ylfink@water.UUCP (ylfink) (02/25/86)
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
SEMINAR ACTIVITIES
COMPUTER SCIENCE COLLOQUIUM
- Wednesday, February 26, 1986.
Dr. N.J. Cercone of Simon Fraser University will speak
on ``Accessing Knowledge Through Natural Language''.
TIME: 3:30 PM
ROOM: MC 5158
ABSTRACT
We consider the problem of constructing a sophisticated
natural language interface to a data base. We argue
that to be truly sophisticated, such a system should
access knowledge in a knowledge base rather than data
in a data base. We enunciate a number of concerns
which must be taken into account both in the creation
of the processes which handle the natural language and
the design of the knowledge base. To account for a
wide range of linguistic phenomena, the system's
interpretation strategies must be flexible and
integrate syntactic, semantic and pragmatic levels of
processing. The natural language system cannot exist
as a separate ``front-end'' to its knowledge base.
Instead, the system must make use of a variety of dif-
ferent types of encoded knowledge when interpreting
input. The system must be designed to take into
account user goals to be able to discern his/her inten-
tions in making a query. The system and the user
should be able to interact naturally following dialogue
principles which underly human discourse.
Refreshments will be served at 3:00 PM.