Ling 472 Project 1 Due 1:30pm on Wednesday, April 10, 2013

<strong>Ling</strong> <strong>472</strong> <strong>Project</strong> 1
<strong>Due</strong> 1:<strong>30pm</strong> on Wednesday, April 10, 2013
For this project you will create a program similar to ‘ELIZA’ (Weizenbaum 1966), which is described in
Chapter 2 of the Jurafsky and Martin textbook (p.25-26). This crude method of simulating conversation
uses a sequence of pattern replacements to transform each input string into an output.
A skeleton Python script is provided, which you should develop further.
http://courses.washington.edu/ling<strong>472</strong>/elizalike.py
You can run the skeleton program in Python, as-is, to see how it handles the sentences at the top of page
26. Instructions on using Python can be found here:
http://depts.washington.edu/uwcl/twiki/bin/view.cgi/Main/UsingPython
The basic approach is to read in a string of input from the user, modifying it successively (sometimes
subtly, sometimes drastically, depending on the input string), and print out the result. To maintain the
illusion of AI, it is crucial that Elizalike print out grammatical strings. (You may assume that it is given
grammatical input.) Furthermore, Elizalike should be able to handle person deixis, referring to itself in the
first person and to the user in the second person.
Input
Develop a list of sentences that you will use to test your program to make sure it handles the person deixis
correctly. This list must illustrate all ways in which 1st and 2nd person are marked in English. To be
clear, this means that you must include all 1st and 2nd person pronouns, all 1st and 2nd person subjectverb
pairs with the verb be and all possible forms of the verb.
This file should be a plaintext file, with one sentence per line, so that it can be fed into the python
program using console redirection:
$ python elizalike.py

Discussion
An important part of every project will be your write up. With all projects this will include problems you
came across and how (or if) you were able to solve them, any insights, special features, and what you
learned. For this project, please also include a special discussion of why English morphology and syntax
make this program relatively straightforward, and how it would be more complicated in another language.
Give examples if possible.
Submission
sentences.txt A list of test sentences which your system handles correctly, one per line
elizalike.py Your extended version of the Eliza-like therapist program
output captured console output (stdout) from running your program, this should be
produced by:
$ python elizalike.py output
readme.{pdf, txt} Your write-up of the project, including your discussion of whether English
morphology and syntax make this type of program easier or harder than other
languages. Describe your approach, any problems or special features, or
anything else you’d like us to review. If you could not complete some or all of
the project’s goals, please explain what you were able to complete.
Gather together all the required files, making sure that, for example, any PDF or other binary files are
transferred from your local machine using a binary transmission format. Then, from within the directory
containing your files, issue the following command to package your files for submission. Replace the
bracketed portion with your UW NetID.
tar ‐czf [your‐uw‐netid].tar.gz .
Notice that this command packages all files in the current directory; do not include any top-level
directories. Upload the file to CollectIt.
Grading
Correct results 30
Follow submitting instructions 10
Clarity, elegance, and readability of code 25
Write-up 35