Abstract
Aspects of an intelligent interface that provides natural language access to a large body of data distributed over a computer network are described. The overall system architecture is presented, showing how a user is buffered from the actual database management systems (DBMSs) by three layers of insulating components. These layers operate in series to convert natural language queries into calls to DBMSs at remote sites. Attention is then focused on the first of the insulating components, the natural language system. A pragmatic approach to language access that has proved useful for building interfaces to databases is described and illustrated by examples. Special language features that increase system usability, such as spelling correction, processing of incomplete inputs, and run-time system personalization, are also discussed. The language system is contrasted with other work in applied natural language processing, and the system’s limitations are analyzed.
This article was originally published in ACM Transactions on Database Systems 3(2), June 1978, pages 105–147. At that time, the authors were at SRI International.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Brown, J.S., and Burton, R.R., “Multiple representations of knowledge for tutorial reasoning”, in D.G. Bobrow and A. Collins, (eds.), Representation and Understanding, Academic Press, New York, 1975, 311–349.
Burton, R.R., “Semantic grammar: An engineering technique for constructing natural language understanding systems”, BBN Rep. 3453, Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, Boston MA, Dec. 1976.
Codd, E.F., “Seven steps to rendezvous with the casual user”, in J.W. Klimbie and K.I. Koffeman, (eds.), Data Base Management, North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1974, 179–200.
Computer Corporation of America. Datacomputer version 1 user manual. CCA, Cambridge MA, Aug. 1975.
Erman, L.D., (ed.), ACM SIGART Newsletter, 61, Feb. 1977.
Farrell, J., “The Datacomputer—A network data utility”, in Proc. Berkeley Workshop on Distributed Data Management and Computer Networks, Berkeley, CA, May 1976, 352–364.
Grosz, B.J., “The representation and use of focus in dialog understanding.” Ph.D. dissertation, U. of California, Berkeley, May 1977.
Harris, L.R., “ROBOT’ A high performance natural language processor for data base query.” ACM SIGART Newsletter, 61, Feb. 1977, 39–40.
Harris, L.R. “User oriented data base query with the ROBOT natural language query system,” Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. on Very Large Data Bases, Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 6–8, 1977.
Hendrix, G.G., “The LIFER manual: A guide to building practical natural language interfaces.” Tech. Note 138, SRI Artificial Intelligence Center, Menlo Park, CA, Feb. 1977.
Hendrix, G.G., “Human engineering for applied natural language processing”, Proc. 5th Int. Joint Conf. on Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge MA, August 1977.
Hoperoft, J•E., and Ullman, J.D., Formal Languages and Their Relation to Automata, Addison-Wesley, Reading MA, 1969.
Morris, P. and Sagalowicz, D.,“Managing network access to a distributed data base”, Proc. 2nd Berkeley Workshop on Distributed Data Management and Computer Networks, Berkeley CA, May 1977.
Mylopoulos, J., Bordgida, A., Cohen, P., Roussopoulos, N., Tsotsos, J. and Wong, H., “TORUS—A natural language understanding system for data management”, Proc. 4th Int. Joint Conf. on Artificial Intelligence, Tbilisi, U.S.S.R., Aug. 1977.
Paxton, W.H., “A framework for speech understanding”, Tech. Note 142, SRI Artificial Intelligence Center, Menlo Park CA, June 1977.
Sacerdoti, E.D., “Language access to distributed data with error recovery”, Proc. 5th Int. Joint Conf. on Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge MA, Aug. 1977.
Sagalowicz, D., IDA: An intelligent data access program,“ Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. on Very Large Data Bases, Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 1977.
Sowa, J.F., “Conceptual graphs for a database interface,” IBM J. Res. Develop, 20 4, July 1976, 336–357.
Teitelman, W., INTERLISP reference manual. Xerox PARC, Palo Alto CA, Dec. 1975.
Thompson, F.B., and Thompson, B.H., `Practical natural language processing: The REL system as prototype,“ in M. Rubinoff and M.C. Yovits, (eds.), Advances in Computers 13, Academic Press, New York, 1975.
Walker, D.E., Grosz, B.J., Hendrix, G.G., Paxton, W.H., Robinson, A.E., and Slocum, J., “An overview of speech understanding research at SRI,” Proc. 5th Int. Joint Conf. on Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge MA, Aug. 1977.
Waltz, D., “Natural language access to a large database: An engineering approach,” Proc. 4th Int. Joint Conf. on Artificial Intelligence, Tbilisi, U.S.S.R., Sept. 1975, pp. 868–872.
Woods, W.A., “Transition network grammars for natural language analysis,” Comm. ACM 13, 10, Oct. 1970, 591–606.
Woods, W.A., Kaplan, R.M., and Nash-Webber, B., “The lunar sciences natural language information system,” BBN Rep. 2378, Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge MA, 1972.
Woods, W.A., “An experimental parsing system for transition network grammars,” in R. Rustin, (ed.), Natural Language Processing, Algorithmics Press, New York, 1973.
Woods, W.A., Bates, M., Brown, G., Bruce, B., Cook, C., Klovstad, J., Makhoul, J., Nash-Webber, B., Schwartz, R., Wolf, J., and Zue, V., “Speech understanding systems,” Final technical progress report, Tech. Rep. 3438, Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, Cambridge MA, Dec. 1976.
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hendrix, G.G., Sacerdoti, E.D., Sagalowicz, D., Slocum, J. (1994). Developing a Natural Language Interface to Complex Data. In: Zampolli, A., Calzolari, N., Palmer, M. (eds) Current Issues in Computational Linguistics: In Honour of Don Walker. Linguistica Computazionale, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-35958-8_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-35958-8_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-2998-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-585-35958-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive