Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Microsoft Corporation

Pär Jonas Barklund

Michael V Calcagno

Saliha Azzam

Sonja Sabina Knoll

Christopher Clayton McConnell

Lei Zhao

Su Chin Chang

William Ramsey

David Neal Weise

Kevin Roland Powell

Evelyne Viegas

Kevin R Powell

Sonja S Knoll

David N Weise

A system and method for normalizing a discourse representation structure (DRS) are provided. The elements of the structure are rewritten and sorted in a way such that structures which may appear different but are nonetheless equivalent can be associated with the same, normalized representation. Various embodiments can also include a data structure for a DRS. The DRS may be represented by an array of boxes, each having a set of elements which in turn has a predefined structure suitable for representing a wide variety of linguistic information.

System for normalizing a discourse representation structure and normalized data structure

A method and apparatus for identifying a semantic structure from text includes processing the input text to identify self-describing fragments of the input text based on a hierarchical schema defining a domain with at least one top-level node and child nodes. Each identified self-describing fragment includes hierarchical context of a portion of the input text. A semantic structure is provided based on the identified self-describing fragments.

Method and apparatus for building semantic structures using self-describing fragments

The present invention is a system and method for performing semantic analysis that interprets a linguistic structure output by a natural language linguistic analysis system. The semantic analysis system converts the linguistic output by the natural language linguistic analysis system into a data structure model referred to as a semantic discourse representation structure (SemDRS).

Semantic analysis system for interpreting linguistic structures output by a natural language linguistic analysis system

The present invention is a named entity (NE) interface to a linguistic analysis layer. The interface exposes each input sentence to the NE recognizers of all applications and returns all recognized NEs. Thus, the present invention can accommodate NEs which dynamically change in the applications, because each input string will be handed to the applications for NE recognition. The present invention also includes a data structure which is a normalized form of recognized NEs.

Named entity (NE) interface for multiple client application programs

An authoring tool (or process) to facilitate the performance of an annotation function and an indexing function. The annotation function may generate informational annotations and word annotations to a database design schema (e.g., an entity-relationship diagram or 'ERD'). The indexing function may analyze the words of the annotations by classifying the words in accordance with a concordance and dictionary, and assign a normalized weight to each word of each of the annotations based on the classification(s) of the word(s) of the annotation. A query translator (or query translation process) to (i) accept a natural language query from a user interface process, (ii) convert the natural language query to a formal command query (e.g., an SQL query) using the indexed annotations generated by the authoring tool and the database design schema, and (iii) present the formal command query to a database management process for interrogating the relational database.

Methods, apparatus and data structures for facilitating a natural language interface to stored information

The present invention is a system and method for normalizing a discourse representation structure (DRS). The elements of the structure are rewritten and sorted in a way such that structures which may appear different but are nonetheless equivalent can be associated with the same, normalized representation. The present invention can also include a data structure for a DRS. The DRS is represented by an array of boxes, each having a set of elements which in turn has a predefined structure suitable for representing a wide variety of linguistic information.

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Kirkland, WA, United States of America

Pär Jonas Barklund