Project

Finding Cultural Differences in Text

Because common-sense knowledge differs culturally, misunderstandings frequently occur. Because differences can be subtle, there has been little work in trying to detect places in text where cultural differences might arise. We explicitly represent the common-sense knowledge of each culture in separate knowledge bases. By analyzing a text, we can find differences between each culture's knowledge concerning its subject. For example, given an invitation to a party, the system is able to infer that in an American cultural context, hip-hop dancing might be expected, but in a Mexican context, salsa dancing might be the norm. We are building an email client that suggests knowledge from multiple cultures that might be relevant, while watching the user's typing.