Explaining non-linear Classifier Decisions within Kernel-based Deep Architectures

Nonlinear methods such as deep neural networks achieve state-of-the-art performances in several semantic NLP tasks. However epistemologically transparent decisions are not provided as for the limited interpretability of the underlying acquired neural models. In neural-based semantic inference tasks epistemological transparency corresponds to the ability of tracing back causal connections between the linguistic properties of a input instance and the produced classification output. In this paper, we propose the use of a methodology, called Layerwise Relevance Propagation, over linguistically motivated neural architectures, namely Kernel-based Deep Architectures (KDA), to guide argumentations and explanation inferences. In such a way, each decision provided by a KDA can be linked to real examples, linguistically related to the input instance: these can be used to motivate the network output. Quantitative analysis shows that richer explanations about the semantic and syntagmatic structures of the examples characterize more convincing arguments in two tasks, i.e. question classification and semantic role labeling.