Finite-State Local Grammars for Disambiguating Conjunctions in Portuguese Proper Names

Abstract

Like common noun phrases, proper names contain ambiguous conjoined phrases that make their delimitation and classification difficult in text. This paper presents a finite-state approach to the disambiguation of Portuguese candidate proper name strings containing the coordinating conjunction e (and). In such name strings, the conjunction can denote a relation between two independent names, but it can also be part of a multiword proper name. The coordination of multiword independent names may involve ellipsis of some lexical constituents, which causes additional difficulties to proper name identification and classification.