Combining different type coercion components for deferred type evaluation

A method comprising:

• automatically identifying a question lexical answer type (LAT) for a question in a question-answering system, using a computerized device;
• automatically generating a candidate answer to said question, using said computerized device;
• automatically determining preliminary types for said candidate answer using first components of said computerized device, said first components using different resources to produce said preliminary types, and each of said first components producing a preliminary type for said candidate answer;
• automatically scoring a match between said preliminary type and said question LAT using said first components of said computerized device and producing a first type-score for each preliminary type based on an amount that said preliminary type corresponds to said question LAT, said first components using different resources to produce said first type-score for said preliminary type, and said scoring being differentiated based on which of said first components produced said preliminary type;
• each of second components automatically evaluating each said preliminary type and said first type-score from each of said first components, using said computerized device, each of said second components producing a second score for said preliminary type for said candidate answer based on a combination of said first type-score and a measure of degree that said preliminary type matches said question LAT;
• and
• automatically outputting a final score based on said second score from each of said second components, said final score representing a degree of confidence that said candidate answer is a type that matches said question LAT, using said computerized device.

A computer system for determining a confidence score for candidate answers to questions in a question-answering system, comprising:

• an automated question answering (QA) system comprising:
• a query analysis module;
• a candidate answer generator operatively connected to said query analysis module;
• and
• a processor comprising:
• a plurality of first components;
• a plurality of second components operatively connected to said plurality of first components;
• and
• a classifier operatively connected to said plurality of second components;
• and
• a user interface operatively connected to said query analysis module, said user interface receiving a question into said automated QA system,
• said query analysis module determining a question lexical answer type (LAT) for said question;
• said candidate answer generator automatically computing a candidate answer to said question;
• said processor automatically computing a preliminary type for said candidate answer from each of said plurality of first components, said first components using different methods to produce said preliminary type;
• said processor automatically scoring a match between said preliminary type and said question LAT to produce a first type-score from each of said plurality of first components based on an amount that said preliminary type corresponds to said question LAT, said scoring being differentiated based on which component of said plurality of first components produced said preliminary type, and a same preliminary type receiving a different type-score based on differences between said components that produced said same preliminary type;
• said processor automatically evaluating each said preliminary type and said first type-score from each of said plurality of first components using each of said plurality of second components and producing a second score for said preliminary type based on a measure of degree that said preliminary type matches said question LAT for each of said plurality of second components;
• and
• said processor automatically outputting a final score for said preliminary type from said classifier based on said second score for said preliminary type from each of said plurality of second components.

A computer program product for determining a confidence score for candidate answers to questions in a question-answering system, said computer program product comprising a tangible computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, said program code being readable and executable by a computer to perform a method comprising:

• receiving a question into a computerized device;
• determining a question LAT, said question LAT being a lexical answer type associated with said question;
• identifying a candidate answer to said question;
• automatically determining preliminary types for said candidate answer using first components of said computerized device, said first components using different methods to produce said preliminary types, and each of said first components producing a preliminary type;
• automatically scoring a match between said preliminary type and said question LAT, each of said first components producing a first type-score, said first type-score representing a degree of match between said preliminary type and said question LAT, said scoring being differentiated based on which of said first components produced said preliminary type;
• automatically evaluating each said preliminary type and each said first type-score using second components of said computerized device, each of said second components producing a second score based on a combination of said first type-score and a measure of degree that said preliminary type matches said question LAT, said second components using different methods to produce said second score;
• automatically calculating a final score based on said second score from each of said second components;
• and
• automatically outputting said final score representing a degree of confidence that said candidate answer is a type that matches said question LAT.