Division of Informatics
Forrest Hill & 80 South Bridge
Research Paper #688 | |
|---|---|
| Title: | A Symbolic Description of Punning Riddles and Its Computer Implementation |
| Authors: | Binsted,K; Ritchie,GD |
| Date: | Jun 1994 |
| Presented: | Submitted to "Humor" |
| Keywords: | |
| Abstract: | Riddles based on simple puns can be classified according to the patterns of word, syllable or phrase similarity they depend upon. We have devised a formal model of the semantic and syntactic regularities underlying some of the simpler types of punning riddle. We have also implemented this preliminary theory in a computer program which can generate riddles from a lexicon containing general data about words and phrases; that is, the lexicon content is not customised to produce jokes. Informal evaluation of the program's results by a set of human judges suggested that the riddles produced by this program are of comparable quality to those in general circulation among school children. |
| Download: | NO ONLINE COPY |
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