A proposed framework for the development of an interactive natural language interface to ontologies

摘要: The information world is moving towards the integration of different databases (DB), which contain a lot of structured information (ontologies): these are also known as knowledge repositories. In order to facilitate access to, and to permit the utilization of the massive information stored in these ontologies, a natural language interface (NLI) is used. A NLI provides the platform for man and machine to interact. A user enters a query in his language and this is translated into a form understandable by the computer. The computer then processes the user's query and retrieves the exact information desired by the user. Some of the challenges being faced by natural language interfaces to DBs include lack of adequate guidance in query formulation, incorrect interpretation of user query, absence of query progress status notification, and the need for standardization, among others. This investigations have shown clearly that, the …