Information retrieval system with means for analyzing undefined words in a natural language inquiry

Claim 2

In an information retrieval system adapted to perform information retrieval in response to an inquiry sentence inputted in natural language, by carrying out a semantic analysis of the natural language inquiry sentence by means of a semantic analysis unit, and by producing a retrieval condition from a result of said semantic analysis, the improvement comprising: undefined word processing means for classifying an undefined word in the inputted inquiry sentence in accordance with a process of producing a retrieval condition from a semantic analysis of another word in the inquiry sentence, said undefined word being a word unregistered in a dictionary and incapable of direct semantic analysis; and display processing means for displaying a message based on a result of classifying the undefined word by said undefined word processing means.

Claim 3

An information retrieval system adapted to perform information retrieval in response to an inquiry sentence inputted in natural language, by carrying out semantic analysis of the natural language inquiry sentence by means of a semantic analysis unit, and by producing a retrieval condition from a result of said semantic analysis, comprising: an input unit for inputting an inquiry sentence in a natural language; a semantic analysis unit for carrying out a semantic analysis of the inquiry sentence; an undefined word processing unit for classifying an undefined word in the inputted inquiry sentence in accordance with a process of producing a retrieval condition from a semantic analysis of another word in the inquiry sentence, said undefined word being incapable of direct semantic analysis; and display processing means for displaying a message based on a result of classifying the undefined word by said undefined word processing unit.

Claim 4

An information retrieval system adapted to perform information retrieval in response to an inquiry sentence inputted in natural language, by carrying out semantic analysis of the natural language inquiry sentence by means of a semantic analysis unit, and by producing a retrieval condition from a result of said semantic analysis, comprising: an input unit for inputting an inquiry sentence in a natural language; a semantic analysis unit for carrying out a semantic analysis of the inquiry sentence; an undefined word processing unit for classifying an undefined word in the inputted inquiry sentence in accordance with a process of producing a retrieval condition from a semantic analysis of another word in the inquiry sentence, said undefined word being incapable of direct semantic analysis; and display processing means for displaying a message based on a result of classifying the undefined word by said undefined word processing unit.

Claim 5

An information retrieval system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the semantic analysis unit contains a dictionary and means for carrying out a semantic analysis in conjunction with the dictionary to define a word unregistered in the dictionary, and wherein the undefined word processing unit operates to process the undefined word.

Claim 6

An information retrieval system adapted to perform information retrieval in response to an inquiry sentence inputted in natural language, by carrying out semantic analysis of the natural language inquiry sentence by means of a semantic analysis unit, and by producing a retrieval condition from a result of said semantic analysis, comprising: an input unit for inputting an inquiry sentence in natural language; a semantic analysis unit for carrying out a semantic analysis of the inquiry sentence; an undefined word processing unit for classifying an undefined word in the inputted inquiry sentence in accordance with a process of producing a retrieval condition from a semantic analysis of another word in the inquiry sentence, said undefined word being incapable of direct semantic analysis; display processing means for producing a message based on a result of classifying the undefined word by said undefined word processing unit; a data base unit for storing information to be retrieved; a data base retrieving unit for retrieving data from said data base unit in response to the retrieval condition produced by said undefined word processing unit; and a display unit for displaying a result of processing by said display processing means and a result of retrieval by said data base retrieving unit.

Claim 7

An information retrieval system adapted to perform information retrieval in response to an inquiry sentence inputted in natural language, by carrying out semantic analysis of the natural language inquiry sentence by means of a semantic analysis unit, and by producing a retrieval condition from a result of said semantic analysis, comprising: an input unit for inputting an inquiry sentence in natural language; a semantic analysis unit for carrying out a semantic analysis of the inquiry sentence; an undefined word processing unit for classifying an undefined word in the inputted inquiry sentence in accordance with a process of producing a retrieval condition from a semantic analysis of another word in the inquiry sentence, said undefined word being incapable of direct semantic analysis; display processing means for producing a message based on a result of classifying the undefined word by said undefined word processing unit; a data base unit for storing information to be retrieved; a data base retrieving unit for retrieving data from said data base unit in response to the retrieval condition produced by said undefined word processing unit; and a display unit for displaying a result of processing by said display processing means and a result of retrieval by said data base retrieving unit.