(IRS) defined using an ordinal fuzzy linguistic approach is proposed. The ordinal fuzzy linguistic approach is presented, and its use for modeling the imprecision and subjectivity that appear in the user-IRS interaction is studied. The user queries and IRS responses are modeled linguistically using the concept of fuzzy linguistic variables. The system accepts Boolean queries whose terms can be weighted simultaneously by means of ordinal linguistic values according to three possible semantics: asymmetrical threshold semantic, aquantitativesemantic,andanimportancesemantic.Thefirstone identifies a new threshold semantic used to express qualitative restrictions on the documents retrieved for a given term. It is monotone increasing in index term weight for the threshold values that are on the right of the mid-value, and decreasing for the threshold values that are on the left of the mid-value. The second one is a new semantic proposal introduced to express quantitative restrictions on the documents retrieved for aterm, i.e., restrictions on the number of documents that must be retrieved containing that term. The last one is the usual semantic of relative importance that has an effect when the term is in aBoolean expression. Abottom-up evaluation mechanism of queries is presented that coherently integrates the use of the three semantics and satisfies the separability property. The advantage of this IRS with respect to others is that users can express linguistically different semantic restrictions on the desired documents simultaneously, incorporating more flexibility in the user–IRS interaction.

The framework of our research originates from natural language processing and deductive database technology. Deductive databases possess superior functionality relevant to the efficient solution of many problems in practical applications, yet there still exists no broad acquaintance. As main obstacle we identified the absence of any user-friendly interface. Natural language interfaces have been proposed as optimal candidate, however, in spite of the vast number of ambitious attempts to build natural language front ends, the achieved results were rather disappointing. In our opinion the main reason for this is missing integration, responsible for insufficient performance and wrong interpretation. In our Integrated Deductive Approach (IDA) the interface constitutes an integral part of the database system itself which guarantees the consistent mapping from the user query to the appropriate semantic application model. This paper focuses on MIDAS, the morphological analysis component. We adapt the lexical approach by storing only canonical forms as dictionary entries and attaching to them all morphological features. We do not only consider word endings but also cover prefixes, derivations, and compound words. We prove the feasibility of IDA by use of a case study, the design and implementation of a production planning and control system.

The CODER (COmposite Document Expert/extended/effective Retrieval) project is an investigation of the applicability of artificial intelligence techniques to the information retrieval task of analyzing, storing, and retrieving heterogeneous collections of “composite documents.” In order to support some of the processing desired, and to allow experimentation in information retrieval and natural language processing, a lexicon was constructed from the machine readable Collins Dictionary of the English Language. After giving background, motivation, and a survey of related work, the Collins lexicon is discussed. Following is a description of the conversion process, the format of the resulting Prolog database, and characteristics of the dictionary and relations. To illustrate what is present and to explain how it relates to the files produced from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, a number of comparative charts are given. Finally, a grammar for adverb definitions is presented, together with a description of defining formula that usually indicate the type of the adverb. Ultimately it is hoped that definitions for adverbs and other words will be parsed so that the relational lexicon being constructed will include many additional relationships and other knowledge about words and their usage.

The objective of our research is the implementation of a German natural language interface for a deductive database system which models a production planning and control system. By means of our approach we suggest a way to overcome the severe drawbacks of interfaces that are designed as loosely coupled filters only. We integrate the interface into the database system itself, that is, the complete natural language analysis is done by the powerful logic language supplied by deductive databases. The paper focuses on the current state of work, the syntactic analysis. Since we had built up a powerful hierarchical dictionary for morphological and lexical analysis, we chose Categorial Unification Grammar (CUG) as theoretical framework of our prototype. Furthermore, the application of a bottom-up parsing strategy makes it possible to analyse also incomplete sentences in an easy and natural way. We extended CUG to deal with the free word order of the German language. We achieved a compact gramm...

Abstract-- The performance of a retrieval system can be enhanced by integrating conventional Information Retrieval methods with techniques adapted from Artificial Intelligence. A prototype of such an Intelligent Information Retrieval System has been built at the University of Mississippi, using the determinants of medication subject domain as an application area. This paper explores how a natural language interface can increase recall and precision by eliminating the need for a formal query language and the use of trained intermediaries to formulate a request.

1985 review of online catalog research and development activities spanning the years 1980-85, this author pointed out that two different questions were frequently posed in the literature on online catalogs: "Are these new systems really library catalogs? " and "Are they really online information retrieval systems " (Hildreth, 1985, p. 239)? In other words, do the early online catalogs match up to some set of fundamental criteria which define: (1) a genuine library catalog, or (2) an information retrieval system? The online catalogs available in the early 1980s faced critical scrutiny from two different, unaligned segments of the library and information science community. Many traditional library catalog apologists looked upon the new online catalog as a dangerous impostor: friendly and popular but lacking the syndetic structure and functional properties (e.g., collocating and browsing features) required of a true catalog. On the other hand, online information retrieval specialists responded to the online