NALIGE: A User Interface Management System for the Development of Natural Language Interfaces

Abstract One of the major problems encountered by the average computer user is the syntactic inflexibility and linguistic opacity of existing operating system command languages. These characteristics, which are manifested in terms of rigid syntactical rules and cryptic/obtuse acronyms, have been shown to result in significant loss of productivity among novice and intermediate users. This paper investigates one approach to addressing this problem, namely the introduction of natural language interfaces placed on top of the standard operating system command language interpreters. Specifically, it presents a user interface management system which accepts a set of well-formed specifications and produces an autonomous natural language interface exhibiting the prescribed linguistic behavior. These specifications describe the linguistic knowledge to be encapsulated in the target interface in terms of the lexical, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic elements of the application domain. Additionally, this paper discusses a systematic methodology to be used in identifying the linguistic elements of a given application domain. This methodology consists of a set of formal techniques, computational tools, and three knowledge-base specification languages to be employed by the interface designer during all stages of development and subsequent maintenance of a specific natural language interface.