Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-4ws75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-07T12:35:28.998Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Natural language interfaces to databases – an introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2008

I. Androutsopoulos ,
G.D. Ritchie  and
P. Thanisch
I. Androutsopoulos
Affiliation:
Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh80 South Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1HN, Scotland, UK e-mail: ion@aisb.ed.ac.uk, G.D.Ritchie@ed.ac.uk
G.D. Ritchie
Affiliation:
Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh80 South Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1HN, Scotland, UK e-mail: ion@aisb.ed.ac.uk, G.D.Ritchie@ed.ac.uk
P. Thanisch
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science, University of EdinburghKing's Buildings, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, Scotland, UK e-mail: pt@dcs.ed.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper is an introduction to natural language interfaces to databases (NLIDBS). A brief overview of the history of NLIDBS is first given. Some advantages and disadvantages of NLIDBS are then discussed, comparing NLIDBS to formal query languages, form-based interfaces, and graphical interfaces. An introduction to some of the linguistic problems NLIDBS have to confront follows, for the benefit of readers less familiar with computational linguistics. The discussion then moves on to NLIDB architectures, portability issues, restricted natural language input systems (including menu-based NLIDBS), and NLIDBS with reasoning capabilities. Some less explored areas of NLIDB research are then presented, namely database updates, meta-knowledge questions, temporal questions, and multi-modal NLIDBS. The paper ends with reflections on the current state of the art.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Natural Language Engineering , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 1995 , pp. 29 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Allen, J., (1983) Recognizing intentions from natural language utterances. In Brady, M., and Berwick, R.C. (eds.), Computational Models of Discourse, chapter 2, pages 107–166. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Alshawi, H., (1992) The Core Language Engine. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Alshawi, H., Cater, D., Crouch, R., Pulman, S., Rayner, M., and Smith, A., (1992) CLARE - a contextual reasoning and cooperative response framework for the core language engine. Final report, SRI International, December 1992.Google Scholar
Androutsopoulos, I, (1993) Interfacing a natural language front-end to a relational database. MSc thesis. Technical paper 11, Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Androutsopoulos, I., Ritchie, G., and Thanisch, P., (1993) An efficient and portable natural language query interface for relational database. In Chung, P.W., Lovegrove, G., and Ali, M., (eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Industrial & Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems, Edinburgh, U.K. Langhore, PA: Gordon and Breach. Pp. 327–330.Google Scholar
Auxerre, P., (1986) MASQUE modular answering system for queries in english - programmer's manual. Technical Report AIAI/SR/11, Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh, March 1986.Google Scholar
Auxerre, P., and Inder, R., (1986) MASQUE modular answering system for queries in english - user's manual. Technical Report AIAI/SR/10, Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute, University of Edinburgh, June 1986.Google Scholar
Ballard, B., and Stumberger, D., (1986) Semantic Acquisition in TELI. In Proceedings of the 24th Annual Meeting of ACL, New York. Pp. 20–29.Google Scholar
Ballard, B.W., (1984) The syntax and semantics of user-defined modifiers in a transportable natural language processor. In Processings of the 22nd Annual Meeting of ACL, Stanford, California. Pp 52–56.Google Scholar
Ballard, B.W., Lusth, J.C., and Tinkham, N.L., (1984) LDC-1: a transportable, knowledge-based natural language processor for office environments. ACM Transactions on office Information Systems 2(1): 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, M., Moser, M.G., and Stallard, D., (1986) The IRUS transportable natural language database interface. In Kerschberg, L., (ed.) Expert Database Systems. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings. Pp. 617–630.Google Scholar
BBN Systems and Technologies. (1989) BBN Parlance Interface Software - System Overview.Google Scholar
Bell, J.E., and Rowe, L.A., (1992) An exploratory study of ad hoc query languages to databases. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Data Engineering, Tempe, Arizona. IEEE Computer Society Press. Pp. 606–613.Google Scholar
BIM Information Technology. (1991) Loqui: An open natural query system - general description. (Commercial leaflet.)Google Scholar
Binot, J.-L., Debille, L., Sedlock, D., and Vandecapelle, B., (1991) Natural language interfaces: a new philosophy. SunExpert Magazine (January). 67–73.Google Scholar
Bobrow, R.J., (1978) The RUS system. In Research in Natural Language Understanding, BBN Report 3878. Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Bobrow, R.J., Resnik, P., and Weischedel, R.M., (1990) Multiple underlying systems: translating user requests into programs to produce answers. In Processings of the 28th Annual Meeting of ACL, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pp. 227–234.Google Scholar
Capindale, R.A., and Crawford, R.G., (1990) Using a natural language interface with casual users. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies 32:341–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carbonell, J.G., (1983) Discourse pragmatics and ellipsis resolution in task-oriented natural language interfaces. In Proceedings of the 21st Annual Meeting of ACL, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pp. 164–168.Google Scholar
Ceri, S. and Pelagatti, G., (1984) Distributed Databases: Principles and Systems. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Ceri, S., Gottlob, G., and Tanca, L., (1990) Logic Programming and Databases. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ceri, S., Gottlob, G., and Wiederhold, G., (1989) Efficient database access from Prolog. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 15(2):153–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clifford, J., (1988) Natural language querying of historical databases. Computational Linguistics 14(4): 10–34.Google Scholar
Clifford, J., (1990) Formal Semantics and Pragmatics for Natural Language Querying. Cambridge Tracts in Theoretical Computer Science. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clifford, J., and Warren, D.S., (1983) Formal Semantics for Time in Databases. ACM Transactions on Database Systems 8(2): 215–254CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Codd, E.F., (1970) A relational model for large shared data banks. Communications of the ACM 13(6): 377–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Codd, E.F., (1974) Seven steps to RENDEZVOUS with the casual user. In Kimbie, J., and Koffeman, K., (eds.), Data Base Management. North-Holland Publishers.Google Scholar
Cohen, P.R., (1991) The role of natural language in a multimodel interface. Technical Note 214 Computer Dialogue Laboratory, SRI International.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Copestake, A., and Sparck, Jones K., (1990) Natural language interfaces to databases. The Knowledge Engineering Review 5(4): 225–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Damerau, F., (1981) Operating statistics for the transformational question answering system. American Journal of Computational Linguistics 7:30–42.Google Scholar
Damerau, F., (1985) Problems and some solutions in customization of natural language front ends. ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems 3(2): 165–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, J., and Kaplan, S.J., (1983) Natural language access to data bases: interpreting update requests. Computational Linguistics 9(2):57–68.Google Scholar
De Roeck, A.N., and Lowden, B.G.T., (1986) Generating English Paraphrases from Formal Relational Calculus Expressions. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Bonn Germany, 08 1986.Google Scholar
De Roeck, A.N., Fox, C.J., Lowden, B.G.T., Turner, R., and Walls, B.R., (1991) A natural language system based on formal semantics. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Current Issues in Computational Linguistics, Pengang, Malaysia.Google Scholar
De Roeck, A.N., Jowsey, H.E., Lowden, B.G.T., Turner, R., and Walls, B.R., (1990) A natural language front end to relational systems based on formal semantics. In Proceedings of InfoJapan '90, Tokyo, Japan.Google Scholar
Dekleva, S.M., (1994) Is natural language querying practical? Data Base (05). Pp. 24–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diaper, D., (1986) Identifying the knowledge requirements of an expert system's natural language processing interface. In Harrison, M.D., and Monk, A.F. (eds.), People and Computers: Designing for Usability - Proceedings of the Second Conference of the British Computer Society, Human Computer Interaction Specialist Group, University of York. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 263–280.Google Scholar
Dowty, D.R., Wall, R.E., and Peters, S., (1981) Introduction to Montague semantics. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel.Google Scholar
Draxler, C., (1992) Accessing Relational and Higher Databases Through Database Set Predicates in Logic Programming Languages. PhD thesis, University of Zurich.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, S.S., (1985) Transportable natural language processing through simplicity - the PRE system. ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems 3(2):107–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gal, A., Lapalme, G., Saint-Dizier, P., and Somers, H., (1991) Prology for Natural Language Processing. Chichester, England: Wiley.Google Scholar
Gazdar, G., and Mellish, C., (1989) Natural Language Processing in Lisp. Addison-Wesley. (Prolog version also available.)Google Scholar
Gazdar, G., Pullum, G., and Sag, I., (1985) Generalized phrase Structure Grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gerlach, M., and Horacek, H., (1989) Dailog control in a natural language system. In Proceedings of the 4th Conference of the European Chapter of ACL, Manchester, England. Pp. 27–34.Google Scholar
Giarratano, J.G., and Riley, G., (1989) Expert Systems: Priniciples and Programming. Boston: PWS-Kent Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Ginsparg, J.M., (1983) A robust portable natural language database interface. In Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Applied Natural Language Processing, Santa Monica, California. Pp. 25–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grosz, B.J., (1983) TEAM: A transportable natural-language interface system. In Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Applied Natural Language Processing, Santa Monica, California. Pp. 39–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grosz, B.J., Appelt, D.E., Martin, P.A., and Pereira, F.C.N., (1987) TEAM: an experiment in the design of transportable natural-language interfaces. Artificial Intelligence 32: 173–243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guida, G., and Tasso, C., (1983) IR-NLI: an expert natural language interface to online data bases. In Proceedings of the 1st Conference of Applied Natural Language Processing, Santa Monica, Califorina. Pp. 31–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hafner, C.D., (1984) Interaction of knowledges sources in a portable natural language interface. In Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Meeting of ACL, Stanford, California. Pp. 57–60.Google Scholar
Hafner, C.D., (1985) Semantics of temporal queries and temporal data. In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Meeting of ACL, Chicago, Illinois. Pp. 1–8.Google Scholar
Hafner, C.D., and Godden, K., (1985) Portability of syntax and semanties in datalog. ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems 3(2): 141–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, L.R., (1977) User-oriented data base query with the ROBOT natural language query system. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies 9:697–713.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, L.R., (1978) The ROBOT system: natural language processing applied to data base query. In Processings of the ACM'78 Annual Conference.Google Scholar
Harris, L.R., (1979) Experience with ROBOT IN 12 commercial natural language data base query applications. In Proceedings of the 6th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Tokyo, Japan. Pp. 365–368.Google Scholar
Harris, L.R., (1984) Experience with INTELLECT: artificial intelligence technology transfer. The AI Magazine 5(2): 43–50.Google Scholar
Hendrix, G., (1982) Natural language interface (panel). Computational Linguistics 8(2): 55–61.Google Scholar
Hendrix, G., Sacerdoti, E., Sagalowicz, D., and Slocum, J., (1978) Developing a natural language interface to complex data. ACM Transactions on Database Systems 3(2): 105–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinrichs, E.W., (1988) Tense, quantifiers, and contexts. Computational Linguistics 14(2): 3–14.Google Scholar
Hirst, G., (1981) Anaphora in Natural Language Understanding: A Survey. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobbs, J.R., (1986) Resolving pronoun references. In Grosz, B.J., Jones, K. Sparck, and Webber, B.L., (eds.), Readings in Natural Language Processing. San Mateo CA: Morgan Kaufmann. Pp. 339–352.Google Scholar
Jarke, M., Turner, J.A., Stohr, E.A., Vassiliou, Y., White, N.H., and Michielsen, K., (1985) A field evaluation of natural language for data rretrieval. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering SE-11(1): 97–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, T., (1985) Natural Language Computing: The Commercial Applications. London: Ovum Ltd.Google Scholar
Kaplan, S.J., (1982) Cooperative responses from a portable natural language data base query system. Artificial Intelligence 19: 165–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, S.J., (1983) Cooperative responses from a portable natural language database query system. In Brady, M. and Berwick, R.C., (eds.), Computational Models of Discourse. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Pp. 167–208.Google Scholar
Lopes, G.P., (1984) Transforming English interfaces to other languages: an experiment with portoguese. In Proeedings of the 22nd Annual Meetings of ACL, Stanford, California.Google Scholar
Lowden, B.G.T., and De Roeck, A.N., (1986) REMIT: A natural language paraphraser for relational query expressions. ICL Technical Journal 5(1): 32–45.Google Scholar
Lowden, B.G.T., Walls, B.R., De Roeck, A.N., Fox, C.J., and Turner, R., (1991a) Modal reasoning in relational systems. Technical Report CSM-163, University of Essex, Dept. of Computer Science.Google Scholar
Lowden, B.G.T., Walls, B.R., De Roeck, A.N., Fox, C.J., and Turner, R., (1991b) A formal approach to translating english into SQL. In Jackson, , and Robinson, , (eds.) Proceedings of the 9th British National Conference on Databases (BNCOD).Google Scholar
Lucas, R., (1988) Database Applications Using Prolog. Halsted Press.Google Scholar
Main, M.G., and Benson, D.B., (1983) Denotational semantics for ‘natural language’ question answering programs. Computational Linguistics 9(1): 11–21.Google Scholar
Manferdelli, J.L., (1989) Natural languages. Sun Technology. Pp. 122–129.Google Scholar
Martin, P., Appelt, D., and Pereira, F., (1986) Transportability and generality in a natural-language interface system. In Grosz, B.J., Jones, K. Sparck, and Webber, B.L. (eds.), Readings in Natural Language Processing. San Mateo, California: Morgan Kaufmann. Pp. 585–593.Google Scholar
Martin, W.A., Church, K.W., and Patil, R.S., (1981) Preliminary analysis of a breadth-first parsing algorithm: theoretical and experimental results. Technical report MIT/LCS/TR-261, Laboratory for Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Natural Language Inc. (1992) Natural Language 5.0. (Commercial leaflets.)Google Scholar
Ott, N., (1992) Aspects of the automatic generation of SQL statements in a natural language query interface. Information Systems 17(2): 147–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ovum Ltd. (1991) Natural Language Markets. London.Google Scholar
Palmer, M., and Finin, T., (1990) Workshop on the evaluation of natural language processing systems. Computational Linguistics 16(3): 175–181.Google Scholar
Perrault, C.R., and Grosz, B.J., (1988) Natural language interfaces. In Shrobe, H.E., (ed.) Exploring Artificial Intelligence. San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann. Pp. 133–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Relational Techonology Inc. (1989) Using INGRES through Forms and Menus.Google Scholar
Resnik, P., (1989) Access to Multiple Underlying System in JANUS. BBN report 7142, Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge, Masachusetts.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scha, R.J.H., (1977) Philips question answering system PHILIQAI. In SIGART Newsletter no.61.Google Scholar
Sentance, S., (1989) Improved responses from an English language front end. M.Sc. thesis, Dept. of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Shieber, S.M., (1986) An Introduction to unification-Based Approaches to Grammar. CLSI Lecture Notes Number 4. Centre for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford, California.Google Scholar
Sijtsma, W., and Zweekhorst, O., (1993) Comparison and review of commercial natural language interfaces. In de Jong, F.M.G. and Nijholt, A. (eds.), Natural Language Interfaces, From Laboratory to Commercial and User Environments - Proceedings of the 5th Twente Workshop on Language Technology, Enschede, Twente University, NL. (Also MMC Preprint no.13, Institute for Language Technology and Artificial Intelligence (ITK), Tilburg University, NL.)Google Scholar
Small, D.W., and Weldon, L.J., (1983) An experimental comparison of natural and structured query languages. Human Factors 25(3):253–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sun Microsystems Inc. (1989) SunSimplify 2.0 Reference Manual.Google Scholar
Tansel, A., Clifford, J., Gadia, S.K., Jajodia, S., Segev, A., and Snodgrass, R.T., (1993) Temporal Databases - Theory, Design and Implementation. California: Benjamin/Cummings.Google Scholar
Templeton, M., and Burger, J., (1983) Problems in natural language interace to DBMS with examples from EUFID. In Processings of the 1st Conference on Applied Natural Language Processing, Santa Monica, California. Pp. 3–16.Google Scholar
Tennant, H.R., Ross, K., Saenz, M., Thompson, C.W., and Miller, J.R., (1983a) Menu-based natural language understanding. In Proceedings of the 21st Annual Meeting of ACL, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pp. 151–158.Google Scholar
Tennant, R., Ross, K.M., and Thompson, C.W., (1983b) Usable natural language interfaces through menu-based natural language understanding. In Proceedings of CHI'83, Conference on Human Factors in Computer Systems, Boston.Google Scholar
Thompson, B.H., and Thompson, F.B., (1983) Introducing ASK, a simple knowledgeabel system. In Processings of the 1st Conference on Applied Natural Language Processing, Santa Monia, California. Pp.17–24.Google Scholar
Thompson, B.H., and Thompson, F.B., (1985) ASK is Transportable in Half a Dozen Ways. ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems 3(2): 185–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, F.B., and Thompson, B.H., (1975) Practical natural language processing: the rel system prototype. In Rubinoff, M. and Yovits, M.C. (eds.), Advances in Computers. New York: Academic Press. Pp. 109–168.Google Scholar
Thompson, F.B., Lockermann, P.C., Dostert, B.H., and Deverill, R., (1969) REL: A Rapidly Extensible Language System. In Proceedings of the 24th ACM National Converence, New York. Pp. 399–417.Google Scholar
Trinzic Corporation. (n.d.a) INTELLECT – Natural Language System. (Commercial leaflet.) Bethesda, MD.Google Scholar
Trinzic Corporation. (n.d.b) KBMS – Knowledge Base Management System. (Commercial leaflets.) Bethesda, MD.Google Scholar
Uliman, J.D., (1988) Principles of Database and Knowledge-Base Systems– Volume 1. Rockville MD: Computer Science Press.Google Scholar
Wallace, M., (1984) Communicating with Databases in Natural Language. New York: Ellis Horwood.Google Scholar
Waltz, D.L., (1978) An English language question answering system for a large relational database. Communications of the ACM 21(7): 526–539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, D., and Pereira, F., (1982) An efficient easily adaptable system for interpreting natural language queries. Computational Linguistics 8(3–4): 110–122.Google Scholar
Weischedel, R., (1989) A hybrid approach to representation in the JANUS natural language processor. In Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of ACL, Vancouver, British Columbia. Pp. 193–202.Google Scholar
Whittaker, S., and Stenton, P., (1989) User studies and the design of natural language systems. In Proceedings of the 4th Conference of the European Chapter of ACL, Manchester, England. Pp. 116–123.Google Scholar
Whittemore, G., Ferrara, K., and Brunner, H., (1990) Empirical study of predictive powers of simple attachment schemes for post-modifier prepositional phrases. In Proceedings of the 28th Annual Meting of ACL, Pittsburgh, Pensylvania. Pp. 23–30.Google Scholar
Woods, W.A., (1968) Procedural semantics for a question-answering machine. In Proceedings of the Fall Joint Computer Conference. AFIPS: New York, NY. Pp. 457–471.Google Scholar
Woods, W.A., Kaplan, R.M., and Webber, B.N., (1972) The Lunar Sciences natural language information system: Final Report. BBN Report 2378, Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar