Combining Logic and Machine Learning for Answering Questions

Abstract. LogAnswer is a logic-oriented question answering system developed by the AI research group at the University of Koblenz-Landau and by the IICS at the University of Hagen. The system addresses two notorious problems of the logic-based approach: Achieving robustness and acceptable response times. Its main innovation is the use of logic for simultaneously extracting answer bindings and validating the corresponding answers. In this way the inefficiency of the classical answer extraction/answer validation pipeline is avoided. The prototype of the system, which can be tested on the web, demonstrates response times suitable for real-time querying. Robustness to gaps in the background knowledge and errors of linguistic analysis is achieved by combining the optimized deductive subsystem with shallow techniques by machine learning.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: CLEF
• Authors: Ingo Glöckner, Björn Pelzer
• Keywords: Acceptable Response Times, CLEF 2008, Information Management, Question Answering System, Response Times