A question-answering system using argumentation

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to question answering: the use of argumentation techniques. Our question answering system deals with argumentation in student essays: it sees an essay as an answer to a question and gauges its quality on the basis of the argumentation found in it. Thus, the system looks for expected types of argumentation in essays (i.e. the expectation is that the kind of argumentation in an essay is correlated to the type of question). Another key feature of our work is our proposed categorisation for argumentation in student essays, as opposed to categorisation of argumentation in research papers, where - unlike the case of student essays - it is relatively well-known which kind of argumentation can be found in specific sections.