Determining answers to questions using a hierarchy of question and answer pairs

摘要

Software that answers questions asked of question answering systems, by performing the following steps: (i) identifying a hierarchy of question and answer pairs, where a first answer paired to a first question in the hierarchy of question and answer pairs includes at least a second answer paired to a second question in the hierarchy of question and answer pairs; (ii) receiving, by a question answering system, an input question from a first user; (iii) identifying first user contextual information pertaining to the first user; and (iv) answering the input question, by the question answering system, based, at least in part, on the hierarchy of question and answer pairs and the first user contextual information.