FDUQA on TREC 2004 QA Track

In this year’s QA Track, we process factoid questions in a way that is slightly different from our previous system [1]. The most significant difference is that we developed a new answer type category, and trained a classifier for answer type classification. To answer list questions, we use a pattern-based method to find more answers other than those found in the processing of factoid question. And an algorithm that uses some knowledge bases answers definition questions. This algorithm achieves a promising result. In our system, external knowledge is widely used, which includes WordNet and Internet. The ontology in WordNet is used in the answer type classification, and its synsets are used to do query extension. Internet is used not only to find factoid question answers, but also as knowledge base for definition questions. In the following, Section 2, 3, 4 will separately introduce our algorithm to solve factoid, list and definition questions. Section 5 will present our results in TREC2004.