Challenging choices for text simplification

In this paper we discuss particular choices we made during the development of a rule-based syntactic text simplification system. Such choices concern 1) how to deal with adverbial phrases in order to simplify sentences, and 2) the order in which to apply our set of simplification rules. Adverbial phrases have not been considered by previous work on text simplification, but have a considerable impact on the complexity of a sentence. Considering our whole set of simplification rules, we discuss and compare two different orders in which to apply them: empirical and hierarchical.