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Is natural language querying practical?

Published: 01 May 1994 Publication History

Abstract

The study reported here involved the use of the natural language query system INTELLECT. It evaluated the level of correct interpretation to investigate whether the use of such a system is practical. Two sets of queries generated by two groups of senior-level business students were used. Questions from the first set were generated by "naïve" students who were untrained, and not aware that they were providing queries which were to be executed by a computer. Students from the second group attended a short lecture and understood that they were to generate natural language queries to be executed by a computer. INTELLECT's lexicon was augmented in stages. The level of correct interpretation achieved in this study is far above any previously reported and suggests that existing natural language query systems may be practical. key features in the accuracy of interpretation were user training and iterative lexicon enhancement.

References

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  • (2022)Natural Language to SQL Queries: A ReviewInternational Journal of Innovations in Science and Technology10.33411/IJIST/20220401114:1(147-162)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2022
  • (2010)Evaluating the usability of natural language query languages and interfaces to Semantic Web knowledge basesWeb Semantics: Science, Services and Agents on the World Wide Web10.1016/j.websem.2010.06.0018:4(377-393)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2010
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Published In

cover image ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems
ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems  Volume 25, Issue 2
May 1994
46 pages
ISSN:0095-0033
EISSN:1532-0936
DOI:10.1145/190743
Issue’s Table of Contents

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 May 1994
Published in SIGMIS Volume 25, Issue 2

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Author Tags

  1. INTELLECT
  2. database querying
  3. natural language interface
  4. natural language processing
  5. natural language querying

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  • (2022)Natural Language to SQL Queries: A ReviewInternational Journal of Innovations in Science and Technology10.33411/IJIST/20220401114:1(147-162)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2022
  • (2010)Evaluating the usability of natural language query languages and interfaces to Semantic Web knowledge basesWeb Semantics: Science, Services and Agents on the World Wide Web10.1016/j.websem.2010.06.0018:4(377-393)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2010
  • (2008)Ontology-based mobile information service platformProceedings of the 10th Asia-Pacific web conference on Progress in WWW research and development10.5555/1791734.1791765(239-250)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2008
  • (2008)Natural language interfaces to databases – an introductionNatural Language Engineering10.1017/S135132490000005X1:1(29-81)Online publication date: 12-Sep-2008
  • (2008)Ontology-Based Mobile Information Service PlatformProgress in WWW Research and Development10.1007/978-3-540-78849-2_26(239-250)Online publication date: 2008
  • (2007)Eliciting better information need descriptions from users of information search systemsInformation Processing and Management: an International Journal10.1016/j.ipm.2006.03.00643:1(30-46)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2007
  • (2003)A Uniform Human Knowledge Interface to the Multi-Domain Knowledge Bases in the National Knowledge InfrastructureApplications and Innovations in Intelligent Systems X10.1007/978-1-4471-0649-4_12(163-176)Online publication date: 2003
  • (2002)Interpretation of Natural Language Queries for Relational Database Access with Combinatory Categorial GrammarInternational Journal of Computer Processing of Languages10.1142/S021942790200065015:03(281-303)Online publication date: Sep-2002
  • (2001)Do What I MeanIEEE Intelligent Systems10.1109/5254.94135716:4(48-53)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2001
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