Universal Networking Language Based Question Answering System for Information Retrieval of Punjabi Language

Abstract

During the last couple of years, in the field of Natural Language Processing, QA (i.e., Question Answering) systems and UNL have been an area of immense research among researchers. This thesis is devoted to develop a language independent Question Answering System (i.e., QAS) for Punjabi language based on UNL. The complete abstract and chapter-wise summary of thesis is given as follows. First chapter provides an overview of QA systems including its need, challenges, classification, and significance of UNL for QA systems. This chapter also highlights the basics of UNL and its building blocks. It highlights the differences and advantages of UNL over other traditional approaches. Unlike the traditional approaches and techniques in natural language processing, scope and use of UNL is not limited to one domain. How UNL can be exploited for other NLP tasks has been covered under this chapter. The working principle of UNL for QA system has been explained in this chapter. Based on analysis and survey of various QA systems, several gaps were identified and objectives were set in order to fill those gaps. The gaps that were identified are: non availability of QA system for Punjabi language, lack of integration with other QA system, lack of support for multilingualism, lack of integration of different NLP applications, and complexity. In order to address these gaps, the core objectives of this research proposal has been framed and accomplished. This chapter highlights the contributions to this thesis. Second chapter of this thesis is background theory and literature review. It focuses on the analysis and study done of various QA systems, comparison of some important QA systems, and study of various UNL based activities. In this chapter, the literature review done has been documented. The complete literature review has been divided into two parts, i.e., research activities in question answering system, and research activities in UNL.