JP2848225B2 - Quantity / time expression processing method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of processing a quantity / time expression in an interactive natural language processing system such as a natural language interface system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a natural language processing system, in particular, a system which targets or targets quantitative data such as information retrieval, an accurate and high-performance analysis of a quantitative / time expression is required. Regarding the time expression, as a conventional technique, a literal / time interpretation such as "January 1990" or "1 month" is used, and a current time is obtained by acquiring the current time information from outside using a timer or a keyboard. "last year"
As a method of substantiating and interpreting relative expressions relating to time, a time designation method using a natural language [Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
176690 "is known. As for a general numerical expression, as a method of setting and interpreting a semantic expression focusing on a classifier, a numerical expression processing method “Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-929
66 "is known.

[0003] In addition, using the pre-context information, for example, from the pre-context information "January 1990" to "1991"
As a method of complementing the input expression "year" with "January 1991", a context analysis method "Japanese Patent Application No. 4-26055"
It has been known.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
However, there is a problem that the input is sentence-by-sentence and does not consider context information. Regarding time, the handling of a relative expression that is materialized depending on the previous context such as “the next year” is an applicable example, and this example cannot be interpreted. For the third method, the previous context information is "1990-9
Judgment information on time expressions including a range such as "1 year" was insufficient, and could not be interpreted correctly. This is "100
This also applies to numerical expressions including ordinal expressions such as “increase in circle” and “next”.

An object of the present invention is to focus on information relating to a reference and a range necessary for a time / quantity expression while utilizing such context information, and to convert a quantity / time expression including the above-mentioned relative expression into an input sentence. To provide a method that can be treated as

[0006]

A quantity / time expression processing method according to the present invention comprises a syntax / semantic analysis means for analyzing a sentence described in a natural language and outputting a semantic structure, an input sentence and a past input history. Context processing means for performing semantic processing of an input sentence using a context based on the semantic structure of the context processing;
A context information holding unit for holding a result of the unit as a semantic history; and a number obtained by analyzing an input sentence from the syntax / semantic analyzing unit.
Detect the quantity / time expression and target the quantity / time expression
Quantity / time expression analysis means for extracting reference information and range information , and a semantic expression of an input sentence from the context processing means.
For reference information and range information of quantity / time expression analysis means
Using the context information held by the context information holding means.
Quantity / time information context complementing means for complementing the missing or missing information.

Further, in the quantity / time expression processing system of the present invention, the quantity / time information context complementing means complements the result.
If the result is evaluated and there is a problem with the quantity / time expression,
It is also preferable to have a supplemental content confirming means for confirming the correctness of the supplementary interpretation to the user .

[0008]

According to the quantity / time expression processing method of the present invention, the quantity / time
Complementary processing is performed on the combination of the time and the time range and the reference and range of the quantity with respect to the time expression while using the context information. Furthermore, the complementation result is evaluated based on a certain standard, and if there is a possibility of an error, a confirmation inquiry is made to the user to interpret the quantity / time expression accurately.

[0009]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an embodiment for realizing the method of the present invention.
FIG. 2 shows an algorithm of the context complementing process in the quantity / time information context complementing means 5 in FIG. FIG. 3 shows an example of a relationship between two types of information of a time and a time range to be used and analysis of context and input and results of context complementation for complementing the expression of time / time in FIG. FIG. 4 shows an example of a relationship between two types of information, a reference and a range to be used, and a result of analysis of context and input and context complementation for complementing the expression of quantity / range in FIG. FIG. 5 is an example of a relation example for complementing the expression of time / time similar to FIG. 3, in which a problem is pointed out in the result and the user needs to be confirmed.

In FIG. 1, a syntax / semantic analysis means 1 creates a semantic expression from an input natural language sentence. The context processing means 2 outputs a semantic expression obtained by complementing the semantic expression using context information. The context information holding means 3
The semantic expression created by the context processing means 2 is stored / maintained as context history information, and is used as context information at the time of context processing by the context processing means 2 or at the time of context complementing by the quantity / time information context complementing means 5. . The quantity / time expression analyzing means 4 analyzes the input sentence from the syntax / semantic analyzing means, detects the quantity and time expression, extracts the reference information and the range information, and transmits the result to the quantity / time information context complementing means 5. . The quantity / time information context complementing means 5 uses the context information of the context information holding means 3 for the semantic expression of the input sentence from the context processing means and the output result of the quantity / time expression analysis means, and uses the context information. The missing information is complemented and the result is output to the context processing means 2. The supplemental content confirming means 6 evaluates the result of the quantity / time information context complementing means 5 and, if a problem occurs, confirms the correctness of the supplementary interpretation to the user.

Next, the operation of the quantity / time expression processing method will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 1, when a sentence described in a natural language is subjected to syntax / semantic analysis and further context processing, a quantity / time expression is particularly processed. First, at the time of syntax / analysis, the materialization is performed on the quantity / time expression, especially on the relative expression. For example,
The relative time expression “this year” is materialized by the real time “1993” of the process execution. For this method,
The time designation method using the natural language described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-176
690 ". In addition, as shown in the input and analysis results of FIGS. 3 and 4, the “next year” is analyzed as “time + 1 year”, and the “next” is analyzed as “reference (origin value) + range (difference value) +1”. And analyze.

FIG. 2 shows an algorithm for the quantity / time information processing in the context processing. First, the presence / absence of time / time information in the input sentence is checked, and if there is, complement processing of the time / time information is performed. FIG. 3 shows a representative example of this complementing process. In this example, "19" is used as the context information.
The starting time “April 1990” and “1 from April 1990”
There is a time range "until March 991", and a relative time expression "next year" is included in the input sentence.
First, the result of the above-described analysis processing is interpreted as an input of “time + 1 year”. The result of applying this result information to both the time and time range information becomes the starting time of “April 1991” and the time range of “April 1991 to March 1992”, and complementation is realized.

Returning to FIG. 2, the presence / absence of quantity / range information is examined next to the time / time expression, and if there is, complement of the quantity / range information is performed. FIG. 4 shows a representative example of this complementing process. Regarding the quantity, for each reference attribute, for example, a reference and a range such as “rank”, “price”, and “number of people” are specified. Here, the ranking is taken as an example. As context information, there are a starting reference rank of "1st place" and a range of "1st to 3rd place", and a relative order designation input expression of "next" is included in the input sentence. Also from this analysis result, “starting point value (= 1) + difference value (= 3-1) +1” = “4”, and as a result, the starting point reference rank “4th” and “4th to 6th” Is complemented.

The above two examples are cases where there is no problem in the result. FIG. 5 shows a typical example in which a problem occurs. In this example and the example of FIG. 3, the context start time and the input sentence are common, but the time range of the context is different from “April 1990 to September 1991”. According to the above processing procedure, as a result, a starting time “April 1991” and a time range “April 1991 to September 1992” are obtained. Here, when the complementation result is evaluated based on a certain standard, "199
From April to September of the year overlaps. Also, the value may be negative. In these cases, the problem symptoms and the problem site are presented to the user in the form of confirmation. The user is meaningless.
The user selects the processing such as removing redundant parts, rephrasing the input, or taking the interpretation including the problematic part, and specifies the interpretation as intended.

[0015]

According to the present invention, it is possible to interpret a quantity / time expression including a relative expression whose value is determined depending on the context. If there is a possibility that the interpretation is incorrect, it is possible to avoid unnecessary processing by pointing out that fact.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an algorithm for complementing information in a quantity / time information context complementing means in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of time / time expression complementing processing in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a process of complementing a quantity / range expression in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example in which the result of the complementation processing of the time / time expression in FIG. 2 becomes a problem and requires user confirmation;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Syntax / meaning analysis means 2 Context processing means 3 Context information holding means 4 Quantity / time expression analysis means 5 Quantity / time information context complementing means 6 Complementary content confirmation means

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A syntax / semantic analysis means for analyzing a sentence described in a natural language and outputting a semantic structure, and a meaning of an input sentence using a context based on the semantic structure related to the input sentence and a past input history. and context processing means for processing, and context information holding means for holding the result of the context process means as a sense history, quantity analyzes input sentence from the syntactic / semantic analysis means /
The time expression is detected and the base for the quantity / time expression is detected.
A quantity / time expression analyzing means for extracting quasi information or range information ; a semantic expression of an input sentence from the context processing means;
For the reference information and range information of the time expression analysis means,
There is a shortage using the context information held by the context information holding means
Or a quantity / time information context complementing means for complementing the missing information. 2. The quantity / time information context complementing means complements
Evaluate the results and if there is a problem with the quantity / time expression
In the supplement that confirms the correctness of the supplementary interpretation to the user
2. The quantity / time expression processing method according to claim 1, further comprising a content confirmation unit .