US 12,353,408 B2
Semantic parsing of natural language query
Yan Gao, Redmond, WA (US); Lei Fang, Redmond, WA (US); Dongmei Zhang, Beijing (CN); Yan Xiao, Redmond, WA (US); Jian-Guang Lou, Redmond, WA (US); and Maria del Mar Gines Marin, Kirkland, WA (US)
Assigned to Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Appl. No. 17/631,576
Filed by Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
PCT Filed Jun. 18, 2020, PCT No. PCT/US2020/038292
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jan. 31, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/061231, PCT Pub. Date Apr. 1, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 201910930771 (CN), filed on Sep. 29, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0277005 A1, Sep. 1, 2022
Int. Cl. G06F 16/2452 (2019.01); G06F 16/242 (2019.01)
CPC G06F 16/24522 (2019.01) [G06F 16/243 (2019.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving, at a semantic parsing unit, a first natural language query for a first data table having data in a first field of knowledge, the first natural language query comprising a plurality of words;
obtaining, via the semantic parsing unit, a first set of knowledge representations extracted from the first data table, the first set of knowledge representations describing, in a structured manner, knowledge required for understanding a natural language query for the first data table in the first field of knowledge, wherein the first set of knowledge representations includes a first knowledge type describing an entity in the first data table and at least one word in the entity, and semantic information related to the at least one word, a second knowledge type describing an attribute of entity data, and a third knowledge type describing an act related to the entity;
converting, via the semantic parsing unit, the first natural language query into a first sequence of symbols that are universal for multiple data tables corresponding to multiple different fields of knowledge and include semantic information for symbols by replacing, based on the first set of knowledge representations, the plurality of words of the first natural language query with respective symbols in a predetermined symbol table;
parsing the first sequence of symbols via the semantic parsing unit comprised of a semantic parsing model trained on multiple examples of natural language queries and corresponding knowledge representations expressed as the symbols that are universal and corresponding computer executable queries from different fields of knowledge; and
generating a first computer-executable query corresponding to the first natural language query without having to retrain the semantic parsing model for different fields of knowledge.