Is natural language an unnatural query language?

ABSTRACT

The complex system of form/meaning correlations comprising a natural language presents a considerable challenge for automated interpretation. In order to deal with such complexity, attempts at automated interpretation of natural language queries have typically concentrated on limited subsets of natural language. However, such subsets are inevitably ill-defined in some way, adding another class of interpretive problems to the well-known ones of syntactic ambiguity and ungrammatical strings. While the other problems are practically resolvable in some sense, the ability of an automated system to resolve the many syntactic ambiguities of natural language is a function of the interpretive power of the linguistic model upon which the system is based. Although previous models have lacked the interpretive power to deal with natural language, a novel approach integrating the treatment of form and meaning may provide an effective basis for handling natural language as an instrument of communication in automated systems.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
      I.2.7 Natural Language Processing

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT
      H.2.3 Languages
          Subjects: Query languages

General Terms:
Languages

Keywords:
Natural language processing, Query languages, Semantics, Syntax