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<Paper uid="C94-2166">
  <Title>A Dutch to SQL database interface using C4cnc, e lized Quantifier Theory</Title>
  <Section position="2" start_page="0" end_page="7029" type="intro">
    <SectionTitle>
1 INTRODUCTION
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> In the prototyl)e at hand, as in many database inter faces, the natural languag(', input is translated go a conventional formal query language, viz. ,qQL, the most widely used and supported of these languages. The resulting SQL queries can then be 1)asscd to an already existing SQL interpreter.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> The translation i)roccdui:e fi'om Dutch to SQI, is spill, up in two (:OrlSCcutive trl~tior sl,eps, using a logic-based itllierrrlediate sel/la.nLic represelltaPSion called GonerM Sem~mtic l{epresentation (GSH.) 2. The functionality of' the whole database interface, including the SQI, interpreter, was seen as a straight, forward implementation of the fornial semantic Montague-style (Montague,197:l) mechamsm of indirect interpretat;ion of natural language (see Fig. 1).</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3"> (-ISIt, is a kind of logic-based intcrlingua.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="4"> gated and (succesflllly) worked out betbre in a some whal, comparable project carried out at the university of l,',ssex (see 1)e Pmeck, Fox, Lowden, Ttlrner gz Walls, 1991). The main concern in that project was to clearly separate domain (-- database) dependent semantic intbrmation t?om domain independent semantic information. In the project presented he.re a similar but more general ol/jective was to maximize the separation of the N LI ) data and filnctionality of the system fi:om its purely database oriented data and fimctionality, GSR being the interface structure.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="6"> ................................... t. ............ n n  is the application of 'generalized quantitier theory' in GSR. llaving become classical in mathematical and some theoretical linguistic studies on quantification (SeC resp. Mostowski, 1!)57 and Barwise ,~z Cooper, 1981), tile theory is now beginning to be appreciated in A\[ (and NI,P) for its richness and flexibility. Probably the best illustration of this upcoming interc'st is the incorporation of 'generalized quantifiers' in the popular (kmccI)tuat Graph knowledge represenl;ation for-realism (see e.g. Sowa, 1991). A somewhat differently  oriented AI-application also using 'generalized quantitiers' can be found in (Kaan, Kas &amp; Puhland, 1990). These applications concentrate on the expressive and inferential power of 'generalized quantifier theory' respectively. The program presented here additionally illustrates how the use of (a variant of) the theory reduces the complexity of implementing {;he translation from natural to formal and artificial language.</Paragraph>
  </Section>
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