SD ▁was ▁first ▁form ulated ▁into ▁as ▁a ▁distinct ▁computational ▁task ▁during ▁the ▁early ▁days ▁of ▁machine ▁translation ▁in ▁the ▁ 1 9 4 0 s , ▁making ▁it ▁one ▁of ▁the ▁oldest ▁problems ▁in ▁computational ▁lingu istics . ▁Warren ▁We aver , ▁in ▁his ▁famous ▁ 1 9 4 9 ▁memor and um ▁on ▁translation , ▁first ▁introduced ▁the ▁problem ▁in ▁a ▁computational ▁context . ▁Early ▁research ers ▁understood ▁the ▁significance ▁and ▁difficulty ▁of ▁W SD ▁well . ▁In ▁fact , ▁Bar - H ille l ▁( 1 9 6 0 ) ▁used ▁the ▁above ▁example ▁to ▁argue ▁that ▁W SD ▁could ▁not ▁be ▁solved ▁by ▁" elect ron ic ▁computer " ▁because ▁of ▁the ▁need ▁in ▁general ▁to ▁model ▁all ▁world ▁knowledge . ▁ ▁In ▁the ▁ 1 9 7 0 s , ▁W SD ▁was ▁a ▁sub task ▁of ▁semantic ▁interpretation ▁systems ▁developed ▁within ▁the ▁field ▁of ▁artificial ▁intelligence , ▁starting ▁with ▁Wil ks ' ▁preference ▁semantics . ▁However , ▁since ▁W SD ▁systems ▁were ▁at ▁the ▁time ▁largely ▁rule - based ▁and ▁hand - coded ▁they ▁were ▁pr one ▁to ▁a ▁knowledge ▁ac quisition ▁bott l ene ck . ▁ ▁By ▁the ▁ 1 9 8 0 s ▁large - scale ▁lex ical ▁resources , ▁such ▁as ▁the ▁Oxford ▁Advanced ▁Lear ner ' s ▁Dictionary ▁of ▁Current ▁English ▁( O AL D ), ▁became ▁available : ▁hand - c oding ▁was ▁replaced ▁with ▁knowledge ▁automatically ▁extracted ▁from ▁these ▁resources , ▁but ▁dis ambiguation ▁was ▁still ▁knowledge - based ▁or