Multilingual Question-Answering System in Biomedical Domain on the Web: An Evaluation

Question-answering systems (QAS) are presented as an alternative to traditional systems of information retrieval, intended to offer precise responses to factual questions. An analysis has been made of the results offered by the QA multilingual biomedical system HONqa, available on the Web. The study has used a set of 120 biomedical definitional questions (What is...?), taken from the medical website WebMD, which were formulated in English, French, and Italian. The answers have been analysed using a serie of specific measures (MRR, TRR, FHS, precision, MAP). The study confirms that for all the languages analysed the functioning effectiveness needs to be improved, although in the multilingual context analysed the questions in the English language achieve better results for retrieving definitional information than in French and Italian

Multilingual Question-Answering System in Biomedical Domain on the Web: An Evaluation

Question-answering systems (QAS) are presented as an alternative to traditional systems of information retrieval, intended to offer precise responses to factual questions. An analysis has been made of the results offered by the QA multilingual biomedical system HONqa, available on the Web. The study has used a set of 120 biomedical definitional questions (What is...?), taken from the medical website WebMD, which were formulated in English, French, and Italian. The answers have been analysed using a serie of specific measures (MRR, TRR, FHS, precision, MAP). The study confirms that for all the languages analysed the functioning effectiveness needs to be improved, although in the multilingual context analysed the questions in the English language achieve better results for retrieving definitional information than in French and Italian

Análisis de los recursos lingüísticos utilizados en los sistemas multilingües de búsqueda de respuestas

In the field of information retrieval (hereinafter, RI), there is an increasing development of (monolingual and multilingual) documentary and computer tools that can substantially help specialists in their work -in addition to being useful for other users with diverse information needs-. more diverse-. The development of multilingual tools is still evolving and several years of studies and research are still needed in order for it to improve and develop. One of the main problems faced by these tools is translation (Diekema, 2003), both of queries entered by users and of documentary sources that respond to them. Therefore, in view of RI's growing research, development and creation of multilingual systems, we deem it necessary to conduct a study that focuses on the analysis and evaluation of the resources used by one type of these systems, such as multilingual question-answering systems (hereinafter, QA)

An overview of the linguistic resources used in cross-language question answering systems in CLEF Conference

The development of the Semantic Web requires great economic and human effort. Consequently, it is very useful to create mechanisms and tools that facilitate its expansion. From the standpoint of information retrieval (hereafter IR), access to the contents of the Semantic Web can be favored by the use of natural language, as it is much simpler and faster for the user to engage in his habitual form of expression. The growing popularity of Internet and the wide availability of web informative resources for general audiences are a fairly recent phenomenon, although man´s need to hurdle the language barrier and communicate with others is as old as the history of mankind. The World Wide Web, also known as WWW, together with the growing globalization of companies and organizations, and the increase of the non-English speaking audience, entails the demand for tools allowing users to secure information from a wide range of resources. Yet the underlying linguistic restrictions are often overlooked by researchers and designers. Against this background, a key characteristic to be evaluated in terms of the efficiency of IR systems is its capacity to allow users find a corpus of documents in different languages, and to facilitate the relevant information despite limited linguistic competence regarding the target language

An overview of the linguistic resources used in cross-language question answering systems in CLEF Conference

The development of the Semantic Web requires great economic and human effort. Consequently, it is very useful to create mechanisms and tools that facilitate its expansion. From the standpoint of information retrieval (hereafter IR), access to the contents of the Semantic Web can be favored by the use of natural language, as it is much simpler and faster for the user to engage in his habitual form of expression. The growing popularity of Internet and the wide availability of web informative resources for general audiences are a fairly recent phenomenon, although man´s need to hurdle the language barrier and communicate with others is as old as the history of mankind. The World Wide Web, also known as WWW, together with the growing globalization of companies and organizations, and the increase of the non-English speaking audience, entails the demand for tools allowing users to secure information from a wide range of resources. Yet the underlying linguistic restrictions are often overlooked by researchers and designers. Against this background, a key characteristic to be evaluated in terms of the efficiency of IR systems is its capacity to allow users find a corpus of documents in different languages, and to facilitate the relevant information despite limited linguistic competence regarding the target language

An Overview of the Linguistic Resources used in Cross-Language Question Answering Systems in CLEF Conference

The development of the Semantic Web requires great economic and human effort. Consequently, it is very useful to create mechanisms and tools that facilitate its expansion. From the standpoint of information retrieval (hereafter IR), access to the contents of the Semantic Web can be favored by the use of natural language, as it is much simpler and faster for the user to engage in his habitual form of expression. The growing popularity of Internet and the wide availability of web informative resources for general audiences are a fairly recent phenomenon, although man´s need to hurdle the language barrier and communicate with others is as old as the history of mankind. The World Wide Web, also known as WWW, together with the growing globalization of companies and organizations, and the increase of the non-English speaking audience, entails the demand for tools allowing users to secure information from a wide range of resources. Yet the underlying linguistic restrictions are often overlooked by researchers and designers. Against this background, a key characteristic to be evaluated in terms of the efficiency of IR systems is its capacity to allow users find a corpus of documents in different languages, and to facilitate the relevant information despite limited linguistic competence regarding the target language

Language Resources Used in Multi-Lingual Question Answering Systems

Purpose – In the field of information retrieval, some multi-lingual tools are being created to help the users to overcome the language barriers. Nevertheless, these tools are not developed completely and it is necessary to investigate more for their improvement and application. One of their main problems is the choice of the linguistic resources to offer better coverage and to solve the translation problems in the context of the multi-lingual information retrieval. This paper aims to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach – This research is focused on the analysis of resources used by the multi-lingual question-answering systems, which respond to users' queries with short answers, rather than just offering a list of documents related to the search. An analysis of the main publications about the multi-lingual QA systems was carried out, with the aim of identifying the typology, the advantages and disadvantages, and the real use and trend of each of the linguistic resources and tools used in this new kind of system. Findings – Five of the resources most used in the cross-languages QA systems were identified and studied: databases, dictionaries, corpora, ontologies and thesauri. The three most popular traditional resources (automatic translators, dictionaries, and corpora) are gradually leaving a widening gap for others – such as ontologies and the free encyclopaedia Wikipedia. Originality/value – The perspective offered by the translation discipline can improve the effectiveness of QA system

Interpretation: signs and meaning, diversity in language use, equivalences and cultural untranslatability

Interpretation, which is an interactive face-to- face communicative event and interpreter's role is active and governed by social and linguistic knowledge of the entire communicative situation - this involves not only linguistic and cultural competence but also appropriate ways of speaking and managing the intercultural event of interpreting. Roy (2000)This paper examines the practice of interpretation in which interpreters are expected to "successfully make the linguistic and cultural adjustments necessary to convey meaning accurately" Davis (2000). Since interpretation is an interactive face-to face communicative event, how successful can interpreters make such adjustments and therefore convey meaning accurately in Sign Language interpretation?Effective interpretation is a complex issue. This complexity may result from the fact that "...translators build bridges not only between languages but between differences of two cultures.... Each language is a way of seeing and reflecting the delicate nuances of cultural perceptions, and it is the translator who not only reconstructs the equivalences of the words across linguistic boundaries but also reflects and transplants the emotional vibration of another culture." Schulte (1995)In this paper, we examine how cultural diversity may affect interpretation of messages by interpreters. Some of the areas we look at include: What problems are inherent in interpretation given that signs do not mean but people mean? And that culture is responsible for teaching us the symbols and what they represent?;Diversity in language use - how does it affect interpretation? ; Does direct and indirect use of language, social customs and relationships, how people express emotions have any bearing on interpretation?; How does lack of equivalences affect interpretation?Key words: Sign Language, Interpretation, Translation, linguistics, contex

Satisfacción de usuarios del ámbito de la traducción en el uso de sistemas de búsqueda multilingüe de respuestas como recurso de información terminológica

The present work focuses exclusively on the evaluation of multilingual answer search systems since it allows the user to access terminological information not available in their language, and in the user-centered evaluation to understand the needs of the user and identify the dimensions and factors in the development of an information system in order to improve its acceptance

Language Resources Used in Multi-Lingual Question Answering Systems

Purpose – In the field of information retrieval, some multi-lingual tools are being created to help the users to overcome the language barriers. Nevertheless, these tools are not developed completely and it is necessary to investigate more for their improvement and application. One of their main problems is the choice of the linguistic resources to offer better coverage and to solve the translation problems in the context of the multi-lingual information retrieval. This paper aims to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach – This research is focused on the analysis of resources used by the multi-lingual question-answering systems, which respond to users' queries with short answers, rather than just offering a list of documents related to the search. An analysis of the main publications about the multi-lingual QA systems was carried out, with the aim of identifying the typology, the advantages and disadvantages, and the real use and trend of each of the linguistic resources and tools used in this new kind of system. Findings – Five of the resources most used in the cross-languages QA systems were identified and studied: databases, dictionaries, corpora, ontologies and thesauri. The three most popular traditional resources (automatic translators, dictionaries, and corpora) are gradually leaving a widening gap for others – such as ontologies and the free encyclopaedia Wikipedia. Originality/value – The perspective offered by the translation discipline can improve the effectiveness of QA system