| { |
| "paper_id": "P81-1009", |
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| "date_generated": "2023-01-19T09:15:11.376451Z" |
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| "title": "FIELD TESTING THE TRANSFORMATIOHAL qUESTION AHSWERIHG (TqA) SYSTEM", |
| "authors": [ |
| { |
| "first": "S", |
| "middle": [ |
| "R" |
| ], |
| "last": "Patrick", |
| "suffix": "", |
| "affiliation": { |
| "laboratory": "", |
| "institution": "NQW York", |
| "location": { |
| "postBox": "PO BOX 218", |
| "postCode": "10598" |
| } |
| }, |
| "email": "" |
| }, |
| { |
| "first": "~dm", |
| "middle": [ |
| "T J" |
| ], |
| "last": "Watson", |
| "suffix": "", |
| "affiliation": { |
| "laboratory": "", |
| "institution": "NQW York", |
| "location": { |
| "postBox": "PO BOX 218", |
| "postCode": "10598" |
| } |
| }, |
| "email": "" |
| }, |
| { |
| "first": "Reseorch", |
| "middle": [], |
| "last": "Center", |
| "suffix": "", |
| "affiliation": { |
| "laboratory": "", |
| "institution": "NQW York", |
| "location": { |
| "postBox": "PO BOX 218", |
| "postCode": "10598" |
| } |
| }, |
| "email": "" |
| } |
| ], |
| "year": "", |
| "venue": null, |
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| "abstract": "", |
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| "paper_id": "P81-1009", |
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| "abstract": [], |
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| "text": "The Transformatlonal question Answering (TqA) system was developed over a period of time beginning in the early part of the last decade and continuing to the present. Its syntactic component is a transformational grammar parser [1, 2, ~] , and its semantic Gomponqnt is a Knuth attribute grammor [~, 5] . The combination of these components providQs sufficiQnt generality, conveniQnga, and efficiency to implement a broad range of linguistic models; in addition to a wide spectrum of transformational grammars, Gilder-type phrase structure grammar [6] and lexigal functional grammar [7] systems appear to be cases in point, for example. The Particular grammar Nhich was, in fact, developed, however, was closest tO those of the genQrative semantics variety of trsnsformationel grammar; both the underlying structures assigned to sQntences and the transformations employed to effect that assignmQnt traced their origins to the generative semantics model. was the one employed in the field testing to be dQscribed. In a more recent version of the system, however, it has been replacod by a translation of logical forms, first to equivalent logical forms in a set domain relational calculus and then to appropriate expressions in the 5el language, SystQm RIs high level query language.", |
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| { |
| "start": 228, |
| "end": 237, |
| "text": "[1, 2, ~]", |
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| "start": 296, |
| "end": 302, |
| "text": "[~, 5]", |
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| "start": 548, |
| "end": 551, |
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| "text": "The first data base to which the system was applied was one concerning business statistics such as the sales, earnings, number of employees, etc. of 60 large companies over a five-year", |
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| "text": "Period. This was a toy data base, to be sure, but it was useful tO US in developing our System. A later dota base contained the basic land identification records of about 10,000 parcels of land in a city nQar our research center. It WaS developed for use by members of the city planning departmQnt and (less frequently) other departments to answQr questions concerning the information in that file. Our purpose in making the 1system available to those city employees was, of course, to provide access to o data base of real interest to a group of users and to fiQld test our system by evaluating their usa of it. Accordingly, thQ TqA system was tailored to the land usa file oppltcation and installed at City Hall at the and of 1977.", |
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| "text": "It remained there during 1978 and 1979, during which time it WaS used intormittently as thQ need arose for ad hoc cuQry to supplement thQ report generation programs that were already available for the extraction of information.", |
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| "text": "Total usage of the system Was less than we had expected would be the case when We made the decision to proceed with this application.", |
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| "text": "This resulted from a number of factors, including a change in mission for the planning department, a reduction in the number of people in that dQpartment, a decision tO rebuild the office space during the period Of usage, and a degree of obsolescence of the data due to the length of time between uodatQS (which were to have been supplied by the planning department).", |
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| "text": "During 1978 a total of 788 queries were addressed to the system, and during 1979 the total ~as 210. Damerau [9] giVQS thQ distribution of these quQries by month, and he alSO breaks thQm down by month into a number of different \u00a2atQgories.", |
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| "text": "DamQPaU'S report of the gross performance statistics for the year 197~, ~nd a similar, as yet unpublished report of his for 1979, contain a WQaith of data that I will not attempt to include in this brief note. Even though his reports contain a large quantity of statistical performance data, honorer, there are a lot of important observations which can only bQ made from a detailed analysis of the day-by-day transcript of system usage.", |
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| "text": "An analysis of sequences of related ouastions is a case in point as is an analysis of the attempts of users to phrase nQW queriQ5 in response tO failure of the system to procoss certain Our users varied widely in terms of their familiarity with the contents of the data base. Hone kne. anything abou~ the internal organization of information (e.g. ho, the data was arranged into relations), but some had good knowledge of just what kind of data was stored, some had limltQd knowledgQ, and some had no knowledge and even false expQctations as to what knowZQdge was included in the data base. In addition, thQy varied widely with respect to the amount of prior experiQnca they had with the systQm. Initially we provided no formal trolning in the use of the system, but some users acquired significant knowledge of the system through its sustalnQd use over a period of t~me. Something OVQr half of the total usage was mode by the individuol from the plannlng department who was responsiblQ for starting the system up and shutting it down each day. Usage was also made by other members of the planning department, bv members of OthQr departments, and by summer interns. %t should al~o be noted that the TeA system itself did not stay constant over the two-year period of tasting. AS problems werQ encountered, modifications werQ madQ tO many components of the system. %n particular, the lexicon, grammar Those instances whQro an unsuccessful query was followed uP by attempts to rephrase the query SO as to permit its processing showQd few instances where success was not achieved within three attempts. This data is obscured somewhat by the fact that users called us on \u2022 few occasions to get advice as to ho~ to record I query. On other occasions the terminal mQsSagQ facility WaS invoked for the PUrpose of obtaining advice, and this lof~ \u2022 record in our automatic logging facility.", |
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| "text": "That facility preserved a record of aLL traffic between the uservs terminal, the computer, and our own monitoring terminal (which ~aS not always turned on or attended), and it included \u2022 time stamp for every Line displayed on the users f terminaL.", |
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| "text": "A word is in order on tho real time performance of the system and on the amount of CPU time required.", |
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| "text": "Oamerau [9] includes a chart which shows ham many queries required a given number of minutes of real timQ fOP complete processing. ", |
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| "start": 8, |
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