Semantics modeling issues for processing natural language database queries

ABSTRACT

This work explores data semantics issues necessary for designing an NL interface capable of dealing with incomplete NL queries. First, the notion of incomplete NL queries is clarified to conclude the necessity for enriching the data semantics component of the system. An assumption made by the existing NL interfaces is expounded to argue that the approaches based on this assumption are unable to explore meta-knowledge about the stored data in the query conversion process. A new, unconventional approach is proposed whose tenets underlie the separation between the conceptual interpretation of NL queries and the semantics descriptions of the database constituents. This approach allows explicit descriptions of the conceptual knowledge, referred to herein as epistemological specifications, on the DB constituents.

REFERENCES

• 1: INTELLECT Query System U~er'a Guide. AI Corp., Newton Center, MA., second edition, 1980.
• 2: Serge Abiteboul , Richard Hull, IFO: a formal semantic database model, ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), v.12 n.4, p.525-565, Dec. 1987 [doi>10.1145/32204.32205]
• 3: M Bates , M G Moser , D Stallard, The IRUS transportable natural language database interface, Proceedings from the first international workshop on Expert database systems, p.617-630, January 1986, Kiawah Island, South Carolina, United States
• 4: Alexander Borgida, Language features for flexible handling of exceptions in information systems, ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), v.10 n.4, p.565-603, Dec. 1985 [doi>10.1145/4879.4995]
• 5: R.J. Brachman and J. G. Schmolze. An overview of the KL-ONE knowledge representation system. Cognitive Science, 9:171-216, 1985.
• 6: M. Sandra Carberry, Understanding pragmatically ill-formed input, Proceedings of the 22nd annual meeting on Association for Computational Linguistics, p.200-206, July 02-06, 1984, Stanford, California
• 7: C. L. Chang. Finding missing joina .for incom. plete queriea in relational databaseL Technical Report RJ2145, IBM Research Lab, San Jose, CA, 1978.
• 8: E. F. Codd, A relational model of data for large shared data banks, Communications of the ACM, v.13 n.6, p.377-387, June 1970 [doi>10.1145/362384.362685]
• 9: E. F. Codd. How About Recently? In B. Shneiderman, editor, Databasea: Improving usability and resporuivenesa, Academic Press~ New York, 1978.
• 10: Fred J. Damerau, Problems and some solutions in customization of natural language database front ends, ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), v.3 n.2, p.165-184, April 1985 [doi>10.1145/3914.3915]
• 11: C. J. Fillmore. The Case for Case. In E. Bach and R. T. Harms, editors, UniverJala in Linguistic Theory, pages 1-88, Holt, Rinerhart, and Winston, Inc., New York, 1968.
• 12: Barbara J. Grosz, TEAM: a transportable natural-language interface system, Proceedings of the first conference on Applied natural language processing, February 01-03, 1983, Santa Monica, California [doi>10.3115/974194.974201]
• 13: Giovanni Guida , Carlo Tasso, IR-NLI: an expert natural language interface to online data bases, Proceedings of the first conference on Applied natural language processing, February 01-03, 1983, Santa Monica, California [doi>10.3115/974194.974200]
• 14: C. D. Hafner and K. S. Godden. Design of natural Inn. guage interfaces: a case study. Technical Report GMR- 4567, GM Res. Lab., Warren, Michigan, Jan. 1984.
• 15: Carole D. Hafner , Kurt Godden, Portability of syntax and semantics in DATALOG, ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), v.3 n.2, p.141-164, April 1985 [doi>10.1145/3914.3982]
• 16: L. Harris. User Oriented Data Base Query with the ROBOT Natural Language Query System. In Proc. o} VLDB, pages 303-311, 1977.
• 17: Gary G. Hendrix , Earl D. Sacerdoti , Daniel Sagalowicz , Jonathan Slocum, Developing a natural language interface to complex data, ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), v.3 n.2, p.105-147, June 1978 [doi>10.1145/320251.320253]
• 18: J Hirschberg, Anticipating false implicatures: cooperative responses in question-answer systems, Proceedings from the first international workshop on Expert database systems, p.631-638, January 1986, Kiawah Island, South Carolina, United States
• 19: H. Ishikawa et al. Designing a knowledge-based natural language interface. IEEE Expert, 2(2):57-71, 1987.
• 20: Jürgen M Janas, The semantics-based natural language interface to relational databases, Cooperative interfaces to information systems, Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., New York, NY, 1986
• 21: Matthias Jarke , Jürgen Krause , Yannis Vassiliou, Studies in the evaluation of a domain-independent natural language query system, Cooperative interfaces to information systems, Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., New York, NY, 1986
• 22: Mimi Kao , Nick Cercone , Wo-Shun Luk, What do you mean ``Null''? Turning Null Responses into Quality Responses, Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Data Engineering, p.356-364, February 03-05, 1987
• 23: S. Jerrold Kaplan, Designing a Portable Natural Language Database Query System, ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), v.9 n.1, p.1-19, March 1984 [doi>10.1145/348.318584]
• 24: J. J. Katz and J. A. Fordor. The Structure of a Semantic Theory. In Language, pages 170-210, 1963.
• 25: C. Kellogg. From Data Management to Knowledge Management. Computer, 19(1 ):75-84, 1986.
• 26: Dan Kogan, The Manger's Assistant, an Application of Knowledge Management, Proceedings of the First International Conference on Data Engineering, p.592-595, April 24-27, 1984
• 27: P. Martin, D. Appelt, and F. Pereira. Transportability and Generality in a Natural-Language Interface System. In Proc. of 8th IJCA!, pages 573-581, 1983.
• 28: William A. Martin, Some Comments On EQS, A Near Term Natural Language Data Base Query System, Proceedings of the 1978 annual conference, p.156-164, December 04-06, 1978, Washington, D.C., United States [doi>10.1145/800127.804086]
• 29: Kathleen R. McKeown, Discourse strategies for generating natural-language text, Artificial Intelligence, v.27 n.1, p.1-41, Sept. 1985 [doi>10.1016/0004-3702(85)90082-7]
• 30: A Motro, Query generalization: a method for interpreting null answers, Proceedings from the first international workshop on Expert database systems, p.597-616, January 1986, Kiawah Island, South Carolina, United States
• 31: John Mylopoulos , Philip A. Bernstein , Harry K. T. Wong, A language facility for designing interactive database-intensive applications, Proceedings of the 1978 ACM SIGMOD international conference on management of data, May 31-June 02, 1978, Austin, Texas [doi>10.1145/509252.509262]
• 32: Brian Nixon , Lawrence Chung , John Mylopoulos , David Lauzon , Alex Borgida , M. Stanley, Implementation of a compiler for a semantic data model: Experiences with taxis, Proceedings of the 1987 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, p.118-131, May 27-29, 1987, San Francisco, California, United States
• 33: Sylvia L. Osborn , T. E. Heaven, The design of a relational database system with abstract data types for domains, ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), v.11 n.3, p.357-373, Sept. 1986 [doi>10.1145/6314.6461]
• 34: W. J. Plath. REQUEST: A natural language question-answering system. IBM J. ReJ. Development, 20(4):326-335, July 1976.
• 35: Xiaolei Qian , Gio Wiederhold, Knowledge-based Integrity Constraint Validation, Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, p.3-12, August 25-28, 1986
• 36: D. G. Shin , K. B. Irani, Partitioning a relational database horizontally using a knowledge-based approach, Proceedings of the 1985 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, p.95-105, May 1985, Austin, Texas, United States
• 37: Michael Stonebraker , Lawrence A. Rowe, The design of POSTGRES, Proceedings of the 1986 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, p.340-355, May 28-30, 1986, Washington, D.C., United States
• 38: Marjorie Templeton , John Burger, Considerations for the development of natural-language interfaces to database management systems, Cooperative interfaces to information systems, Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., New York, NY, 1986
• 39: Bozena H. Thompson , Frederick B. Thompson, ASK is transportable in half a dozen ways, ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), v.3 n.2, p.185-203, April 1985 [doi>10.1145/3914.3983]
• 40: Bozena Henisz Thompson , Frederick B. Thompson, Rapidly Extendable Natural Language, Proceedings of the 1978 annual conference, p.173-182, December 04-06, 1978, Washington, D.C., United States [doi>10.1145/800127.804088]
• 41: Shalom Tsur , Carlo Zaniolo, An implementation of GEM: supporting a semantic data model on a relational back-end., Proceedings of the 1984 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, June 18-21, 1984, Boston, Massachusetts
• 42: David L. Waltz, An English language question answering system for a large relational database, Communications of the ACM, v.21 n.7, p.526-539, July 1978 [doi>10.1145/359545.359550]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT
      H.2.4 Systems
          Subjects: Query processing

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.3 Information Search and Retrieval
          Subjects: Retrieval models

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
      I.2.1 Applications and Expert Systems
          Subjects: Natural language interfaces

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Languages