TREE-BASED SEMANTIC ANALYSIS METHOD FOR NATURAL LANGUAGE PHRASE TO FORMAL QUERY CONVERSION

Abstract

Context. This work is devoted to the problem of natural language interface construction for ontological graph databases. The focus here is on the methods for the conversion of natural language phrases into formal queries in SPARQL and CYPHER query languages. Objective. The goals of the work are the creation of a semantic analysis method for the input natural language phrases semantic type determination and obtaining meaningful entities from them for query template variables initialization, construction of flexible query templates for the types, development of program implementation of the proposed technique. Method. A tree-based method was developed for semantic determination of a user’s phrase type and obtaining a set of terms from it to put them into certain places of the most suiting formal query template. The proposed technique solves the tasks of the phrase type determination (and this is the criterion of the formal query template selection) and obtaining meaningful terms, which are to initialize variables of the chosen template. In the current work only interrogative and incentive user’s phrases are considered i.e. ones that clearly propose the system to answer or to do something. It is assumed that the considered dialog or reference system uses a graph ontological database, which directly impacts the formal query patterns – the resulting queries are destined to be in SPARQL or Cypher query languages. The semantic analysis examples considered in this work are aimed primarily at inflective languages, especially, Ukrainian and Russian, but the basic principles could be suitable to most of the other languages. Results. The developed method of natural language phrase to a formal query in SPARQL and CYPHER conversion has been implemented in software for Ukrainian and Norwegian languages using narrow subjected ontologies and tested against formal performance criteria. Conclusions. The proposed method allows the dialog system fast and with minimum number of steps to select the most suitable query template and extract informative entities from a natural language phrase given the huge phrase variability in inflective languages. Carried out experiments have shown high precision and reliability of the constructed system and its potential for practical usage and further development.