Natural language processing apparatus and method for performing processing to analyze the meaning of an input sentence entered in the form of a natural language

• US 5,590,039 A
• Filed: 08/29/1994
• Issued: 12/31/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/1989
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Ikeda, Yuji, Fujita, Minoru
• Primary Examiner(s): McElheny, Jr., Donald E.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Poinvil, Frantzy
• Application Number:
  US08/296,159
• Time in Patent Office: 855 Days
• Field of Search: 364/419.02, 364/419.08, 364/200 MS File, 364/900 MS File, 364/203, 364/419.01, 364/419.10-419.12
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• 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 40/289 Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/55 Rule-based translation

Abstract

A natural language processing apparatus for performing processing operations to analyze the meaning of an input sentence entered in the form of a natural language includes a plurality of meaning analyzing devices networked in order to perform processing to analyze the meaning of the input sentence. The meaning analyzing devices perform meaning analyzing operations that differ from one another and output the results of analysis on a network. Also provided is a communicating device for applying the input sentence, which is a subject of analysis, to each of the plurality of meaning analyzing devices, a decision device for determining whether independent meaning analysis performed by the plurality of meaning analyzing devices is required with regard to the input sentence, and a consolidating device for consolidating the analytical results from each of the plurality of meaning analyzing devices and applying the consolidated results to the communicating device as the subject of analysis which the communicating device applies to each of the meaning analyzing devices.

Claims

1. A natural language processing apparatus for performing processing to analyze the meaning of an input sentence entered in the form of a natural language, comprising:

memory means for storing subjects of analysis;

input means for applying the input sentence, which is an initial one of the subjects of analysis, to said memory means;

a plurality of meaning analyzing means for analyzing the meaning of the input sentence, each of said plurality of meaning analyzing means performing different meaning analyzing operations, and being capable of outputting a result of its analysis to said memory means to update a subject of a subsequent analysis; and

control means for sending a subject of analysis stored in said memory means to each of said plurality of meaning analyzing means when the subject of analysis is updated in said memory means,

wherein each of said plurality of meaning analyzing means determines whether respective meaning analysis is executable with regard to the subject of analysis sent by said control means and sends a result of the determination to said control means, and

wherein if at least one of the plurality of meaning analyzing means sends a determination that an analysis of the subject of analysis is executable, said control means selects one from among said at least one of the plurality of meaning analyzing means on the basis of the results of the determination sent by said plurality of meaning analyzing means and causes the selected one of said plurality of meaning analyzing means to perform a meaning analysis on the subject of analysis is sent by said control means and output a result of its meaning analysis to said memory means to update the subjects of analysis.

2. The processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a first one of said meaning analyzing means analyzes the case structure of the input sentence, and a second one of said means analyzing means analyzes a clause modifying a noun or a pronoun.

3. The processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a first one of said meaning analyzing means analyzes the case structure of the input sentence, and a second one of said meaning analyzing means analyzes a phrase modifying a noun or a pronoun.

4. The processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of said plurality of meaning analyzing means transmits a result of the determination to said control means, and said control means outputs the subject of analysis as a result of all of said meaning analyzing means, if each of the plurality of meaning analyzing means determines that its respective meaning analysis is not executable.

5. A method for controlling an apparatus having a plurality of meaning analyzers, each of which performs different analysis operations, to analyze the meaning of a sentence in the form of a natural language, the method comprising the steps of:

inputting a sentence in the form of the natural language into the apparatus;

storing the input sentence as an initial subject of analysis in a memory;

sending the subject of analysis from the memory to each of said plurality of meaning analyzers;

determining whether each of said plurality of meaning analyzers can execute its respective analysis operations with regard to the subject of analysis received from the memory;

if at least one of the plurality of meaning analyzers has determined that an analysis of the subject of analysis is executable, selecting one meaning analyzer from among said at least one of the plurality of meaning analyzers on the basis of the results of the determination;

analyzing the meaning of the subject of analysis in the memory by the selected one of the plurality of meaning analyzers; and

updating the subject of analysis in the memory by the result of said analyzing step.

6. A method according to claim 5, wherein said determining, analyzing and updating steps are repeated sequentially, unless none of the operations is determined for performing the determining step.