The Use of a Semantic Network in a Deductive Question-Answering System

Semantic Networks have been used p r i m a r i l y in na tu ra l language app l i ca t i ons to help disambiguate sentences and to understand na tu ra l language t e x t . In t h i s paper we consider the use of a semantic network to a id in the deduct ive search process of a Question-Answering (QA System. The semantic network is based on an adaptat i o n of the pred icate ca lcu lus and is described on ly b r i e f l y in t h i s paper and more ex tens ive ly by McSkimin and Minker (McSkimin [19761, and McSkimin and Minker [1977] ) . Terminology from the pred ica te ca lcu lus w i l l be used throughout the paper.