Robust parsing and spoken negotiative dialogue with databases

• Published in: Natural language engineering Vol. 14; no. 3; pp. 289 - 312
• Main Authors: BOYE, JOHAN, WIRÉN, MATS
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.07.2008
• Subjects: Algorithms; Computational linguistics; Datorlingvistik; Formal Semantics; Grammar; Human Computer Communication; HUMANIORA och RELIGIONSVETENSKAP; HUMANITIES and RELIGION; Languages and linguistics; Linguistic subjects; Linguistics; Lingvistikämnen; Negotiation; Parsing; Semantic analysis; Speech; Språkvetenskap
• ISSN: 1351-3249; 1469-8110; 1469-8110
• DOI: 10.1017/S1351324906004402

This paper presents a robust parsing algorithm and semantic formalism for the interpretation of utterances in spoken negotiative dialogue with databases. The algorithm works in two passes: a domain-specific pattern-matching phase and a domain-independent semantic analysis phase. Robustness is achieved by limiting the set of representable utterance types to an empirically motivated subclass which is more expressive than propositional slot–value lists, but much less expressive than first-order logic. Our evaluation shows that in actual practice the vast majority of utterances that occur can be handled, and that the parsing algorithm is highly efficient and accurate.