Hidden-variable models for discriminative reranking

We describe a new method for the representation of NLP structures within reranking approaches. We make use of a conditional log-linear model, with hidden variables representing the assignment of lexical items to word clusters or word senses. The model learns to automatically make these assignments based on a discriminative training criterion. Training and decoding with the model requires summing over an exponential number of hidden-variable assignments: the required summations can be computed efficiently and exactly using dynamic programming. As a case study, we apply the model to parse reranking. The model gives an F-measure improvement of ≈ 1.25% beyond the base parser, and an ≈ 0.25% improvement beyond the Collins (2000) reranker. Although our experiments are focused on parsing, the techniques described generalize naturally to NLP structures other than parse trees.