Natural Language Data Base Access With Pearl

Data b a s e s a c c e s s i s t y p i c a l l y approached as a prog~anmi n g problem r a t h e r t han a u s e r i n t e r f a c e problem. Wez. conseq e n t l y see s i t u a t i o n s where on ly programmers can a c c e s s i n f o r m a t i o n i n d a t a b a s e s , i n s p i t e o f the f a c t t h a t t h e peop le who need t h i s i n f o r m a t i o n a re t y p i c a l l y n o n p r o ~ ' a ~ n e r s . The most d e s i r a b l e way to ex t end d a t a base a c c e s s c a p a b i l i t i e s to n a i v e u s e r p o p u l a t i o n s i s by means o f a n a t u r a l l anguage i n t e r f a c e or "front-end" system that can process requests stated in the user's natural language. PEARL is a domaln-lndependent sys tem f o r n a t u r a l l anguage a n a l Y s i s t h a t can be cus tomized t o hand le d o m a i n s p e c i f i c q u e r i e s to e x i s t i n g d a t a b a s e s . PEARL a n a l y z e s E n g l i s h i n p u t w i t h e x p e c t a t i o n d r i v e n p ~ r s i n g t e c h n i q u e s end q u e s t i o n answer ing s t r a t e @ l e s deve loped by A r t i f i c i a l I n t e l l i g e n c e r e s e a r c h e r s ( L e h n e r t , / 1 9 7 8 / , Sohank and R i e s b e c k / 1 9 7 6 / , R ie sbeok / 1 9 7 5 / , Gershmsn / 1 9 7 9 / , B i r n baum and S e l f r i d g e / 1 9 7 9 / , and p roduces code i n w h a t e v e r query l anguage i s c u r r e n t l y b e i n g used t o a c c e s s a s p e c i f i c d a t a b a s e . PEARL can t h e r e f o r e be adap ted to any d a t a base t h a t has a query l anguage a c c e s s module.