Answering English questions by computer
Robert F. Simmons · Communications of the ACM · 1965
Fifteen experimental English language question-answering I systems which are programmed and operating are described ) arid reviewed.The systems range from a conversation machine ~] to programs which make sentences about pictures and systems s~ which translate from English into logical calculi.Systems are ~ classified as list-structured data-based, graphic data-based, ~! text-based and inferential.Principles and methods of opera-~4 tions are detailed and discussed.It is concluded that the data-base question-answerer has > passed from initial research into the early developmental ~.4 phase.The most difficult and important research questions for ~i ~ the advancement of general-purpose language processors are seen to be concerned with measuring meaning, dealing with ambiguities, translating into formal languages and searching large tree structures.This survey was conducted by System Development Corpora--~! lion's language processing research project, Synthex, under ARPA Oo trac Volume 8 /