5 ms·

Well this is not the key indicator. The key indicator is the absence of pause between the words, that's how we differentiate between "peanut butter" and "peanut

Well this is not the key indicator. The key indicator is the absence of pause between the words, that's how we differentiate between "peanut butter" and "peanut, butter".

IshKebab 8y ago
Far more important than the lack of a pause between then words is the a priori fact that "peanut butter" is a common single item and "peanut, butter" is an uncommon list of items. It is that fact that means that you require a pause between the words to indicate "peanut, butter". If you ordered "butter, peanuts" for example, it would probably get that it was two items even without the pause between words. It's all about the prior probabilities.
- entity345 8y ago
  I would disagree here. Especially in the context of a shopping list. If I were to say 'peanut' <pause> 'butter' my interlocutor would probably interrupt me to ask for confirmation because that would be enough to create doubt. 'Peanut' and 'butter' are two unrelated words and it is the absence of pause that creates a pseudo single word. Pauses are extremely important in spoken language and should be exploited.
  - jonathankoren 8y ago
    If we’re assuming human level AI, maybe and not even then. Nonnative English speakers from languages without a singular/plural distinction often make use singulars where a plural is called for. Domain knowledge around the intent (making a shopping list) and around language conventions helps a lot, not only for NLU, but also for NLS. But even without a huge NLU dictionary, a simple MC or CRF segmentation model would work. As said earlier, almost no one says., “Add peanut to the shopping list.” They say, “Add peanuts”, of if they’re very atypical, “Add a peanut”. A bare “peanut” is simply unlikely.
  - taeric 8y ago
    I think the catch is that human detection of pauses is far more fraught with difficulty than you'd imagine. Overly emphasized pauses are easy to discern, but quite a lot of speech pulls words far closer together than you would think. And this is just in english. Not all languages work with emphasis syllables and such.
    - _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
      Exactly, and the difference of the length of pauses between 'syntactic' words (peanut, butter) and between compounded words (peanut-butter) will vary based on speaker and moreover, things like focus/emphasis can cause lengthening of pauses even for the latter case. ("No, Alexa, I'm not shopping for Whistler's Mother; I need to buy PEANUT BUTTER.")
  - ghaff 8y ago
    >If I were to say 'peanut' <pause> 'butter' my interlocutor would probably interrupt me I'm on the parent's side on this. "Peanut butter" is such a common item that if someone were to pause in between the words I would assume they just got distracted for some reason. In the context of a shopping list, "peanut" singular just doesn't make sense. A better example would be something like "yogurt ice cream" which is technically incorrect but it's still something people might say. In that case, I'd expect a shorter pause than in the case of yogurt, ice cream. However, if you were dictating a list to me I'd probably ask for confirmation in either case because there's enough ambiguity.
    - mamon 8y ago
      Deliberate pause sounds a bit different than a pause caused by distraction.
- adrianmonk 8y ago
  I don't see why they can't both be important signals. I would hazard a guess that a combined approach is what humans do. I'm not a linguist or anything, but it seems like in practice people may pronounce "peanut butter" a little differently when they say the two words together. Something like "peanubutter". Or maybe they convert the "t" in "peanut" into a glottal stop. Anyway, if the "t" is absent when you're talking about peanut butter but present when you're talking about two separate items, I don't see why you shouldn't feel free to use that signal. But I also don't see why you shouldn't use probabilities as well.
  - hathawsh 8y ago
    I agree. When parsing speech, we humans listen for many cues all at once. Spoken language even has intentional redundancy so we can identify and disregard inconsistent cues. For example, a child or foreign speaker might replace "peanut" with "peanuts" and most people would still have no problem understanding "peanuts butter" as long as the rest of the cues are consistent.
  - IshKebab 8y ago
    They are both signals. But the prior probability is more important in this case because it is so much more common to say "peanut butter" than "peanut, butter". In other cases the pause might be a more important signal.

Well this is not the key indicator. The key indicator is the absence of pause between the words, that's how we differentiate between "peanut butter" and "peanut, butter".

IshKebab 8y ago

Far more important than the lack of a pause between then words is the a priori fact that "peanut butter" is a common single item and "peanut, butter" is an uncommon list of items. It is that fact that means that you require a pause between the words to indicate "peanut, butter". If you ordered "butter, peanuts" for example, it would probably get that it was two items even without the pause between words. It's all about the prior probabilities.

entity345 8y ago
I would disagree here. Especially in the context of a shopping list. If I were to say 'peanut' <pause> 'butter' my interlocutor would probably interrupt me to ask for confirmation because that would be enough to create doubt. 'Peanut' and 'butter' are two unrelated words and it is the absence of pause that creates a pseudo single word. Pauses are extremely important in spoken language and should be exploited.
- jonathankoren 8y ago
  If we’re assuming human level AI, maybe and not even then. Nonnative English speakers from languages without a singular/plural distinction often make use singulars where a plural is called for. Domain knowledge around the intent (making a shopping list) and around language conventions helps a lot, not only for NLU, but also for NLS. But even without a huge NLU dictionary, a simple MC or CRF segmentation model would work. As said earlier, almost no one says., “Add peanut to the shopping list.” They say, “Add peanuts”, of if they’re very atypical, “Add a peanut”. A bare “peanut” is simply unlikely.
- taeric 8y ago
  I think the catch is that human detection of pauses is far more fraught with difficulty than you'd imagine. Overly emphasized pauses are easy to discern, but quite a lot of speech pulls words far closer together than you would think. And this is just in english. Not all languages work with emphasis syllables and such.
  - _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
    Exactly, and the difference of the length of pauses between 'syntactic' words (peanut, butter) and between compounded words (peanut-butter) will vary based on speaker and moreover, things like focus/emphasis can cause lengthening of pauses even for the latter case. ("No, Alexa, I'm not shopping for Whistler's Mother; I need to buy PEANUT BUTTER.")
- ghaff 8y ago
  >If I were to say 'peanut' <pause> 'butter' my interlocutor would probably interrupt me I'm on the parent's side on this. "Peanut butter" is such a common item that if someone were to pause in between the words I would assume they just got distracted for some reason. In the context of a shopping list, "peanut" singular just doesn't make sense. A better example would be something like "yogurt ice cream" which is technically incorrect but it's still something people might say. In that case, I'd expect a shorter pause than in the case of yogurt, ice cream. However, if you were dictating a list to me I'd probably ask for confirmation in either case because there's enough ambiguity.
  - mamon 8y ago
    Deliberate pause sounds a bit different than a pause caused by distraction.
adrianmonk 8y ago
I don't see why they can't both be important signals. I would hazard a guess that a combined approach is what humans do. I'm not a linguist or anything, but it seems like in practice people may pronounce "peanut butter" a little differently when they say the two words together. Something like "peanubutter". Or maybe they convert the "t" in "peanut" into a glottal stop. Anyway, if the "t" is absent when you're talking about peanut butter but present when you're talking about two separate items, I don't see why you shouldn't feel free to use that signal. But I also don't see why you shouldn't use probabilities as well.
- hathawsh 8y ago
  I agree. When parsing speech, we humans listen for many cues all at once. Spoken language even has intentional redundancy so we can identify and disregard inconsistent cues. For example, a child or foreign speaker might replace "peanut" with "peanuts" and most people would still have no problem understanding "peanuts butter" as long as the rest of the cues are consistent.
- IshKebab 8y ago
  They are both signals. But the prior probability is more important in this case because it is so much more common to say "peanut butter" than "peanut, butter". In other cases the pause might be a more important signal.