Identification and Evaluation of Lexical Answer Type Conditions in a Question to Generate Correct Answers

• US 20160170989A1
• Filed: 12/10/2014
• Published: 06/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bishop, Timothy A., Boxwell, Stephen A., Brumfield, Benjamin L., Desai, Nirav P., Vernier, Stanley J.
• Granted Patent: US 10,176,228 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/243 Natural language query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results

Abstract

An approach is provided in which a knowledge manager receives a question and selects candidate answers based upon a lexical answer type included in the question. The knowledge manager evaluates the candidate answers against conditions detected in the question and generates condition fulfillment scores accordingly. In turn, the knowledge manager ranks the candidate answers based upon the corresponding condition fulfillment scores.

Claims

1. A method implemented by an information handling system that includes a memory and a processor, the method comprising:

selecting, by the processor, one or more candidate answers to a question, wherein the one or more candidate answers correspond to a lexical answer type included in the question;

generating one or more condition fulfillment scores based upon comparing the one or more candidate answers to one or more conditions included in the question; and

ranking the one or more candidate answers based upon the one or more condition fulfillment scores.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the one or more conditions impose one or more requirements on the one or more candidate answers to be a correct answer to the question.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein, prior to discovering the one or more candidate answers, the method further comprises:

annotating the question, wherein the annotating further comprises;

determining that one or more words in the question correspond to the lexical answer type;

identifying one or more syntactic indications corresponding to the lexical answer type that indicate a presence of a containment condition corresponding to the lexical answer type; and

adding one or more condition annotations to the question based upon the identified syntactic indications.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

selecting a first one of the one or more candidate answers and a first one of the one or more conditions;

generating a first one of the one or more condition fulfillment scores by comparing the first candidate answer to the first condition;

selecting a second one of the one or more conditions;

generating a second one of the one or more condition fulfillment scores by comparing the first candidate answer to the second condition; and

aggregating the first condition fulfillment score and the second condition fulfillment score into an aggregated condition fulfillment score; and

assigning the aggregated condition fulfillment score to the first candidate answer.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

traversing a knowledge base to identify one or more document passages corresponding to the lexical answer type; and

generating the one or more candidate answers based upon the identified one or more document passages.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the one or more conditions are selected from the group consisting of a containment condition, a spatial proximity condition, a color condition, and a UMLS containment condition.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the lexical answer type corresponds to a word in the question that semantically represents an answer to the question.

8. An information handling system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory coupled to at least one of the processors; and

a set of computer program instructions stored in the memory and executed by at least one of the processors in order to perform actions of;

selecting, by the processor, one or more candidate answers to a question, wherein the one or more candidate answers correspond to a lexical answer type included in the question;

generating one or more condition fulfillment scores based upon comparing the one or more candidate answers to one or more conditions included in the question; and

ranking the one or more candidate answers based upon the one or more condition fulfillment scores.

9. The information handling system of claim 8 wherein each of the one or more conditions impose one or more requirements on the one or more candidate answers to be a correct answer to the question.

10. The information handling system of claim 8 wherein, prior to discovering the one or more candidate answers, the one or more processors performs additional actions comprising:

annotating the question, wherein the annotating further comprises;

determining that one or more words in the question correspond to the lexical answer type;

identifying one or more syntactic indications corresponding to the lexical answer type that indicate a presence of a containment condition corresponding to the lexical answer type; and

adding one or more condition annotations to the question based upon the identified syntactic indications.

11. The information handling system of claim 8 wherein the one or more processors perform additional actions comprising:

selecting a first one of the one or more candidate answers and a first one of the one or more conditions;

generating a first one of the one or more condition fulfillment scores by comparing the first candidate answer to the first condition;

selecting a second one of the one or more conditions;

generating a second one of the one or more condition fulfillment scores by comparing the first candidate answer to the second condition; and

aggregating the first condition fulfillment score and the second condition fulfillment score into an aggregated condition fulfillment score; and

assigning the aggregated condition fulfillment score to the first candidate answer.

12. The information handling system of claim 8 wherein the one or more processors perform additional actions comprising:

traversing a knowledge base to identify one or more document passages corresponding to the lexical answer type; and

generating the one or more candidate answers based upon the identified one or more document passages.

13. The information handling system of claim 8 wherein at least one of the one or more conditions are selected from the group consisting of a containment condition, a spatial proximity condition, a color condition, and a UMLS containment condition.

14. The information handling system of claim 8 wherein the lexical answer type corresponds to a word in the question that semantically represents an answer to the question.

15. A computer program product stored in a computer readable storage medium, comprising computer program code that, when executed by an information handling system, causes the information handling system to perform actions comprising:

selecting, by the processor, one or more candidate answers to a question, wherein the one or more candidate answers correspond to a lexical answer type included in the question;

generating one or more condition fulfillment scores based upon comparing the one or more candidate answers to one or more conditions included in the question; and

ranking the one or more candidate answers based upon the one or more condition fulfillment scores.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein each of the one or more conditions impose one or more requirements on the one or more candidate answers to be a correct answer to the question.

17. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein, prior to discovering the one or more candidate answers, the one or more processors performs additional actions comprising:

annotating the question, wherein the annotating further comprises;

determining that one or more words in the question correspond to the lexical answer type;

identifying one or more syntactic indications corresponding to the lexical answer type that indicate a presence of a containment condition corresponding to the lexical answer type; and

adding one or more condition annotations to the question based upon the identified syntactic indications.

18. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the one or more processors perform additional actions comprising:

selecting a first one of the one or more candidate answers and a first one of the one or more conditions;

generating a first one of the one or more condition fulfillment scores by comparing the first candidate answer to the first condition;

selecting a second one of the one or more conditions;

generating a second one of the one or more condition fulfillment scores by comparing the first candidate answer to the second condition; and

aggregating the first condition fulfillment score and the second condition fulfillment score into an aggregated condition fulfillment score; and

assigning the aggregated condition fulfillment score to the first candidate answer.

19. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the one or more processors perform additional actions comprising:

traversing a knowledge base to identify one or more document passages corresponding to the lexical answer type; and

generating the one or more candidate answers based upon the identified one or more document passages.

20. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein at least one of the one or more conditions are selected from the group consisting of a containment condition, a spatial proximity condition, a color condition, and a UMLS containment condition.