System and method for using semantic and syntactic graphs for utterance classification
View Patent ↗Disclosed herein is a system, method and computer readable medium storing instructions related to semantic and syntactic information in a language understanding system. The method embodiment of the invention is a method for classifying utterances during a natural language dialog between a human and a computing device. The method comprises receiving a user utterance; generating a semantic and syntactic graph associated with the received utterance, extracting all n-grams as features from the generated semantic and syntactic graph and classifying the utterance. Classifying the utterance may be performed any number of ways such as using the extracted n-grams, a syntactic and semantic graphs or writing rules.
1. A method comprising:
generating, via a processor, a semantic and syntactic graph associated with a first call type;
converting the semantic and syntactic graph into a first finite state transducer;
composing the first finite state transducer with a second finite state transducer to form a third finite state transducer, wherein the second finite state transducer comprises all possible n-grams, and wherein the third finite state transducer comprises a subset of the all-possible n-grams;
extracting the subset of the all-possible n-grams as features from the third finite state transducer, to yield extracted n-grams;
associating an utterance with a second call type based on the extracted n-grams, to yield a classified utterance, wherein the second call type is determined based on semantic and syntactic features in the extracted n-grams; and
responding to a user in a natural language dialog based on the classified utterance.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the semantic and syntactic graph further comprises lexical information.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the semantic and syntactic graph further comprises named entities and semantic role labels.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the semantic and syntactic graph further comprises one of speech tags and a syntactic parse of the utterance.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the semantic and syntactic graph extends a feature set of a classifier that performs classifying the utterance.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating a semantic and syntactic graph associated with the utterance further comprises adding transitions encoding semantic and syntactic categories of words to a word graph.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating a semantic and syntactic graph associated with the utterance further comprises utilizing one of: part of speech tags, a syntactic parse of the utterance, generic named entity tags, supertags and word stems in the graph.
8. A system comprising:
a processor; and
a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
generating a semantic and syntactic graph associated with a first call type;
converting the semantic and syntactic graph into a first finite state transducer;
composing the first finite state transducer with a second finite state transducer to form a third finite state transducer, wherein the second finite state transducer comprises all possible n-grams, and wherein the third finite state transducer comprises a subset of the all-possible n-grams;
extracting the subset of the all-possible n-grams as features from the third finite state transducer, to yield extracted n-grams;
associating an utterance with a second call type based on the extracted n-grams, to yield a classified utterance, wherein the second call type is determined based on semantic and syntactic features in the extracted n-grams; and
responding to a user in a natural language dialog based on the classified utterance.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the semantic and syntactic graph further comprises lexical information.
10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the semantic and syntactic graph further comprises named entities and semantic role labels.
11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the semantic and syntactic graph further comprises one of speech tags and a syntactic parse of the utterance.
12. The system of claim 8 , wherein generating the semantic and syntactic graph extends a feature set of a classifier that performs classifying the utterance.
13. The system of claim 8 , wherein generating a semantic and syntactic graph associated with the utterance further comprises adding transitions encoding semantic and syntactic categories of words to a word graph.
14. The system of claim 8 , wherein generating a semantic and syntactic graph associated with the utterance further comprises utilizing one of: part of speech tags, a syntactic parse of the utterance, generic named entity tags, supertags and word stems in the graph.
15. A computer-readable storage device having instructions stored which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
generating a semantic and syntactic graph associated with a first call type;
converting the semantic and syntactic graph into a first finite state transducer;
composing the first finite state transducer with a second finite state transducer to form a third finite state transducer, wherein the second finite state transducer comprises all possible n-grams, and wherein the third finite state transducer comprises a subset of the all-possible n-grams;
extracting the subset of the all-possible n-grams as features from the third finite state transducer, to yield extracted n-grams;
associating an utterance with a second call type based on the extracted n-grams, to yield a classified utterance, wherein the second call type is determined based on semantic and syntactic features in the extracted n-grams; and
responding to a user in a natural language dialog based on the classified utterance.
16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein the semantic and syntactic graph further comprises lexical information.
17. The computer-readable storage device of claim 16 , wherein the semantic and syntactic graph further comprises named entities and semantic role labels.
18. The computer-readable storage device of claim 16 , wherein the semantic and syntactic graph further comprises one of speech tags and a syntactic parse of the utterance.
19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein generating the semantic and syntactic graph extends a feature set of a classifier that performs classifying the utterance.
20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein generating a semantic and syntactic graph associated with the utterance further comprises adding transitions encoding semantic and syntactic categories of words to a word graph.