

To help with this we rely on verb conjugation. Clearly the statement 'I am here' carries a far different meaning than 'I was here'. What is not so obvious perhaps is noun conjugation, 

We all have a name. While our name by itself may not be indicative of anything, the way it is used may often be used to help derive intent from a statement. 

In English it is not uncommon for a name to have several variants with each carrying a different connotation. For example, Robert, Robbie and Bob. My name is Kenneth but very few people call me this. When I am in a formal environment like the DMV people call me Kenneth. Outside of a formal environment this form of my name is used to convey a feeling of dominance or authority. My second grade teacher called me Kenneth. More often than not I am referred to as Ken which is what an acquaintance or coworker might call me and Kenny is what my family or close friends call me. 

So in much the same way we can use verb conjugation to derive context, so too we may do with proper nouns. It should be noted that closely associated with this is the usage of pronouns to also aid in the determination of intent. My second grade teacher called me Mr. Smith when she was angry at me. If in a the middle of interpreting a document a person stops referring to someone as Joe and starts using Mr. Jones this too conveys information we can use to derive intent and use this to alter context.