System and method for correction of a query using a replacement phrase

1 . A virtual assistant comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory for storing software code, which, when executed by the one or more processors implements a trained neural network model, wherein training the model uses queries to detect an error and learn to correct the error, for natural language processing to identify errors for a query presented in a natural language form, wherein the virtual assistant calculates a vector distance between a first sentiment vector and a second sentiment vector and computes a transcription error probability and a natural language understanding misinterpretation probability using the trained neural network model, wherein the transcription error probability and the natural language understanding misinterpretation probability represent an error profile for the query.

2 . The virtual assistant of claim 1 , wherein probabilities are related to the vector distance and inversely related to an edit distance, and the transcription error probability exceeds the natural language understanding misinterpretation probability for large vector distances.

3 . A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a natural language query and transcribing it into a first word sequence;

using a statistical model, wherein training the model includes using natural language expressions identified as errors, on words within the first word sequence to compute corresponding error probabilities that the words are errors;

deriving a second word sequence having a replacement phrase for a word with a corresponding error probability above a threshold, the replacement phrase having a lower error probability;

wherein the replacement phrase is derived from a phonetic closeness score between a candidate replacement phrase and a hypothesized erroneous phrase.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , further comprising the step of transmitting a virtual assistant query response depending on the replacement phrase.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , further comprising receiving acoustic model scores for words within the first word sequence, wherein the corresponding error probability is inversely related to the acoustic model score.

6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , further comprising computing a sentiment vector from the replacement phrase, wherein the virtual assistant query response depends on the sentiment vector.

7 . The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , further comprising:

computing a sentiment vector from the replacement phrase;

computing the distance between the computed sentiment vector and a sentiment vector from a previous natural language query; and

determining the virtual assistant query response based on the distance being below a threshold.

8 . The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , further comprising computing an error score by aggregating a plurality of error indicators.

9 . The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising normalizing weighting of error indicators using the error score.

10 . A computer-implemented method comprising:

transcribing a natural language query and into a first word sequence;

using a statistical model on words within the first word sequence to compute corresponding error probabilities that the words are errors, wherein training the model includes using natural language expressions identified as errors;

deriving a second word sequence having a replacement phrase for one or more words in the natural language query where the one or more words have a corresponding error probability above a threshold; and

computing a sentiment vector from the replacement phrase, wherein the virtual assistant query response depends on the sentiment vector.

11 . The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , wherein the replacement phrase is derived from a phonetic closeness score between a candidate replacement phrase and a hypothesized erroneous phrase.

12 . The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , further comprising the step of transmitting a virtual assistant query response depending on the replacement phrase.

13 . The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , further comprising receiving acoustic model scores for words within the first word sequence, wherein the corresponding error probability is inversely related to the acoustic model score.

14 . The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , further comprising:

computing a sentiment vector from the replacement phrase;

computing the distance between the computed sentiment vector and a sentiment vector from a previous natural language query; and

determining the virtual assistant query response based on the distance being below a threshold.

15 . The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , further comprising computing an error score by aggregating a plurality of error indicators.

16 . The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , further comprising normalizing weighting of error indicators using the error score.