Natural language processing system

• US 5,101,349 A
• Filed: 03/12/1990
• Issued: 03/31/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/1989
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Tokuume, Yoshihiro, Shibata, Shogo, Masegi, Koichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Shaw, Dale M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chung, Xuong M.
• Application Number:
  US07/491,811
• Time in Patent Office: 750 Days
• Field of Search: 364/419, 364/900 MS File, 364/200 MS File
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/268 Morphological analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/56 Natural language generation

Abstract

A natural language arrangement includes stored grammatical rules each having a phrase structure part representing grammatical functions, a semantic part representing the manner of propagation from a superordinate category to a subordinate category, a condition part, and a message part that imposes limitations on a phrase structure rule using the subordinate category as a superordinate category. The grammatical rules are searched and interpreted to generate a phrase structure for a sentence from grammatical function information obtained by interpreting and applying the searched grammatical rules.

Claims

1. A natural language sentence generating apparatus comprising:

(a) grammatical rule storing means for storing a plurality of grammatical rules, each grammatical rule including;

(a1) a phrase-structure-part in which is described a phrase structure rule representing a grammatical function;

(a2) a semantic part describing a manner in which attribute information propagates in the phrase structure rule from a particular superordinate category to a subordinate category;

(a3) a condition part in which an applying condition for said grammatical rule is described; and

(a4) a message part in which is described a message for imposing limitations on the phrase structure rule utilizing said subordinate category as a new superordinate category;

(b) searching means for searching the grammatical rules stored in said grammatical rule storing means in accordance with the manner in which the attribute information propagates in the phrase structure rule;

(c) interpreting means for interpreting the grammatical rules stored in said grammatical rule storing means; and

(d) generating means for applying one of the grammatical rules extracted from said grammatical rule storing means by said searching means while interpreting said one of the grammatical rules through said interpreting means to generate a phrase structure for the sentence from a set of information on the grammatical function imparted to said one of the grammatical rules.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising input means for inputting a sentence to which said grammatical rule is to be applied by said generating means, said sentence having a conceptual structure which is described by using a feature description rule of unification grammar.

3. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said grammatical rule stored in said grammatical rule storing means is described by using said feature description rule.

4. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the conceptual structure of said sentence input by said input means is a feature structure into which a semantic network is converted.

5. An apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said attribute information propagated to said subordinate category comprises at least a feature structure of said superordinate category.

6. An apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising analysis means for analyzing said input sentence in accordance with unification grammar and outputting the resulting feature structure, said generating means including recursive call means for executing a program which can be recursively called, the conceptual structure of said sentence input by said input means being said feature structure.

7. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said attribute information propagated to said subordinate category comprises at least a feature structure of said superordinate category.

8. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said phrase structure-part includes a phrase as a category, said phrase structure-part comprising a superordinate category and at least one subordinate category constituting said superordinate category.

9. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein if said message described in said message part is propagated from said superordinate category to said subordinate category, said searching means selects at least said message and, as a subordinate category, a category which matches the applying condition described in said condition part.

10. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said applying condition which is described in said condition part is the type of verb.

11. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said applying condition which is described in said condition part is the type of clause.

12. A natural language sentence generating apparatus composing:

(a) grammatical rule storing means for storing a plurality of grammatical rules, each grammatical rule including;

(a1) a phrase-structure-part in which is described a phrase structure rule representing a grammatical function; and

(a2) a semantic part describing a manner in which attribute information propagates in the phrase structure rule from a particular superordinate category to a subordinate category;

(b) searching means for searching the grammatical rules stored in said grammatical rule storing means in accordance with the manner in which the attribute information propagates in the phrase structure rule;

(c) interpreting means for interpreting the grammatical rules stored in said grammatical rule storing means; and

(d) generating means for applying one of the grammatical rules extracted from said grammatical rule storing means by said searching means while interpreting said one of the grammatical rules through said interpreting means to generate a phrase structure for the sentence from a set information on the grammatical function imparted to said one of the grammatical rules.

13. A natural language sentence generating apparatus comprising:

(a) grammatical rule storing means for storing a plurality of grammatical rules, each grammatical rule including;

(a1) a phrase-structure-part in which is described a phrase structure rule representing a grammatical function; and

(a2) a semantic part describing a manner in which attribute information propagates in the phrase structure rule from a particular superordinate category to a subordinate category;

(a3) a condition part in which an applying condition for said grammatical rule is described; and

(a4) a message part in which is described a message for imposing limitations on the phrase structure rule utilizing said subordinate category as a new superordinate category;

(b) searching means for searching the grammatical rules stored in said grammatical rule storing means in accordance with the manner in which the attribute information propagates in the phrase structure rule;

(c) interpreting means for interpreting the grammatical rules stored in said grammatical rule storing means;

(d) generating means for applying one of the grammatical rules extracted from said grammatical rule storing means by said searching means while interpreting said one of the grammatical rules through said interpreting means to generate a phrase structure for the sentence from a set of information on the grammatical function imparted to said one of the grammatical rules; and

(e) means for constructing a sentence in accordance with the phrase structure generated by the generating means.

14. A method of generating a natural language sentence, comprising the steps of:

(a) storing, in grammatical rule storing means, a plurality of grammatical rules, each grammatical rule including;

(a1) a phrase-structure-part in which is described a phrase structure rule representing a grammatical function; and

(a2) a semantic part describing a manner in which attribute information propagates in the phrase structure rule from a particular superordinate category to a subordinate category;

(a3) a condition part in which an applying condition for said grammatical rule is described; and

(a4) a message part in which is described a message for imposing limitations on the phrase structure rule utilizing said subordinate category as a new superordinate category;

(b) searching the grammatical rules stored in said grammatical rule storing means in accordance with the manner in which the attribute information propagates in the phrase structure rule;

(c) interpreting the grammatical rules stored in said grammatical rule storing means; and

(d) applying one of the grammatical rules extracted from said grammatical rule storing means while interpreting said one of the grammatical rules to generate a phrase structure for the sentence from a set of information on the grammatical function imparted to said one of the grammatical rules.