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# Robust VPE Detection using Automatically Parsed Text

**Authors:** [Leif Arda Nielsen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/leif-arda-nielsen/) · **Year:** 2004 · **Venue:** Proceedings of the ACL Student Research Workshop **Link:** [aclanthology.org/P04-2009](https://aclanthology.org/P04-2009/) · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) — summary only

[**4** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W2113749564) openalex · 2026-10-18[**4** citations in our library](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/cited-by/aclbulk-2004-nielsen-robust-vpe-detection-automatically-parsed/) of the 140673 papers whose bibliographies we read[Proceedings of the ACL Student Research Workshop](https://aclanthology.org/volumes/P04-2/)[licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)

- [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/P04-2009/)
- [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/P04-2009.pdf)
- [DOI 10.3115/1219079.1219084](https://doi.org/10.3115/1219079.1219084)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2113749564)

**Authors (1)**

1. [Nielsen, Leif Arda](https://openalex.org/A5077271519) h 4 · 58 citations · 9 works

Citations and author metrics from openalex (2026-10-18); authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

This short student paper is the robust version of Nielsen's detector. It uses machine learning on free text that has been parsed automatically, with no hand-written parses. On a mixed corpus the detector reaches 70% F1. Two parsers are compared. The Charniak parser gives full structure, and RASP gives full parses for 70% of sentences, partial parses for 28%, and tags only for 2%. Re-parsing the Penn Treebank gives 63% F1, rising to 68% with extra features. The BNC, which has tags but no parses, gives 76% F1 with lexical forms and tags alone. A parse-based feature, the auxiliary-final VP, works well with Charniak's structures but only half as well with RASP's. The empty-VP feature keeps a precision above 80%, but its recall drops to about 20% on parser output.

## Ideas

- I1. `en parse-eval`: report detection F1 separately for sentences with a full parse, a partial parse and no parse, as the RASP split in the paper suggests. This shows where the pipeline loses sentences, on EWT test.
- I2. Feature reliability per parser: for each parse-based feature in `en`, measure its precision and recall on gold trees and on `en` trees. The feature that loses most on parser output is the first to be made more robust.
- I3. Empty-VP analogue: Mova has no empty nodes, so use the rule that a modal with no following verb marks a VPE site. Its precision and recall should be reported in the same way as the paper's empty-VP feature, so that the drop on parser output can be seen.

## For Mova

The code is `en/src/expert.rs` and the `en parse-eval` command. The chapter is [29. Ellipsis, word order and information structure](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/en/29-ellipsis-word-order-information-structure/). The BNC is NC, so the BNC part is test-only, and the paper's parsers are not Mova parsers. Measure first on EWT test, with the full, partial and no-parse split.

## Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.3115/1219079.1219084](https://doi.org/10.3115/1219079.1219084)

```
@inproceedings{nielsen2004robust,
  title = {{Robust VPE Detection using Automatically Parsed Text}},
  author = {Nielsen, Leif Arda},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACL Student Research Workshop},
  year = {2004},
  doi = {10.3115/1219079.1219084},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3115/1219079.1219084}
}
```

- [← previous OntoSem Methods for Processing Semantic Ellipsis](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/aclbulk-2004-mcshane-ontosem-methods-processing-semantic-ellipsis/)
- [next → Verb Phrase Ellipsis detection using Automatically Parsed Text](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/aclbulk-2004-nielsen-verb-phrase-ellipsis-detection-automatically/)
- [↑ back to English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/en/)

## References

23 references, 3 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

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11. MBL Prec 62.30 65.41 66.92 71.31 GIS-MaxEnt Rec Prec F1 38.66 79.45 52.01 50.66 73.78 60.07 43.42 56.89 49.25 61.84 72.30 66.66 L-BFGS-MaxEnt Rec Prec F1 56.66 71.42 63.19 65.33 72.05 68.53 51.63 79.00 62.45 62.74 73.84 67.84 F1 57.85 61.48 60.93 63.50 MBL Prec 63.63 67.16 63.21 73.29 GIS-MaxEnt Rec… [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=MBL+Prec+62%2E30+65%2E41+66%2E92+71%2E31+GIS%2DMaxEnt+Rec+Prec+F1+38%2E66+79%2E45+52%2E01+50%2E66+73%2E78+60%2E07+43%2E42+56%2E89+49%2E25+61%2E84+72%2E30+66%2E66+L%2DBFGS%2DMaxEnt+Rec+Prec+F1+56%2E66+71%2E42+63%2E19+65%2E33+72%2E05+68%2E53+51%2E63+79%2E0)
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