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Robust parsing and spoken negotiative dialogue with databases

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2008

JOHAN BOYE  and
MATS WIRÉN
JOHAN BOYE
Affiliation:
TeliaSonera R&D, Vitsandsgatan 9, S-123 86 Farsta, Sweden e-mail: Johan.Boye@teliasonera.com, Mats.Wiren@teliasonera.com
MATS WIRÉN
Affiliation:
TeliaSonera R&D, Vitsandsgatan 9, S-123 86 Farsta, Sweden e-mail: Johan.Boye@teliasonera.com, Mats.Wiren@teliasonera.com
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Abstract

This paper presents a robust parsing algorithm and semantic formalism for the interpretation of utterances in spoken negotiative dialogue with databases. The algorithm works in two passes: a domain-specific pattern-matching phase and a domain-independent semantic analysis phase. Robustness is achieved by limiting the set of representable utterance types to an empirically motivated subclass which is more expressive than propositional slot–value lists, but much less expressive than first-order logic. Our evaluation shows that in actual practice the vast majority of utterances that occur can be handled, and that the parsing algorithm is highly efficient and accurate.

Information

Type
Papers
Information
Natural Language Engineering , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , July 2008 , pp. 289 - 312
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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