Machine-aided annotation for fine-grained proposition types in argumentation

Yohan Jo (Lead / Corresponding author), Elijah Mayfield, Chris Reed, Eduard Hovy

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

4 Citations (Scopus)
61 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We introduce a corpus of the 2016 U.S. presidential debates and commentary, containing 4,648 argumentative propositions annotated with fine-grained proposition types. Modern machine learning pipelines for analyzing argument have difficulty distinguishing between types of propositions based on their factuality, rhetorical positioning, and speaker commitment. Inability to properly account for these facets leaves such systems inaccurate in understanding of fine-grained proposition types. In this paper, we demonstrate an approach to annotating for four complex proposition types, namely normative claims, desires, future possibility, and reported speech. We develop a hybrid machine learning and human workflow for annotation that allows for efficient and reliable annotation of complex linguistic phenomena, and demonstrate with preliminary analysis of rhetorical strategies and structure in presidential debates. This new dataset and method can support technical researchers seeking more nuanced representations of argument, as well as argumentation theorists developing new quantitative analyses.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 12th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2020)
EditorsNicoletta Calzolari, Frederic Bechet, Philippe Blache, Khalid Choukri, Christopher Cieri, Thierry Declerck, Sara Goggi, Hitoshi Isahara, Bente Maegaard, Joseph Mariani, Helene Mazo, Asuncion Moreno, Jan Odijk, Stelios Piperidis
PublisherEuropean Language Resources Association (ELRA)
Pages1008-1018
Number of pages11
ISBN (Electronic)9791095546344
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Event12th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, LREC 2020 - Marseille, France
Duration: 11 May 202016 May 2020

Conference

Conference12th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, LREC 2020
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityMarseille
Period11/05/2016/05/20

Keywords

  • Argumentation theory
  • Hybrid annotation systems
  • Imbalanced annotation tasks
  • Proposition types

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Education
  • Library and Information Sciences
  • Linguistics and Language

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