Developing a question answering system for the slovene language

Abstract

In todayćs world the majority of information is sought after on the internet. A common method is the use of search engines. However since the result of a query to the search engine is a ranked list of results, this is not the final step. It is up to the user to review the results and determine which of the results provides the information needed. Often this process is time consuming and does not provide the sought after information. Besides the number of returned results the limiting factor is often the lack of ability of the usersto form the correct query. The solution for this can be found in the formof question answering systems, where the user proposes a question in the natural language, similarly as talking to another person. The answer is the exact answer instead of a list of possible results. This paper presents the design of a question answering system in natural slovene language. The system searches for the answers for our target domain (Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) with the use of a local database, databases of the facultyćs information system, MS Excel files and through web service calls. We have developed two separate applications: one for users and the other for the administrators of the system. With the help of the latter application the administrators supervise the functioning and use of entire system. The former application is actually the system that answers the questions