Paper
21 March 1989 Generation And Understanding Of Natural Language Using Information In A Frame Structure
W. A. Perkins
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Many expert systems and relational database systems store factual information in the form of attributes values of objects. Problems arise in transforming from that attribute (frame) database representation into English surface structure and in transforming the English surface structure into a representation that references information in the frame database. In this paper we consider mainly the generation process, as it is this area in which we have made the most significant progress. In its interaction with the user, the expert system must generate questions, declarations, and uncertain declarations. Attributes such as COLOR, LENGTH, and ILLUMINATION can be referenced using the template: "<attribute name> of <object>" for both questions and declarations. However, many other attributes, such as RATTLES, in "What is RATTLES of the light bulb?", and HAS_STREP_THROAT in, "HAS_STREP_THROAT of Dan is true." do not fit this template. We examined over 300 attributes from several knowledge bases and have grouped them into 16 classes. For each class there is one "question" template, one "declaration" template, and one "uncertain declaration" template for generating English surface structure. The internal databases identifiers (e.g., HAS_STREP_THROAT and DISEASE_35) must also be replaced by output synonyms. Classifying each attribute in combination with synonym translation remarkably improved the English surface structure that the system generated. In the area of understanding, synonym translation and knowledge of the attribute properties, such as legal values, has resulted in a robust database query capability.
© (1989) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
W. A. Perkins "Generation And Understanding Of Natural Language Using Information In A Frame Structure", Proc. SPIE 1095, Applications of Artificial Intelligence VII, (21 March 1989); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.969311
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KEYWORDS
Databases

Artificial intelligence

Legal

Nose

Diffractive optical elements

Throat

Computing systems

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