Evaluation of a word recognition system using syntax analysis

A speech recognition system has been implemented which accepts reasonably natural English sentences spoken as isolated words. The major components of the system are a speaker dependent word recognizer and a syntax analyzer. The set of sentences selected for investigation is intended for use as requests in an automated flight information and reservation system. Results are presented of evaluations for speakers using their own stored reference patterns, the reference patterns of other speakers and reference patterns averaged over several speakers. For speakers using their own reference pattern the median word recognition error rate fell from 11.7% to 0.4% with the use of syntax analysis.