Compilation of weighted finite-state transducers from decision trees

摘要

A method for automatically converting a decision tree into one or more weighted finite-state transducers. Specifically, the method in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the present invention processes one or more terminal (i.e., leaf) nodes of a given decision tree to generate one or more corresponding weighted rewrite rules. Then, these weighted rewrite rules are processed to generate weighted finite-state transducers corresponding to the one or more terminal nodes of the decision tree. In this manner, decision trees may be advantageously compiled into weighted finite-state transducers, and these transducers may then be used directly in various speech and natural language processing systems. The weighted rewrite rules employed herein comprise an extension of conventional rewrite rules, familiar to those skilled in the art.