Automatic Generation of Narratives from Data Using Communication Goals and Narrative Analytics

A natural language generation (NLG) method for interacting with a data set of structured data to generate natural language narrative content about the data set in response to natural language inputs, the method comprising:

• a processor processing a natural language input;
• the processor selecting a data structure that explicitly represents a communication goal indicated by the processed natural language input from among a plurality of data structures that explicitly represent a plurality of different communication goals, wherein the selected data structure is linked to a set of narrative analytics;
• the processor parameterizing the linked set of narrative analytics by defining a plurality of values for parameters of the linked set of narrative analytics based on the processed natural language input;
• the processor executing the parameterized set of narrative analytics with respect to the data set to determine content to be expressed in a natural language narrative that (i) is responsive to the processed natural language input and (ii) satisfies the communication goal indicated by the processed natural language input;
• and
• the processor generating the natural language narrative about the data set based on the determined content.

A natural language generation (NLG) computer program product for interacting with a data set of structured data to generate natural language narrative content about the data set in response to natural language inputs, the computer program product comprising:

• a memory configured to store a plurality of data structures that explicitly represent a plurality of different communication goals;
• and
• a plurality of instructions that are resident on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, wherein the instructions are configured for execution by a processor to cause the processor to (1) process a natural language input, (2) select the data structure that explicitly represents a communication goal indicated by the processed natural language input, wherein the selected data structure is linked to a set of narrative analytics, (3) parameterize the linked set of narrative analytics by defining a plurality of values for parameters of the linked set of narrative analytics based on the processed natural language input, (4) execute the parameterized set of narrative analytics with respect to the data set to determine content to be expressed in a natural language narrative that (i) is responsive to the processed natural language input and (ii) satisfies the communication goal indicated by the processed natural language input, and (5) generate the natural language narrative about the data set based on the determined content.