Natural language interface construction using attribute grammars

Abstract

Natural language interfaces represent one of the most common applications of natural language processing. In the eighties, not only a considerable increase in natural language interface refinement has been achieved, but also methods for design and evaluation have been worked out.

One might think that a natural language interface of the nineties would be properly described in terms of three parameters, viz.

• (i) transportability

• (ii) modifiability by the user

• (iii) generality.

We have implemented a software package for plane geometry constructions called THALES [1] supplied with a natural language interface. Our experience with THALES shows that none of these features is attainable in the near future. Rather, natural language interfaces based on well-defined subsets of languages and supplemented with possibly full semantics appear to be real candidates for applications in the following years.

This work has been supported by the Cogito Ltd., Hungary and the presentation was made possible by OTKA under grant No. 79/10441