Semantic programming language

• US 7,761,858 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2004
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Parkinson, David J., Cipollone, Domenic J., Calcagno, Michael V., Olsen, Mari J. B., Chang, Su Chin, Shahani, Ravi C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Yigdall; Michael J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wang; Ben C
• Application Number:
  US10/830,988
• Publication Number:
  US 20050289522A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,279 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/140
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/315 Object-oriented languages
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/18 using natural language modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1815 Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

A software development tool for programming natural language software applications is described. The software development tool includes a programming language and a compiler. The programming language has a set of programming constructs for facilitating natural language programming. The compiler is adapted to take a software program containing instances of the set of programming constructs and to generate a software application.

Claims

1. A software development tool for compiling a natural language software application based on a set of programming constructs utilized to model semantics of a natural language, the software development tool comprising:

a programming language comprising a set of programming constructs for facilitating natural language programming, the set of programming constructs including a plurality of types that correspond to declarative linguistic elements of a linguistic object model, each type of the plurality of types being independent of a particular spoken language, the plurality of types comprising;

an entity type derived from an entity base class having data members, properties, and methods, the entity type adapted to model noun phrases and adjective phrases;

a frame type derived from a frame base class and adapted to model semantic events including verbs and nouns;

a restriction type derived from a restriction base class and adapted to model oblique arguments, modifiers, and other semantic elements, the restriction type to define semantic relationships between entities and constraints on objects derived from the plurality of types, the restriction type adapted to normalize relationship semantics across syntactic representations;

a denoter representing a privileged data member to map entity objects instantiated from the entity type to natural language words; and

a compiler executable by a processor to receive a software program from a computer readable storage medium, the software program containing instances of the set of programming constructs, the compiler executable by the processor to generate a software application from the instances of the set of programming constructs, the generated software application comprising a natural language software application.

2. The software development tool of claim 1 wherein the programming language further comprises:

primitive types at least some of which model semantics of a natural language.

3. The software development tool of claim 2 further comprising:

non-primitive types defined in the programming language, wherein one or more of the non-primitive types inherit from the primitive types.

4. The software development tool of claim 2 wherein the semantic model is described using the set of programming constructs and primitive types.

5. The software development tool of claim 1 wherein the compiler generates a declarative schema based on the software program for use with the generated software application.

6. The software development tool of claim 1 and further comprising:

a class library comprising;

the restriction base class representative of a primitive Restriction type, the primitive restriction type for modeling properties of semantic elements;

the Frame base class representative of a primitive Frame type, the primitive Frame type for modeling semantics of events; and

the Entity base class representative of a primitive Entity type, the Entity type for modeling semantics of noun or adjective phrases.

7. The software development tool of claim 1 wherein the software application comprises:

a set of resolvable types for selecting between linguistically possible types, each resolvable type being processed according to resolution semantics to determine if an instance of the resolvable type exists.

8. The software development tool of claim 7 wherein pairs of resolvable types are related according to semantic rules, and wherein one resolvable type of the pair of resolvable types may fail resolution semantics without affecting the existence of the other resolvable type.

9. The software development tool of claim 1 further comprising:

an object based on a semantic model, the object adapted to decide whether to accept a property on the object.

10. The software development tool of claim 1 wherein the software program based on the programming language comprises:

a declarative model of natural language semantics of an application domain;

imperative code; and

related program structures;

wherein the declarative model, the imperative code and the related program structures may interact to examine and refer to an application state.

11. The software development tool of claim 1 further comprising:

a linguistic object model defining a set of linguistic primitive types which comprise a portion of the declarative linguistic elements of the programming language.

12. The software development tool of claim 1 wherein the set of programming constructs comprises:

a syntactical framework for coordinating relationships between non-primitive types and primitive types.

13. The software development tool of claim 1 wherein the set of programming constructs comprises:

keywords of the programming language, at least one of the keywords for accessing a primitive type.

14. The software development tool of claim 1 wherein the generated software application describes relationships among types that interact with a runtime.

15. The software development tool of claim 1 wherein a runtime places constraints on construction of an instance of a semantic model during operation.

16. A system for compiling a natural language software application based on a set of programming constructs utilized to model semantics of a natural language, the system comprising:

a computer readable storage medium to store instructions comprising;

a programming language comprising a set of programming constructs for facilitating programming of natural language software applications, the set of programming constructs including a plurality of types that correspond to declarative linguistic elements of a linguistic object model, each type of the plurality of types being independent of a particular spoken language, the plurality of types comprising;

an entity type derived from an entity base class having data members, properties, and methods, the entity type adapted to model noun phrases and adjective phrases;

a frame type derived from a frame base class and adapted to model semantic events including verbs and nouns;

a restriction type derived from a restriction base class and adapted to model oblique arguments, modifiers, and other semantic elements, the restriction type to define semantic relationships between entities and constraints on objects derived from the plurality of types, the restriction type adapted to normalize relationship semantics across syntactic representations;

a denoter representing a privileged data member to map entity objects instantiated from the entity type to natural language words; and

a framework including a plurality of clauses associated with each of the plurality of types, the plurality of clauses including a begin clause, a success clause, and a fail clause to resolve the existence of each of the plurality of types at runtime; and

a compiler adapted to take source code containing instances of the set of programming constructs and the framework and to generate computer readable machine code and declarative schema; and

a processor having access to the computer readable storage medium, the processor adapted to receive a set of instructions including selected constructs from the set of programming constructs and the framework, the processor adapted to execute the compiler to compile the set of instructions into a natural language software application.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the programming language further comprises:

primitive types for modeling the semantics of the natural language.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the primitive types comprise:

a base command type for modeling a command contained in an utterance.

19. The system of claim 17 further comprising:

a linguistic object model defining a set of types which comprise the primitive types of the programming language.

20. The system of claim 16 wherein the set of programming constructs comprises:

a set of non-primitive types for modeling semantics of an utterance or of associated commands.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the set of programming constructs further comprises:

a syntactical framework for coordinating relationships between the set of non-primitive types and primitive types for modeling the semantics of the natural language.

22. The system of claim 16 wherein the programming language is based on C#.

23. The system of claim 16 wherein the programming language is based on an object-oriented programming language.

24. The system of claim 16 wherein the programming constructs comprise:

a “

with restriction”

for introducing a clause that is triggered by an instance of a type that can be associated to a slot of another type.

25. The system of claim 16 and further comprising:

a class library comprising a restriction base class representative of a primitive Restriction type for modeling properties of semantic elements.

26. The system of claim 16 and further comprising:

a class library comprising a Frame base class representative of a primitive Frame type for modeling semantics of events.

27. The system of claim 16 and further comprising:

a class library comprising an Entity base class representative of a primitive Entity type for modeling semantics of noun phrases.

28. The system of claim 16 and further comprising:

a class library comprising an Entity base class representative of a primitive Entity type for modeling semantics of adjective phrases.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein pairs of resolvable types are related according to semantic rules, and wherein one resolvable type of the pair of resolvable types may fail resolution semantics without affecting the existence of the other resolvable type.

30. The system of claim 16 wherein the computer readable machine code comprises:

a set of resolvable types for selecting between linguistically possible types, each resolvable type being processed according to resolution semantics to determine if an instance of the resolvable type exists.

31. The system of claim 16 further comprising:

an object based on the semantic model, the object adapted to decide whether to accept a property on the object based on the declarative schema.

32. The system of claim 16 wherein the program based on the programming language comprises:

a declarative model of natural language semantics of an application domain;

imperative code; and

related program structures;

wherein the declarative model, the imperative code and the related program structures may interact to examine and refer to an application state.

33. A method for compiling and storing a natural language enabled software application based on a software development tool for modeling the semantics of a natural language, the tool including a programming language and a compiler, and wherein the compiler is adapted to take a software program containing instances of a set of programming constructs and to generate a software application, the method comprising:

creating a program from a set of programming constructs, wherein creating further comprises creating the program from a plurality of types that are included in the set of programming constructs, wherein the plurality of types are related to declarative elements of a linguistic object model for facilitating natural language programming, each type of the plurality of types being independent of a particular spoken language, the program describing features in the software application that rely on natural language input, the plurality of types comprising;

an entity type derived from an entity base class having data members, properties, and methods, the entity type adapted to model noun phrases and adjective phrases;

a frame type derived from a frame base class and adapted to model semantic events including verbs and nouns;

a restriction type derived from a restriction base class and adapted to model oblique arguments, modifiers, and other semantic elements, the restriction type to define semantic relationships between entities and constraints on objects derived from the plurality of types, the restriction type adapted to normalize relationship semantics across syntactic representations;

a denoter representing a privileged data member to map entity objects instantiated from the entity type to natural language words; and

compiling the program into the software application via a processor, the software application containing indications of at least one of the plurality of types; and

storing the software application in a computer readable storage medium.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein the step of creating further comprises:

creating the program from primitive types, at least one of the primitive types adapted to model semantics of a natural language.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein the step of compiling further comprises:

generating a declarative schema based on the program.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein the declarative schema describes relationships among semantic modeling types created by a developer of a natural language enabled software application.

37. The method of claim 33 wherein the set of semantic programming constructs comprises:

a set of non-primitive types for modeling semantics of an utterance or of an associated command.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein the set of semantic programming constructs further comprises:

a syntactical framework for coordinating relationships between the set of non-primitive types and primitive types.

39. The method of claim 37 and further comprising:

adding to the set of non-primitive types via the program.

40. The method of claim 37 wherein one or more of the non-primitive types in the set of non-primitive types inherits from primitive types defined in a linguistic object model.