Architecture for generating responses to search engine queries

• US 20040254917A1
• Filed: 06/13/2003
• Published: 12/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ray, Soumya, Brill, Eric D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,666,983 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3329 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems

Abstract

Architecture for generating responses to search engine queries. Question/answer pairs are used to provide a predefined question hierarchy to facilitate a search. Informative terms and one or more questions are associated with each question node of the hierarchy. A question posed is mapped into the hierarchy to the most similar question class node, as determined by passages of the question and/or comparing the informative terms of the question and the question/answer node. Weighted informative terms associated with that node are then returned, and can be used by an automatic question answering system to more effectively find an answer to a question.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates generating responses to queries, comprising:

a component that receives a query; and

an abstraction component that maps the query into an abstraction hierarchy to facilitate identifying an answer term to the query.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising an identification component that maps data pairs to the abstraction hierarchy to facilitate identifying informative terms for a set of nodes in the hierarchy.

3. The system of claim 2, the data pairs are query/response pairs.

4. The system of claim 2, the data pairs are question/answer pairs.

5. The system of claim 1, the hierarchy including at least one node that is associated with the query.

6. The system of claim 1, the hierarchy including at least one node, each node associated with an informative term.

7. The system of claim 1, the abstraction component mapping the query into the hierarchy by comparing informative terms of the query with informative terms of at least one node.

8. The system of claim 1, the abstraction component mapping the query into the hierarchy by comparing terms of the query with question terms of at least one question of the hierarchy.

9. The system of claim 1, the abstraction component mapping the query into the hierarchy, in response to which the hierarchy is restructured to include the query.

10. The system of claim 1, the abstraction component initiating construction of a new hierarchy when the query cannot be mapped into the abstraction hierarchy.

11. The system of claim 1, the abstraction component clustering the abstraction hierarchy with other hierarchies that are determined to be similar thereto.

12. A computer system according to the system of claim 1.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a classifier for implicit and explicit learning.

14. The system of claim 13, the classifier includes at least one of a support vector machine, a Bayesian network, and decision tree.

15. The system of claim 13, the classifier prioritizing hierarchies for clustering.

16. The system of claim 13, the classifier prioritizing at least one of the query and informative terms of the query for processing.

17. The system of claim 1 further comprising a learning component that learns at least one of a term of the query and informative terms of the query.

18. The system of claim 17, the learning component using at least one of the term from the query and the informative terms of the query to improve the accuracy of an answer for a new query.

19. The system of claim 1, the abstraction component using informative terms at a node of the hierarchy to weight one or more teens of the query.

20. A system that facilitates generating responses to queries, comprising:

a component that receives a query;

an abstraction component that maps the query into an abstraction hierarchy to facilitate identifying an answer to the query; and

an identification component that maps data pairs to the abstraction hierarchy to facilitate identifying informative terms for a set of nodes in the hierarchy.

21. The system of claim 20, the data pairs are query/response pairs.

22. The system of claim 20, the data pairs are question/answer pairs.

23. The system of claim 20, the abstraction component mapping the query into the hierarchy by comparing informative terms of the query with informative terms of a node.

24. The system of claim 20, the abstraction component using informative terms at a node of the hierarchy to weight one or more informative terms of the query.

25. A method that facilitates generating responses to queries, comprising:

receiving a query;

processing the query for informative terms; and

mapping the query into an abstraction hierarchy to facilitate identifying an answer term to the query.

26. The method of claim 25, the hierarchy including at least one node that is associated with an informative term.

27. The method of claim 25, the query mapped into the hierarchy by comparing the informative terms of the query with informative terms of at least one node.

28. The method of claim 25, the query mapped into the hierarchy by comparing the terms of the query with terms of at least one question of the hierarchy.

29. The method of claim 25, the query mapped into the hierarchy, in response to which the hierarchy is restructured to include the query.

30. The method of claim 25, further comprising reconstructing the abstraction hierarchy after the query is mapped into the abstraction hierarchy.

31. The method of claim 25, further comprising clustering the abstraction hierarchy with other hierarchies that are determined to be similar thereto such that the query is processed against the clustered hierarchies.

32. The method of claim 25, further comprising mapping data pairs to the abstraction hierarchy to facilitate identifying informative terms for a set of nodes in the hierarchy.

33. The method of claim 32, the data pairs are query response pairs.

34. The method of claim 32, the data pairs are question/answer pairs.

35. The method of claim 25, further comprising clustering nodes of the hierarchy with other nodes that are determined to be similar thereto such that the query is processed against the clustered nodes.

36. The method of claim 25, the abstraction hierarchy including a node associated with at least one query.

37. The method of claim 25, the abstraction hierarchy including a node having associated therewith weighted informative terms that are returned and use by an automatic question answering system to find an answer to the query.

38. A method of generating responses to queries, comprising:

receiving a question;

extracting a term from the question;

generating a table of potential answers from a question/answer hierarchy, the table including the potential answers in which the term occurs;

testing the table of potential answers for a discriminating term;

storing the discriminating term as an informative term;

ranking a plurality of the informative terms by relevance to a potential answer to the question; and

utilizing one of the informative terms to find the potential answer.

39. The method of claim 38, the testing is preformed using a Dunning measure.

40. The method of claim 38, the discriminating term is found by testing that the statistics of a fragment containing the answer is different from the statistics of a fragment not containing the answer.

41. A method of generating an abstraction hierarchy, comprising:

receiving an existing hierarchy of nodes of questions and corresponding informative terms;

receiving a new question;

generating informative terms for the new question;

calculating a similarity value for the new question based on each question in the existing hierarchy; and

grouping the new question with the most similar question in the existing hierarchy based on the similarity value.

42. The method of claim 41, further comprising rebuilding the hierarchy according to predetermined criteria.

43. The method of claim 41, further comprising replacing the new question and most similar question with a representative hierarchical structure at that node.

44. A system that facilitates generating responses to queries, comprising:

means for receiving a query;

means for processing at least one of the query and an answer for informative terms; and

means for mapping the query into an abstraction hierarchy to facilitate identifying an answer term to the query.

45. The system of claim 44, the hierarchy including at least one node that is associated with an informative term.

46. The system of claim 44, the query mapped into the hierarchy by comparing the informative terms of the query with informative terms of the query.

47. The system of claim 44, the query mapped into the hierarchy, in response to which the hierarchy is restructured to include the query.

48. The system of claim 44, further comprising means for clustering the abstraction hierarchy with other hierarchies that are determined to be similar thereto such that the query is processed against the clustered hierarchies.

49. The system of claim 44, further comprising means for mapping data pairs to the abstraction hierarchy to facilitate identifying informative terms for a set of nodes in the hierarchy.

50. The system of claim 49, the data pairs are query response pairs.

51. The system of claim 49, the data pairs are question/answer pairs.