OPERATOR: EMPTY-OPERATOR

[GENERALISE FOR S-CONSTRUCTORS, CHECK STILL VALID FOR NNPSCM]

Problem space: u-construct and generator

Operator Overview:
Every u-constructor has to be reconsidered and every word has to have ^annotation u-model-success in order for language processing to move on to new words. The completed operator in the completion space takes care of these two important operations. And one of the conditions that will lead to the selection of the completed operator is that the u-constructor be an empty-op operator (please see the completion space for other conditions). Hence, whenever the u-constructor is an empty-op operator, two things are guaranteed: There are two situations in which an u-constructor consists only of an empty-op operator. Firstly, when NL-Soar parses the first word of a sentence and hence no links are possible at all.

Secondly, when a new word arrives and after one or several linking and/or snipping, NL-Soar realizes that the u-model is incomplete. In this case, the new word will not be marked with u-model-success flag and because of this, another learn-language operator will be proposed, which will in turn lead to another u-constructor that consists only of the empty operator. Since empty operators always result in marking u-model-success via completion, the word eventually be marked with a u-model-success flag.

Operator Proposal:
The proposal for empty operators in the u-construct space is returned by the generator space.

Operator Application:
The application of this operator is very simple; it places the ^annotation empty-op-applied on the walled-off top-state of the create-operator space. However, the implication is that this annotation serves to signal the return-operator in the create-operator space to add ^annotation empty and ^word-id onto the constructed operator. It is also used to signal the rejection for all empty ops in the u-construct space once any one of them has applied.

Operator Reconsider:
Upon application.
Productions are in file: u-construct.empty-op.soar

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This page written by Han Ming Ong(hanming@cs.cmu.edu)