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Developing a natural language interface to complex data
Abstract
Aspects of an intelligent interface that provides natural language access to a large body of data distributed over a computer network are described. The overall system architecture is presented, showing how a user is buffered from the actual database management systems (DBMSs) by three layers of insulating components. These layers operate in series to convert natural language queries into calls to DBMSs at remote sites. Attention is then focused on the first of the insulating components, the natural language system. A pragmatic approach to language access that has proved useful for building interfaces to databases is described and illustrated by examples. Special language features that increase system usability, such as spelling correction, processing of incomplete inputs, and run-time system personalization, are also discussed. The language system is contrasted with other work in applied natural language processing, and the system's limitations are analyzed.
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Cited by
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Khurana, D., Koli, A., Khatter, K., & Singh, S. (2023) · Multimedia Tools and Applications · doi:10.1007/s11042-022-13428-4 · Cited by 1,823
Natural language interfaces to databases – an introduction
Androutsopoulos, I., Ritchie, G. D., & Thanisch, P. (1995) · Natural Language Engineering · doi:10.1017/s135132490000005x · Cited by 768
Heinzerling, B., & Inui, K. (2021) · Proceedings of the 16th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Main Volume · doi:10.18653/v1/2021.eacl-main.153 · Cited by 78
What Goes Around Comes Around... And Around...
Stonebraker, M., & Pavlo, A. (2024) · ACM SIGMOD Record · doi:10.1145/3685980.3685984 · Cited by 29
Automated Validating and Fixing of Text-to-SQL Translation with Execution Consistency
Yang, Y., Wang, Z., Xia, Y., Wei, Z., Ding, H., Piskac, R., Chen, H., & Li, J. (2025) · Proceedings of the ACM on Management of Data · doi:10.1145/3725271 · Cited by 8
Metadata
- Authors
- Hendrix, G. G., Sacerdoti, E. D., Sagalowicz, D., & Slocum, J.
- Venue
- ACM Transactions on Database Systems
- Published
- 1978-06
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 105-147
- ISSN
- 0362-5915 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-4644
- OpenAlex
- W2043794661
- Cited by
- 534
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 43.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Hendrix, G. G., Sacerdoti, E. D., Sagalowicz, D., & Slocum, J. (1978). Developing a natural language interface to complex data. ACM Transactions on Database Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/320251.320253
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