Surface structure generation

• US 20060167678A1
• Filed: 11/10/2005
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford W. Randolph
• Original Assignee: Ford W. Randolph
• Inventors: Ford, W. Randolph
• Granted Patent: US 7,599,831 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/289 Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1815 Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

A computer program product for controlling the computer'"'"'s processor to perform responsive actions a natural language input has: (1) vocabulary, phrase and concept databases of words, phrase and concepts, respectively, that can be recognized in the inputted communication, wherein each of these database elements is representable by a designated semantic symbol, (2) means for searching the inputted communication to identify the words in the communication that are contained within the vocabulary database, (3) means for expressing the communication in terms of the word semantic symbols that correspond to each of the words identified in the inputted communication, (4) means for searching the communication when expressed in terms of its corresponding word semantic symbols so as to identify the phrases in the communication that are contained within the phrase database, (5) means for expressing the communication in terms of the phrase semantic symbols that correspond to each of the phrases identified in the communication, (6) means for searching the communication when expressed in terms of its corresponding phrase semantic symbols so as to identify the concepts in the communication that are contained within the concept database, and (7) means for expressing the communication in terms of the concept semantic symbols that correspond to each of the concepts identified in the inputted communication, wherein these concept semantic symbols are recognizable by the processor and can cause the processor to take action responsive to the inputted communication.

Claims

1. A method for converting a natural language communication, said method comprising:

searching a natural language communication to identify words in said communication;

expressing said communication in terms of word semantic symbols that correspond to each of said words identified in said communication;

searching said communication when expressed in terms of word semantic symbols so as to identify phrases in said communication;

expressing said communication in terms of phrase semantic symbols that correspond to each of said phrases identified in said communication;

searching said communication when expressed in terms of the phrase semantic symbols so as to identify concepts in said communication; and

expressing said communication in terms of concept semantic symbols that correspond to each of said concepts identified in said communication.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

upon identifying said concepts in said communication, causing a processor to take action responsive to said identified concepts into data that can be processed by the processor.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein searching a communication to identify words in said communication further comprises:

searching said communication to identify words in said communication contained in a vocabulary database of words, wherein each of said database words is representable by a designated word semantic symbol.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein searching said communication when expressed in terms of word semantic symbols so as to identify phrases in said communication further comprises:

searching said communication when expressed in terms of the word semantic symbols so as to identify phrases in said communication contained in a phrase database of phrases, wherein each of said database phrases is representable by a designated phrase semantic symbol.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein searching said communication when expressed in terms of the phrase semantic symbols so as to identify concepts in said communication further comprises:

searching said communication when expressed in terms of the phrase semantic symbols so as to identify concepts in said communication contained in a searching said communication when expressed in terms of the phrase semantic symbols so as to identify concepts in said communication contained in a concept database of concepts, wherein each of said database concepts being representable by a designated concept semantic symbol.

6. An apparatus comprising:

means for receiving a communication;

means for storing semantic representations of at least one of words, phrases, and concepts; and

means for determining a semantic representation of the communication using at least one of the semantic representations for words, phrases, and concepts stored in the means for storing.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the means for determining a semantic representation is further operable to perform a three-stage reduction of the communication to determine the semantic representation of the communication using words, phrases, and concepts stored and corresponding semantic representations stored in the means for storing.