Question answering framework for structured query languages

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium embodying a computer program for performing a method, said method comprising:

• causing an answering system to receive a user query posed in a natural language to a database;
• causing the answering system to derive semantics from the user query and create a parse graph, wherein the semantics comprise a first dimension and a second dimension;
• perform normalization and transformation of the semantics;
• imposing constraints on the semantics to create artifacts by proposing a related measure connecting the first dimension and the second dimension in a database table;
• mapping the artifacts into a plurality of structured queries;
• ranking the plurality of structured queries according to a first scoring function considering a selectivity of the related measure, a second scoring function considering a complexity of the structured query such that a more complex query structure indicates a higher relevance, a third scoring function comprising a confidence measure based on text retrieval metrics, and a fourth scoring function comprising a popularity of the first dimension, the second dimension, and the related measure;
• and
• executing the plurality of structured queries on the database according to the ranking.

A computer system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• a software program, executable on said computer system, the software program configured to:
• cause an answering system to receive a user query posed in a natural language to a database;
• cause the answering system to derive semantics from the user query and create a parse graph, wherein the semantics comprise a first dimension and a second dimension;
• perform normalization and transformation of the semantics;
• impose constraints on the semantics to create artifacts by proposing a related measure connecting the first dimension and the second dimension in a database table;
• map the artifacts into a plurality of structured queries;
• rank the plurality of structured queries according to a first scoring function considering a selectivity of the related measure, a second scoring function considering a complexity of the structured query such that a more complex query structure indicates a higher relevance, a third scoring function comprising a confidence measure based on text retrieval metrics, and a fourth scoring function comprising a popularity of the first dimension, the second dimension, and the related measure;
• and
• execute the plurality of structured queries on the database according to the ranking.