When is a query a question? Reconstructing wh-requests from ad hoc-queries

Search engine queries are often very short and usually lack explicit semantic structure or indication of intent. Recognizing intent is receiving increased attention since it enables a search engine to trigger a dedicated answer and presentation module. This way search engines increasingly move from a document ranking system to an answer facility. In this study we investigate whether it is possible to infer a hidden wh-request from a subset of all two- and three-word queries, based on the syntactic form of the queries. By analyzing dependency relations between the terms in the queries we gain insight in the structure of queries that are likely to have a wh-question as underlying intent. The goal of reconstructing a question from a keyword query is to be able to provide the user with an answer to that question, instead of only returning a list of documents.