A scheme-driven natural language query translator

ABSTRACT

An approach to natural language query translation is presented that is driven mainly by the semantics contained in an extended database scheme. This approach has the advantage of ease of implementation and thus portability since the scheme can easily be extended to interface with the translation system's natural language understanding modules. The required extensions consist of adding domain specific routines to recognize and classify literals and a lexicon to recognize context keywords. The results from these recognizers are then presented to a domain independent translator for further analysis. A prototype system has been implemented and some initial experimentation has been done. Observations about the effectiveness of the translator and its efficiency are reported.

REFERENCES

• 1: Anderson, j.R. and Bower, G.H. , ~{~ Associative Memory, V. H. Winston & Sons, Washington D.C., 1973.
• 2: Artificial Intelligence Corporation, INTEI;L ECT Query System: User' s Guide, waltham, Massachusetts, January 1982.
• 3: Bruce W. Ballard , John C. Lusth , Nancy L. Tinkham, LDC-1: a transportable, knowledge-based natural language processor for office environments, ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), v.2 n.1, p.1-25, Jan. 1984 [doi>10.1145/357417.357418]
• 4: Robert W. Blanning, Conversing with management information systems in a natural language, Communications of the ACM, v.27 n.3, p.201-207, March 1984 [doi>10.1145/357994.358016]
• 5: Sheldon A. Borkin, Data Models: A Semantic Approach for Database Systems, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1980
• 6: Chamberlin, D.D., Astrahan, M.M., Eswaran, K.P. , Griffiths, P.P., Lorie, R.A., Mehl, J.W., Reisner, P. , and Wade, B.W., SEQUEL 2: a unified approach to data definition, manipulation, and control, IBM Journal of Research and DevelQpment, Vol. 20, No. 6, November 1979, 560-575.
• 7: Peter Pin-Shan Chen, The entity-relationship model—toward a unified view of data, ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), v.1 n.1, p.9-36, March 1976 [doi>10.1145/320434.320440]
• 8: E. F. Codd, Extending the database relational model to capture more meaning, ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), v.4 n.4, p.397-434, Dec. 1979 [doi>10.1145/320107.320109]
• 9: Codd, E.F. , How about recently?, in Databal se : Impr oving Usability and ResDon- ~/~, B. Shneiderman (ed.) , Academic Press, 1978, 3-28.
• 10: Embl ey, D.W. , A natural forms query language - an introduction to basic retrieval and update operations, in ImprQving Database Usabil ity andResponsly eness, P. Sch eue rmann (e d. ) , Acedemic Press, Inc., 1982, 121-145.
• 11: Embley, D.W., Programming with data frames for everyday data items, Proceedings NCC ~_O, Vol. 49, Anaheim, Cal iforni a, May 1980, 301-305.
• 12: Harris, L.R., User oriented data base query with the ROBOT natural language query system, Inter nati o~i Journal of Man--Machine Studio, Vol. 9, 1977, 697- 713.
• 13: 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]
• 14: Johnson, S.C., Yacc : yet another compil er-compil er, UNIX (tin) Time- Sharing System: UNIX Programmer's Manual, Vol. 2B, Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey, July 1978.
• 15: 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]
• 16: J. F. Kelley, An iterative design methodology for user-friendly natural language office information applications, ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), v.2 n.1, p.26-41, Jan. 1984 [doi>10.1145/357417.357420]
• 17: Khan, S.A Paige, M.R., and Embley, D W , Reading data items without constraints on form, format or completeness, Proceedings TreDds an.d Applications 1982, Gaithersburg, Maryland, May 1982, 74-82.
• 18: Kimbrell, R.E. , A database schema driven natural language query translator, Master's Thesis, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 240 pages, December 1982.
• 19: Lesk, M.E., LEX- a lexical analyzer generator, Bell Laboratories Technical Report #39, October 1975.
• 20: John Miles Smith , Diane C. P. Smith, Database abstractions: aggregation and generalization, ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), v.2 n.2, p.105-133, June 1977 [doi>10.1145/320544.320546]
• 21: Harry Tennant, Natural Language Processing: An Introduction to an Emerging Technology, Petrocelli Books, Inc., Princeton, NJ, 1981
• 22: 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]
• 23: Woods, W.A. , Kapl an, R.M., and Nash- Webber, B. , The lunar sciences natural language information system, BBN Report #2373, Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 1972.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT

General Terms:
Design, Management, Theory