Most existing natural language interfaces to databases (NLIDBs) were designed
to be used with ``snapshot'' database systems, that provide very limited
facilities for manipulating time-dependent data. Consequently, most NLIDBs also
provide very limited support for the notion of time. The database community is
becoming increasingly interested in _temporal_ database systems. These are
intended to store and manipulate in a principled manner information not only
about the present, but also about the past and future.
This thesis develops a principled framework for constructing English NLIDBs
for _temporal_ databases (NLITDBs), drawing on research in tense and aspect
theories, temporal logics, and temporal databases. I first explore temporal
linguistic phenomena that are likely to appear in English questions to NLITDBs.
Drawing on existing linguistic theories of time, I formulate an account for a
large number of these phenomena that is simple enough to be embodied in
practical NLITDBs. Exploiting ideas from temporal logics, I then define a
temporal meaning representation language, TOP, and I show how the HPSG grammar
theory can be modified to incorporate the tense and aspect account of this
thesis, and to map a wide range of English questions involving time to
appropriate TOP expressions. Finally, I present and prove the correctness of a
method to translate from TOP to TSQL2, TSQL2 being a temporal extension of the
SQL-92 database language. This way, I establish a sound route from English
questions involving time to a general-purpose temporal database language, that
can act as a principled framework for building NLITDBs. To demonstrate that
this framework is workable, I employ it to develop a prototype NLITDB,
implemented using ALE and Prolog.Comment: PhD thesis; 405 pages; LaTeX2e, uses the packages/macros: amstex,
xspace, avm, examples, dvips, varioref, makeidx, epic, eepic, ecltree;
postscript figures include
