Sentence simplification for spoken language understanding

Abstract

Sentence simplification may be provided. A spoken phrase may be received and converted to a text phrase. An intent associated with the text phrase may be identified. The text phrase may then be reformatted according to the identified intent and a task may be performed according to the reformatted text phrase.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for providing sentence simplification, the method comprising:
 receiving a spoken utterance;   converting the spoken utterance to a text phrase;   identifying a top level predicate associated with the text phrase;   reformatting the text phrase according to the identified predicate; and   performing a task according to the reformatted text phrase.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying the top level predicate associated with the text phrase comprises performing a dependency parse on the text phrase. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein performing a dependency parse comprises:
 identifying a top level predicate; and   excluding at least one auxiliary word in the text phrase.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the at least one auxiliary word comprises a dependent of the top level predicate. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the at least one auxiliary word comprises at least one predefined auxiliary keyword. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein identifying the top level predicate comprises evaluating a weighting criterion associated with each word of the text phrase. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein reformatting the text phrase according to the identified predicate comprises defining a domain associated with the task. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising filling at least one semantic slot associated with the defined domain. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the slot is filled with at least one word of the text phrase. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the at least one word of the text phrase is not associated with the reformatted text phrase. 
     
     
         11 . A computer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for providing sentence simplification, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:
 identifying a predicate associated with a text phrase, wherein the text phrase comprises a plurality of words;   reformatting the text phrase according to the identified predicate, wherein reformatting the text phrase comprises excluding at least one of the plurality of words;   performing a task according to the reformatted text phrase; and   displaying a result associated with the task to a user.   
     
     
         12 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein the text phrase comprises a conversion of a spoken phrase received from the user. 
     
     
         13 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein the text phrase is associated with a web search query and identifying the predicate comprises defining a target domain. 
     
     
         14 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 13 , wherein the reformatted text phrase comprises at least one keyword associated with the target domain. 
     
     
         15 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 14 , wherein the target domain comprises a plurality of semantic slots. 
     
     
         16 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 filling at least one of the semantic slots with at least one slot word of the plurality of words.   
     
     
         17 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein filling the at least one of the semantic slots comprises associating the at least one slot word of the plurality of words with the at least one of the semantic slots according to at least one second word of the plurality of words. 
     
     
         18 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 17 , further comprising performing a dependency parse on the text phrase. 
     
     
         19 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein the at least one second word comprises a dependent word associated with the at least one slot word during the dependency parse. 
     
     
         20 . A system for providing sentence simplification, the system comprising:
 a memory storage; and   a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is operative to:
 receive a spoken phrase from a user; 
 convert the spoken phrase to a text phrase, wherein the text phrase comprises a plurality of words, 
 perform a dependency parse on the text phrase, 
 identify a top level predicate of the text phrase, 
 reformat the text phrase according to the top level predicate, wherein the reformatted text phrase excludes at least one first word of the plurality of words, 
 define an intent domain according to the reformatted text phrase, wherein the defined intent comprises a plurality of syntactic slots, 
 fill at least one of the semantic slots with the at least one first word, wherein the at least one first word is associated with the at least one syntactic slot according to at least one dependent word of the at least one first word, 
 perform a task according to the defined intent and the filled at least one semantic slot, and 
 display a result of the performed task to the user.