Generating referring expressions

The generation of referring expressions is a key component task in many studies of natural language generation, and one that has attracted a significant amount of attention over the past 15–20 years. This article provides a formal characterization of the problem as a process of constructing a distinguishing description of an intended referent, so that a hearer is able to identify the intended referent within a context that contains other potential referents. The article outlines the historical development of algorithms that attempt to address various aspects of the problem, and points to further aspects of the problem that remain so far unexplored.