Extracting meaningful semantic information with EMATISE: an HPSG-based Internet search engine parser

Abstract

We describe EMATISE, our prototype natural language interface that serves as a front-end to Internet search engines; this prototype is based on the HPSG (Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar) formalism. Our current work concentrates on parsing natural language phrases and extracting meaningful semantic information. We present the architecture of our system for Internet access and the reasons for our choice of parser. The implementation of some modules of the system is discussed and some experimental results with sample sessions are presented.