NON-FACTOID QUESTION ANSWERING SYSTEM AND METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM THEREFOR

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a question answering system that uses a pattern of answers including expressions not explicitly including clue words and can give precise answers to non-factoid questions.SOLUTION: A question answering system 30 includes: a storage unit 60 for storing expressions representing causal relation; an answer receiving unit 52 for receiving a question and answer passages including answer candidates for the question; a causal relation expression extraction unit 82 for extracting a causal relation expression from each of the answer passages; a related causal relation expression extraction unit 86 for selecting a related expression most closely related to each combination from the storage unit 60 regarding combinations of the question and the answer passages; and a neural network 92 for receiving combinations including the question, the answer passages, sematic relation expressions to the answer passages, and one of related expressions to combinations of the question and the answer passages, and selecting an answer to the question from the answer passages.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1