Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

A natural language (NL) analyzing system is provided with the capability to analyze NL expressions and to resolve ambiguities and present them to the user for verification of correct interpretation. A conceptual model of the system, relevant to the application in which the invention is implemented, is created (customizing the system) by the user, and is stored as a conceptual schema. The schema is built of logical facts representing entities (concepts) and relationships between entities, forming a description of the universe of discourse or object system in question. The entities of the schema have at least one external connection, namely to natural language terms in a vocabulary. The schema itself is completely language independent, though the components of it may have 'names' expressed in a natural language such as English. There may be a second connection to the entities, namely where the system is used in a query system for relational data bases. In this case the entities of the schema represent objects in the data base, and thus there is a connection between the entities and those objects of the data base. The actual analysis of NL expressions is performed by a natural language engine (NLE) in cooperation with an analysis grammar and the schema. The analysis results in an intermediate, language-independent logic form representation of the input, which is paraphrased back to NL for verification. If the input is a query, there is a translation into a query language such as SQL.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim