Integrating natural language, query processing, and semantic data models

The design and implementation of a natural language query processing system is described. The system is based on the CANDIDE object-oriented data model, which consists of a collection of instances and classes. Classes are arranged in a generalization hierarchy. Each instance belongs to one or more classes. CANDIDE includes a terminological reasoning capability, known as the Classifier, which is used to process queries. Natural language queries are converted into CANDIDE objects and then processed by the Classifier. Issues in natural language processing are discussed, including the lexical acquisition problem. The approach is unique in terms of aiding natural language processing with a semantic data model.<>