JP2014112316A - Question answering program using large amounts of comment sentences, server and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a question answering server, etc. capable of clearly indicating (narrowing down to) an answer sentence reflecting a user's intention when a plurality of candidates of an answer sentence exist to a user's question sentence.SOLUTION: A question answering server has: question keyword extraction means for extracting a plurality of question keywords from a question sentence; comment sentence retrieval means for retrieving comment sentences including the question keywords; topic classification means for classifying the plurality of retrieved comment sentences into a plurality of topic groups; answer sentence detection means for associating the respective topics with answer sentences whose similarity to the respective answer sentences become a predetermined threshold or more; representative predicate argument structure extraction means for extracting representative predicate argument structures for the respective topics; differential predicate argument structure extraction means for extracting the representative predicate argument structures appearing only in the topics as differential predicate argument structures; differential predicate argument structure selection means for clearly indicating a plurality of differential predicate argument structures to a user to be selected; and answer sentence output means for clearly indicating the answer sentences corresponding to the differential predicate argument structure to the user.

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for a question answering program that outputs an optimum answer sentence in response to a question sentence input.

In recent years, a question answering system based on FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) has been constructed. “FAQ” refers to a collection of answers to questions that are frequently asked by many people in common. The question answering system is software that inputs a question sentence concerning a specific type of information from a user in a natural language and outputs the answer sentence. Generally, the question answering system stores a virtual question sentence and an answer candidate sentence associated therewith in a database in advance. In addition, the question answering system executes processing in the following steps.
(1) A characteristic word is extracted as a query from a question sentence input by a user.
(2) Using a search engine, select a virtual question sentence with a high appearance frequency of a plurality of queries.
(3) Select an answer sentence for the selected virtual selection sentence.
(4) Present the selected answer sentence to the user.

  Some of such question answering systems exist as a single device for the user, and others are connected as a question answering server on the Internet. The question answering server receives a question sentence from a user-operated terminal via a network, and transmits the answer sentence to the terminal (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 1).

  As another technique, a blog (Web log) server or a mini blog (for example, twitter (registered trademark)) server is connected to the Internet. Such a blog server receives comment texts from an unspecified number of third parties and publishes them to other third parties. Such comment texts are disclosed on various topics, and of course, a lot of comment texts related to the question texts and answer texts input to and output from the question answering system described above are also discussed.

JP 2011-81626 A JP 2005-141428 A JP 2005-284209 A

KDDI, "au one NET Concierge", [online], [October 7, 2012 search], Internet <URL: http://concierge.auone-net.jp/inagoNetPeople/BrowserClient/GUI/kddi_missConcie3/help/ help.html> Masashi Tsubosaka, “Introduction to Latent Dirichlet Allocation”, [online], [Search October 7, 2012], Internet <URL: http://www.slideshare.net/tsubosaka/tokyotextmining> Hiroshi Tsuji, Kazunori Matsumoto, Atsushi Kuroiwa, Kazuo Hashimoto, "Natural Language Conversion Method Using Reoccurrence Operation", IEICE Transactions (D-II), Vol.J72-D-II, No.12, pp. 2080-2093, Dec. 1989, [online], [October 7, 2012 search], Internet <URL: http://jglobal.jst.go.jp/public/20090422/200902065122383276>

  However, there may be a plurality of intentions of the user's question even in the same question sentence. In such a case, an appropriate answer sentence is often not returned to the user.

Examples of user questions Q “Lost mobile phone”
For this question sentence, the question answering system extracts the following two keywords.
"Mobile phone""Lost"
When answer sentences are searched using these keywords as queries, there are a plurality of answer options.
A “Responding to“ How to find a mobile phone and secure service ”A Answer to“ How to use mobile phone to find a safe service ”In this case, the user inquires about“ how to use ”to lock a lost mobile phone remotely. In spite of the intention, the question answering system may answer about the “application method”.

  Therefore, the present invention provides a question answering program, server, and method capable of clearly specifying (restricting to) an answer sentence reflecting the user's intention when there are a plurality of answer sentence candidates for the user's question sentence. The purpose is to provide.

According to the present invention, the computer has a comment text storage unit that stores a large number of comment texts and an answer text storage unit that stores a large number of response texts, and extracts a response text to a question text from a user. A question answering program that works,
A question sentence input means for inputting a question sentence;
A question keyword extracting means for extracting a plurality of question keywords included in a question sentence;
Comment text search means for searching for comment text containing a question keyword using the comment text storage unit;
A topic classification means for classifying a plurality of retrieved comment sentences into a plurality of topic groups from a distribution of predicate term structures by a predicate term structure analysis;
An answer sentence detection means for calculating a similarity between a comment sentence group included in each topic group and a sentence included in each answer sentence, and associating an answer sentence having a similarity equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold with each topic group;
For each topic group, representative predicate term structure extraction means for extracting a representative predicate term structure that characterizes the topic group in the predicate term structure included in the associated answer sentence;
For each topic group, a differential predicate term structure extracting means for extracting a representative predicate term structure that appears only in the topic group as a differential predicate term structure;
The computer is caused to function as an answer sentence output means for clearly indicating an answer sentence detected by the answer sentence detecting means together with a sentence based on one or more corresponding differential predicate term structures.

According to another embodiment of the question answering program of the present invention,
A sentence based on a plurality of differential predicate term structures is clearly shown to the user via the user interface, and further includes a differential predicate term structure selecting means for selecting any one of the differential predicate term structures according to a user operation,
The answer sentence output means preferably causes the computer to function so as to clearly indicate the answer sentence corresponding to the differential predicate term structure of the selected sentence via the user interface.

  According to another embodiment of the question answering program of the present invention, the topic classification means uses an LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) algorithm for calculating the likelihood (topic ratio) that the comment text belongs to each classified topic group. It is also preferred to use the computer to function in any one topic group.

According to another embodiment of the question answering program of the present invention,
Answer detection means
Extracting a predicate term structure from a comment sentence group included in each topic group by predicate term structure analysis, and calculating a first feature vector in the topic group,
From each answer sentence stored in the answer sentence storage unit, a predicate term structure is extracted by predicate term structure analysis and a second feature vector in the answer sentence is calculated,
It is also preferable to cause the computer to function to calculate the similarity based on the cosine distance between the first vector of the topic group and the second vector of the answer sentence.

  According to another embodiment of the question answering program of the present invention, the representative predicate term structure extracting means causes the computer to function so that the representative predicate term structures of the topic groups are arranged in order of priority according to the Akaike information amount standard. Is also preferable.

According to another embodiment of the question answering program of the present invention,
Comment text is posted by an unspecified number of third parties,
It is also preferable that the comment text storage unit allows the computer to function so as to collect and store the comment text posted on the mini web log server.

According to the present invention, there is provided a question answering server that has a comment sentence accumulating unit that accumulates a large number of comment sentences and an answer sentence accumulating unit that accumulates a large number of answer sentences, and extracts an answer sentence for a question sentence from a user. There,
A question sentence input means for inputting a question sentence from a terminal;
A question keyword extracting means for extracting a plurality of question keywords included in a question sentence;
Comment text search means for searching for comment text containing a question keyword using the comment text storage unit;
A topic classification means for classifying a plurality of retrieved comment sentences into a plurality of topic groups from a distribution of predicate term structures by a predicate term structure analysis;
A comment sentence group included in each topic group and an answer sentence calculating means for calculating a similarity between each answer sentence and associating each topic group with an answer sentence having a similarity equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold;
For each topic group, representative predicate term structure extraction means for extracting a representative predicate term structure that characterizes the topic group in the predicate term structure included in the associated answer sentence;
For each topic group, a differential predicate term structure extracting means for extracting a representative predicate term structure that appears only in the topic group as a differential predicate term structure;
Answer text output means for clearly indicating the answer text detected by the answer text detection means together with text based on one or more corresponding differential predicate term structures.

According to another embodiment of the question answering server of the present invention,
A sentence based on a plurality of differential predicate term structures is clearly shown to the user via the user interface, and further includes a differential predicate term structure selecting means for selecting any one of the differential predicate term structures according to a user operation,
It is also preferable that the answer sentence output means clearly indicates the answer sentence corresponding to the differential predicate term structure of the selected sentence via the user interface.

According to the present invention, a question answer in an apparatus that has a comment text storage unit that stores a large number of comment texts and a response text storage unit that stores a large number of response texts and extracts a response text to a question text from a user A method,
A first step of inputting a question sentence;
A second step of extracting a plurality of question keywords included in the question sentence;
A third step of searching for a comment sentence including a question keyword using the comment sentence storage unit;
A fourth step of classifying the retrieved plurality of comment sentences into a plurality of topic groups from a distribution of predicate term structures by a predicate term structure analysis;
A fifth step of calculating a similarity between a comment sentence group included in each topic group and each answer sentence, and associating an answer sentence having a similarity equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold to each topic group;
For each topic group, a sixth step of extracting a representative predicate term structure characterizing the topic group from among the predicate term structures included in the associated answer sentence;
For each topic group, a seventh step of extracting a representative predicate term structure that appears only in the topic group as a differential predicate term structure;
And an eighth step of clearly specifying the answer sentence detected in the fifth step together with a sentence based on the corresponding one or more differential predicate term structures.

According to another embodiment of the question answering method of the present invention,
For the eighth step,
Sentences based on a plurality of differential predicate term structures are clearly shown to the user via the user interface, and any one of the differential predicate term structures is selected according to a user operation,
It is also preferable to clearly indicate the answer sentence corresponding to the differential predicate term structure of the selected sentence via the user interface.

  According to the question answering program, server and method of the present invention, when there are a plurality of answer sentence candidates for the user's question sentence, the answer sentence reflecting the user's intention can be clearly specified (restricted). .

It is a system configuration diagram in the present invention. It is a function block diagram of the question answering server in this invention. It is explanatory drawing showing the process of a question keyword extraction part and a comment text search part. It is explanatory drawing showing the process of a topic classification | category part. It is explanatory drawing showing the process of an answer sentence detection part. It is explanatory drawing showing the process of a representative predicate term structure extraction part, a difference predicate term structure extraction part, a difference predicate term structure selection part, and an answer sentence output part. It is a sequence diagram in the present invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram according to the present invention.

  According to FIG. 1, a question answering server 1 according to the present invention is connected to the Internet. The question answering server 1 may store the answer text in advance, or may receive the answer text from another answer text storage server 2. According to the present invention, there is no need to associate and store question sentence candidates and answer sentence candidates such as FAQ in advance. Only answer sentence candidates are stored in advance.

  The terminal 4 operated by the questioner accesses the question answering server 1 via the access network and the Internet. Then, the terminal 4 transmits the question text to the question answering server 1 and receives the answer text from the question answering server 1. In the following embodiment, it is assumed that the questioner inputs the natural language text to the terminal 4, but the questioner may be input by voice and converted into text.

  In addition, according to FIG. 1, a blog server 3 that publishes comment text posted by an unspecified number of third parties is further connected to the Internet. The blog server 3 is a mini blog server such as a twitter (registered trademark) server. An unspecified number of third parties can freely post a comment sentence to the miniblog server 3 using the terminal 5 possessed by the third party.

  The question answering server 1 in the present invention collects a large amount of comment text from the miniblog server 3. Then, when there are a plurality of answer sentence candidates for the user's question sentence, the question / answer server 1 specifies (restricts) the answer sentence reflecting the user's intention using the collected comment sentences.

  FIG. 2 is a functional configuration diagram of the question answering server according to the present invention.

  According to FIG. 2, the question answering server 1 includes a communication interface unit 10, an answer sentence accumulating part 101, an answer sentence acquiring part 111, a comment sentence accumulating part 102, and a comment sentence collecting part 112.

  The answer sentence storage unit 101 stores a large number of answer sentences. The answer sentence acquisition unit 111 may receive these answer sentences from the answer sentence storage server 2 via the network and store them in the answer sentence storage unit 101.

  The comment text storage unit 102 stores a large number of comment text posted by an unspecified number of third parties. The comment text collection unit 112 may receive these comment texts from the blog server 3 via the network and store them in the comment text storage unit 102.

  The “comment text” is, for example, a Japanese “tweet” (maximum number of characters: 140 characters) transmitted by twitter (registered trademark). The comment text includes, for example, a user id (from_user_id), a tweet ID (id_str), a transmission time (created_at), and a tweet (texts). Here, the comment sentence collection unit 112 can also collect only comment sentences including a plurality of keywords specified in advance.

  2, the question answering server 1 includes a question sentence input unit 121, a question keyword extraction unit 122, a comment sentence search unit 123, a topic classification unit 124, an answer sentence detection unit 125, a representative predicate. A term structure extraction unit 126, a difference predicate term structure extraction unit 127, a difference predicate term structure selection unit 128, and an answer sentence output unit 129 are included. These functional components are realized by executing a program that causes a computer mounted on the server to function.

[Question sentence input unit 121]
The question sentence input unit 121 receives a question sentence from the questioner's terminal 4 via the network. For example, the user's question text is as follows.
Q "Lost mobile phone"
The question text is output to the question keyword extraction unit 122.

  FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the processing of the question keyword extraction unit and the comment text search unit.

[Question keyword extraction unit 122]
The question keyword extraction unit 122 extracts a plurality of question keywords included in the question sentence. Here, the question keyword extraction unit 122 extracts a keyword from a question sentence by morphological analysis, and asks a characteristic word by TF-IDF (Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency) as a question. Extract as keywords.

  First, the question keyword extraction unit 122 extracts words from the question sentence by morphological analysis. “Morphological analysis” refers to a technique in which sentences are divided into meaningful words and the part of speech and contents are discriminated using a dictionary. The “morpheme” means the smallest unit having meaning among the elements of the sentence. Instead of searching by word unit as in morphological analysis, analysis may be performed by “N-gram” that decomposes by character unit and obtains the appearance frequency in a state including the following N-1 characters.

  Next, characteristic keywords are extracted as question keywords by TF-IDF. TF-IDF is a technology that weights each word, expresses sentences from a query in a vector space, and ranks them based on the similarity between the sentences and the query. The higher the ranked value, the more important keywords are recognized.

According to the example of FIG. 3, it is extracted as follows.
Question "Lost mobile phone"
Question keyword "mobile phone""lost"

[Comment text search unit 123]
The comment text search unit 123 uses the comment text storage unit 102 to search for a comment text including the question keyword. Specifically, using a question keyword as a query, a TF (Term Frequency) value and a DF (Document Frequency) value are extracted from each comment sentence, and a plurality of comment sentences whose values are equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold are searched. The TF value refers to the appearance frequency of a search word in a sentence, and the DF value refers to the relative sentence frequency in which an index word appears. The comment text search unit 123 is a social media search function that searches only tweets related to a question keyword from a large number of posted tweets.

  According to FIG. 3, for example, four comment sentences are searched. These comment sentences include at least “mobile phone” or “lost”.

  FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating processing of the topic classification unit.

[Topic classification unit 124]
The topic classifying unit 124 classifies the searched comment sentences into a plurality of topic groups from the distribution of the predicate term structure by predicate term structure analysis. The topic classification unit 124 classifies the comment text into any one topic group by using an LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) algorithm that calculates a probability (topic ratio) belonging to each classified topic group. In particular, the LDA of the topic classification unit 124 is not a classification based on keywords but a classification based on a predicate term structure.

  LDA is a technique in which a probabilistic framework based on fluctuation is introduced into a feature vector of a word with respect to a technology (LSI (latent Semantic Indexin)) for dimensional compression of a word document matrix (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 2). The compressed set of dimensions is called a topic.

  The “predicate term structure” is a predicate in a sentence with a noun phrase or the like that becomes a “term”. By using the predicate term structure, it is possible to grasp the skeleton of the meaning of the sentence. As the predicate term structure analysis, for example, a predicate term structure analyzer such as Syncha which is free software can be used.

  The predicate term structure is composed of “object” for “predicate” and its case. According to FIG. 4, for example, the predicate term structure “search for mobile phone” includes the object “mobile phone” and the case “wo” for the predicate “search”. Further, for example, the predicate term structure of “apply to service” is composed of an object “service” and a case “d” for the predicate “apply”.

The topic classification unit 124 executes processing in the following steps.
(S41) The appearance frequency (number of appearances) for each predicate term structure is input to the LDA process from a large number of comment sentences related to the question keyword. And the appearance frequency of each predicate term structure is counted for every comment sentence.
(S42) Next, in the LDA processing in this case, the predicate term structure distribution for each topic and the topic ratio for each comment sentence (net side opinion) are acquired. This topic ratio classifies the topic group to which the comment text belongs. And the appearance frequency of each predicate term structure contained in all the comment sentences is counted for every topic group.
(S43) Next, predicate term structures belonging to each topic group are counted for each comment sentence. Then, the comment sentences are classified into topic groups with high count values.

  FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing processing of the answer sentence detection unit.

[Answer sentence detector 125]
The answer sentence detection unit 125 calculates the similarity between the comment sentence group included in each topic group and the sentence included in each answer sentence, and determines an answer sentence having a similarity equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold for each topic group. Associate.

For example, the similarity is calculated as follows.
(S51) The answer sentence detection unit 125 extracts a predicate term structure from a comment sentence group included in each topic group by a predicate term structure analysis, and calculates a first feature vector in the topic group.
Each topic group: Ci (i = 1,2, ...)
Comment text included in topic group i: Tij (j = 1,2, ...)
(S52) A predicate term structure is extracted from each answer sentence stored in the answer sentence storage unit 101 by predicate term structure analysis, and a second feature vector in the answer sentence is calculated.
Answer text: Ak (k = 1,2, ...)
(S53) The similarity is calculated based on the cosine distance between the first vector of the topic group and the second vector of the answer sentence. Specifically, a similarity Dist (Ci, Aj) between the topic group Ci including each comment sentence Ti1, Ti2,... And the answer sentence Aj is calculated.
Dist (Ci, Aj) = average value of cosin distances D (Ti1, Aj), D (Ti2, Aj), ...
= Argi max (Dist (Ci, Aj))

According to FIG. 5, a large number of answer sentences are accumulated in the answer sentence accumulation unit 101.
Answer 1 "..."
Answer 2 “How to apply for a secure service by searching for a mobile phone”
Predicate term structure = predicate “search”, object “mobile”, wo case
Predicate term structure = predicate "apply", object "service", d case answer sentence 3 "..."
Answer sentence 4 "..."
Answer sentence 5 “How to use a secure service with a mobile search”
Predicate term structure = predicate “search”, object “mobile”, wo case
Predicate term structure = predicate "use", object "service", wo case answer sentence 6 "..."

  According to FIG. 5, when the similarity between the topic group 1 and the answer sentence 2 is higher than the predetermined threshold δ, it is determined that both are similar. Further, when the similarity between the topic group 2 and the answer sentence 5 is higher than the predetermined threshold δ, it is determined that the two are similar. As a result, zero or more answer sentences are assigned to each topic group C1, C2,.

  FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing the processing of the representative predicate term structure extraction unit, the difference predicate term structure extraction unit, the difference predicate term structure selection unit, and the answer sentence output unit.

[Representative predicate term structure extraction unit 126]
The representative predicate term structure extraction unit 126 extracts, for each topic group, a representative predicate term structure that characterizes the topic group from among the predicate term structures included in the associated answer sentences.

According to FIG. 6, the predicate term structure as shown in the following table is extracted from the answer sentence 2 corresponding to the topic group 1.
Answer 2 “How to find a mobile phone and apply for a secure service is as follows ...”
Predicate term structure = predicate “search”, object “mobile”, wo case
Predicate term structure = predicate "apply", object "service", d-statement answer sentence 5
Predicate term structure = predicate “search”, object “mobile”, wo case
Predicate term structure = predicate "use", object "service", wo case

  Here, it is also preferable that the predicate term structure extraction unit 126 arranges the representative predicate term structures of the topic groups in priority order according to the Akaike information amount criterion. Let predicate term structures appearing in any of the reply sentences assigned to the topic groups C1, C2,. Here, an index is provided as to whether the predicate term structure E (i) is useful for determining the topic group Cj.

  In the following, a calculation method of an index E (s, C) indicating whether the predicate term structure s is useful for determining the topic group C will be described.

(S1) The following four types of frequencies are obtained from the set U of comment sentences (tweets) included in the topic group.
n11 = number of comment sentences similar to topic group C, in which predicate term structure s appears n12 = number of comment sentences similar to other than topic group C, in which predicate term structure s appears n21 = similar to topic group C, Number of comment sentences in which predicate term structure s does not appear n22 = Number of comment sentences that are similar to those other than topic group C and in which predicate term structure s does not appear

(S2) Next, for n11, n12, n21, and n22, using the Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC), the value MLL_IM (s, C) for the independent model and the value MLL_DM (s) for the dependent model , C). This calculates an unreasonable ratio for each set of predicate term structure and topic group.
MLL_IM (s, C) = (n11 + n12) log (n11 + n12)
+ (N11 + n21) log (n11 + n21)
+ (N21 + n22) log (n21 + n22)
+ (N12 + n22) log (n12 + n22) -2N log N
MLL_DM (s, C) = n11 log n11 + n12 log n12 + n21 log n21 + n22 log n22-N log N
However, N = n11 + n12 + n21 + n22

(S3) The following E (s, C) is calculated from the aforementioned MLL_IM (s, C) and MLL_DM (s, C).
AIC_IM (s, C) = -2 × MLL_IM (s, C) + 2 × 2
AIC_DM (s, C) = -2 × MLL_DM (s, C) + 2 × 3
E (s, C) = AIC_IM (s, C) − AIC_DM (s, C)

  E (s, C) calculated as described above represents an unreasonable ratio in which the predicate term structure s appears biased to the topic group C. E (s, C) has a higher E (s, C) value for a predicate term structure that is useful for discriminating topic group C according to the Akaike information criterion. According to the present invention, m predicate term structures Ci, 1, Ci, 2, Ci, 3,..., Ci, m are assigned to each topic group Ci in descending order of E (s, C). Extracted to obtain a representative predicate term structure of the topic group Ci.

[Difference predicate term structure extraction unit 127]
The difference predicate term structure extraction unit 127 extracts, for each topic group, a representative predicate term structure that appears only in the topic group as a difference predicate term structure. For the answer sentences 2 and 5, [predicate term structure = predicate “search”, object “mobile”, wo case] is common. Therefore, according to FIG. 6, the following differential predicate term structure is extracted.
Answer 2 “How to find a mobile phone and apply for a secure service is as follows ...”
Predicate term structure = predicate "apply", object "service", d-statement answer sentence 5
Predicate term structure = predicate "use", object "service", wo case

[Difference predicate term structure selection unit 128]
The difference predicate term structure selection unit 128 clearly indicates a sentence based on a plurality of difference predicate term structures to the user via the user interface.

In order to generate a Japanese sentence from the differential predicate term structure, for example, the following rules are set.
(Rule 1) In case of predicate term structure S consisting only of wo cases
-> W (S, wo) + "O" + W (S, predicate)
(Rule 2) In case of predicate term structure S consisting of wo case and de case
-> W (S, De case) + "de" + W (S, wo case) + "O" + S (predicate)
(Rule 3) If the difference case of the differential predicate term structure S1 and the depreciation of the common predicate term structure B match,
-> The Japanese character of B is embedded as a forward modifier of the Japanese word generated from A. W (S,) indicates the word of the predicate term structure S.
W (S, derated) represents a derated word of the predicate term structure S.
Note that the technology of a machine translation system can be applied to the generation of Japanese based on such rules (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 3).

For example, according to FIG. 6, using rules 1 to 3, the following two Japanese sentences are generated for each topic group.
"Apply for mobile phone search service"
"Use a service to search for mobile phones"

  On the other hand, the terminal 4 selects any one sentence of the differential predicate term structure according to the user operation. From the viewpoint of the user, for example, after inputting a question sentence with a keyboard, natural Japanese sentences based on the difference predicate term structure for each topic group are displayed on the display. Then, the user can select any sentence. Here, according to FIG. 6, the user has selected “use a service for searching for mobile phones”. The differential predicate term structure of the sentence selected by the user is output to the answer sentence output unit 129.

[Answer sentence output unit 129]
The answer sentence output unit 129 specifies the answer sentence detected by the answer sentence detection unit 125 together with the corresponding one or more differential predicate term structure sentences. According to the present invention, the user's question is ambiguous, the comment sentence group is classified into a plurality of topic groups, and an answer sentence associated with each topic group can be obtained. Here, when the number of the obtained answer sentences is small, the sentence based on the differential predicate term structure is useful information for the user to recognize the tendency of the presented answer sentence.

  When there are a large number of answer sentences, it is preferable to narrow down the answer sentences by interacting with the user. Therefore, the answer sentence output unit 129 specifies the answer sentence corresponding to the selected difference predicate term structure via the user interface. For example, the answer sentence is displayed on a display visually recognized by the user. According to FIG. 6, an answer sentence “How to find a mobile phone and use a reliable service” is displayed to the user. Thereby, the user can recognize the answer sentence to the question sentence.

  FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram in the present invention.

(S71) The question text of the user is transmitted from the terminal 4 operated by the questioner to the question answering server 1 (see the question text input unit 121 in FIG. 2).
(S72) The question answering server 1 extracts a plurality of question keywords included in the question sentence (see the question keyword extracting unit 122 in FIG. 2).
(S73) The question answering server 1 uses the comment text storage unit 102 to search for a comment text including the question keyword (see the comment text search unit 123 in FIG. 2).
(S74) The question answering server 1 classifies the retrieved plurality of comment sentences into a plurality of topic groups from the distribution of the predicate term structure by predicate term structure analysis (see the topic classification unit 124 in FIG. 2).
(S75) The question answering server 1 calculates the similarity between the comment sentence group included in each topic group and each answer sentence, and associates an answer sentence whose similarity is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold with each topic group ( (See the answer sentence detection unit 125 in FIG. 2).
(S76) For each topic group, the question / answer server 1 extracts a representative predicate term structure that characterizes the topic group from the predicate term structure included in the associated answer sentence (representative predicate term structure in FIG. 2). (See the extraction unit 126).
(S77) For each topic group, the question answering server 1 extracts a representative predicate term structure that appears only in the topic group as a differential predicate term structure (see the differential predicate term structure extraction unit 127 in FIG. 2).
(S78) The question answering server 1 transmits a sentence based on a plurality of differential predicate term structures to the user-operated terminal 4 (see the differential predicate term structure selecting unit 128 in FIG. 2). And in the terminal 4, any one sentence is selected according to user operation. The differential predicate term structure of the selected sentence is transmitted from the terminal 4 to the question answering server 1.
(S79) The question / answer server 1 transmits an answer sentence corresponding to the selected differential predicate term structure to the user's terminal 4 (see the answer sentence output unit 129 in FIG. 2).

  As described above, according to the question answering server of the present invention, for example, from a large number of comment sentences such as twitter, a representative predicate item structure representing the intention of the question sentence is extracted, and the answer is obtained by complementing the question sentence. Sentences can be searched with high accuracy. Specifically, first, the keywords included in the question sentence are extracted to search social media, and a large amount of search results are quickly classified into a plurality of topic groups (corresponding to one search intention for each topic) An answer sentence similar to each topic is searched from the answer sentence storage unit. Next, words (difference predicate term structure) peculiar to each topic group are automatically extracted and presented to the user, narrowed down to answer sentences according to the user's selection results, and the interactive form with the user is repeatedly executed. be able to.

  As described above in detail, according to the question answering program, server and method of the present invention, when there are a plurality of answer sentence candidates for the user's question sentence, an answer sentence reflecting the user's intention is displayed. You can specify (narrow down).

  Finally, the effect of the present invention using predicate term structure search instead of keyword search will be described in detail.

  In general, for example, in the case of a short question from a user “What to do if the mobile phone is lost”, it may be “request for service application in case of loss of mobile phone” or “inquiry about how to deal with terminal loss” There is an ambiguity such as. On the other hand, a technique for detecting ambiguity depending on context and responding TIPS or the like while narrowing down answer candidates in an interactive format has been proposed (2012 filed by the same applicant and the same inventor as the present application). (Patent application dated January 12th, hereinafter referred to as “the invention of the previous application”). According to this technique, context ambiguity can be detected at high speed and appropriately, and keywords such as “reliable, application” and “terminal, discovery” can be presented as dialog options.

  However, according to the invention related to the previous application, as a first problem, only keywords such as “lost mobile phone, service, application” or “lost mobile phone, service, use” are presented when narrowing down the context. For the user, it is difficult to understand the difference in context.

  Further, as a second problem, even when the narrowing down of contexts is completed, information as a search condition may be insufficient according to a search using a keyword such as the technique described in Non-Patent Document 3. For example, when searching with a keyword such as “mobile + discovery”, both information on a service for finding something with a mobile phone and a service for finding a service for finding a mobile phone, such as a treasure hunt game, appear in the keyword search result. . For this reason, it is difficult to improve the answer accuracy beyond the present level.

  In response to the first problem, according to the present invention, instead of simply presenting a difference keyword, a natural response is obtained from data called a “predicate term structure” that expresses a relationship between a subject, an object, and the like centered on a verb. Can be expected to deepen the level of understanding by using the method of generating the sentence and presenting it to the user. For example, in response to a user query of “mobile + lost”, the conventional system offered keywords such as “reliable + application” or “discovery”, whereas “information on application that can be relieved when the terminal is lost” Alternatively, it provides means for improving the convenience of the user by presenting the user with a natural sentence such as “finding the terminal when the mobile phone is lost”.

  In response to the second problem, according to the present invention, the search accuracy after narrowing down the context is greatly improved by searching the text of the knowledge source using the predicate term structure as a search parameter. For example, since a predicate term structure that can distinguish the meanings of “discover terminal” and “discover terminal” is used, the over-detection performed in the conventional keyword search is reduced.

  Also, when judging the similarity of documents using the predicate term structure, it is necessary to judge the degree of matching of the extracted predicate term structure, which requires more calculation time than when using conventional keywords. Is also a problem. For this problem, focus on data slots called cases in the predicate term structure, learn combinations of frequently used slots in advance from examples, and use hash functions for frequently used combinations. To enable fast searching.

  Various changes, modifications, and omissions of the above-described various embodiments of the present invention can be easily made by those skilled in the art. The above description is merely an example, and is not intended to be restrictive. The invention is limited only as defined in the following claims and the equivalents thereto.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Question answer server 10 Communication interface part 101 Answer sentence storage part 102 Comment sentence storage part 111 Answer sentence acquisition part 112 Comment sentence collection part 121 Question sentence input part 122 Question keyword extraction part 123 Comment sentence search part 124 Topic classification part 125 Answer sentence Detection unit 126 Representative predicate term structure extraction unit 127 Difference predicate term structure extraction unit 128 Difference predicate term structure selection unit 129 Answer sentence output unit 2 Answer sentence storage server 3 Blog server 4 Terminal 5 General-purpose terminal for commenter

Claims (10)

A question answering program that has a comment sentence accumulating part that accumulates a large number of comment sentences and an answer sentence accumulating part that accumulates a large number of answer sentences, and that allows a computer to function to extract answer sentences for a question sentence from a user. There,
A question sentence input means for inputting a question sentence;
Question keyword extraction means for extracting a plurality of question keywords included in the question sentence;
Using the comment sentence storage unit, comment sentence search means for searching for comment sentences including the question keyword;
A topic classification means for classifying a plurality of retrieved comment sentences into a plurality of topic groups from a distribution of predicate term structures by a predicate term structure analysis;
An answer sentence detection means for calculating a similarity between a comment sentence group included in each topic group and a sentence included in each answer sentence, and associating an answer sentence having the similarity equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold with each topic group; ,
For each topic group, representative predicate term structure extraction means for extracting a representative predicate term structure that characterizes the topic group in the predicate term structure included in the associated answer sentence;
For each topic group, a differential predicate term structure extracting means for extracting a representative predicate term structure that appears only in the topic group as a differential predicate term structure;
A question answering program for causing a computer to function as an answer sentence output means for clearly indicating the answer sentence detected by the answer sentence detection means together with a sentence based on one or more corresponding differential predicate term structures. A sentence based on the plurality of differential predicate term structures is clearly shown to the user via a user interface, and further includes a differential predicate term structure selecting unit that selects any one of the differential predicate term structures according to a user operation,
The question answer program according to claim 1, wherein the answer sentence output means causes the computer to function so as to clearly indicate an answer sentence corresponding to a differential predicate term structure of a selected sentence via a user interface. .   The topic classification means classifies the comment text into any one topic group using an LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) algorithm that calculates a probability (topic ratio) belonging to each classified topic group. The question answering program according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the computer functions. The answer sentence detection means includes:
Extracting a predicate term structure from a comment sentence group included in each topic group by a predicate term structure analysis, calculating a first feature vector in the topic group,
From each answer sentence stored in the answer sentence storage unit, a predicate term structure is extracted by predicate term structure analysis and a second feature vector in the answer sentence is calculated,
4. The computer according to claim 1, wherein the computer is caused to calculate a similarity based on a cosine distance between a first vector of the topic group and a second vector of the answer sentence. The question answering program according to item 1.   5. The representative predicate term structure extraction unit causes a computer to function so that representative predicate term structures of each topic group are arranged in order of priority according to an Akaike information criterion. The question answering program described in. The comment text is posted by an unspecified number of third parties,
6. The comment text storage unit causes a computer to function so as to collect and store comment text posted to a mini blog (mini Web log) server. The question answering program described in. A question answering server that has a comment sentence accumulating unit that accumulates a large number of comment sentences, and an answer sentence accumulating part that accumulates a large number of answer sentences, and extracts a response sentence to a question sentence from a user,
A question sentence input means for inputting a question sentence from a terminal;
Question keyword extraction means for extracting a plurality of question keywords included in the question sentence;
Using the comment sentence storage unit, comment sentence search means for searching for comment sentences including the question keyword;
A topic classification means for classifying a plurality of retrieved comment sentences into a plurality of topic groups from a distribution of predicate term structures by a predicate term structure analysis;
A comment sentence group included in each topic group and an answer sentence calculating means for calculating a similarity between each answer sentence and associating each topic group with an answer sentence having the similarity equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold;
For each topic group, representative predicate term structure extraction means for extracting a representative predicate term structure that characterizes the topic group in the predicate term structure included in the associated answer sentence;
For each topic group, a differential predicate term structure extracting means for extracting a representative predicate term structure that appears only in the topic group as a differential predicate term structure;
A question answering server comprising: an answer sentence output means for clearly indicating the answer sentence detected by the answer sentence detecting means together with a sentence based on one or more corresponding differential predicate term structures. A sentence based on the plurality of differential predicate term structures is clearly shown to the user via a user interface, and further includes a differential predicate term structure selecting unit that selects any one of the differential predicate term structures according to a user operation,
8. The question answering server according to claim 7, wherein the answer sentence output means clarifies an answer sentence corresponding to the differential predicate term structure of the selected sentence via a user interface. A question answering method in a device that has a comment sentence accumulating unit that accumulates a large number of comment sentences and an answer sentence accumulating part that accumulates a large number of answer sentences, and extracts an answer sentence for a question sentence from a user,
A first step of inputting a question sentence;
A second step of extracting a plurality of question keywords included in the question sentence;
A third step of searching for a comment sentence including the question keyword using the comment sentence storage unit;
A fourth step of classifying the retrieved plurality of comment sentences into a plurality of topic groups from a distribution of predicate term structures by a predicate term structure analysis;
A fifth step of calculating a similarity between a comment sentence group included in each topic group and each answer sentence, and associating an answer sentence with the similarity equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold to each topic group;
For each topic group, a sixth step of extracting a representative predicate term structure characterizing the topic group from among the predicate term structures included in the associated answer sentence;
For each topic group, a seventh step of extracting a representative predicate term structure that appears only in the topic group as a differential predicate term structure;
And an eighth step of clarifying the answer sentence detected by the fifth step together with a sentence based on the corresponding one or more differential predicate term structures. For the eighth step,
Sentences based on the plurality of differential predicate term structures are clearly shown to the user via a user interface, and any one of the differential predicate term structures is selected according to a user operation,
The question answering method according to claim 9, wherein an answer sentence corresponding to the differential predicate term structure of the selected sentence is specified through a user interface.

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