Using ontology search engines to support users and intelligent systems solving a range of tasks

Abstract

The paper describes several classes of tasks namely solving word problems, and classifying datasets using machine learning techniques, where the tasks may not be solvable because the information provided is incomplete. We explore the situation where one has a central concept and the missing information can either be a further descriptor / field of that concept or a (distantly) related concept. We describe how an ontology search engine has assisted in solving such problems, by summarizing the frequency of occurrence of descriptors found in a group of relevant ontologies, and by reporting which concepts are related to the central concept. The search engine used in this work has been ONTOSEARCH2. We further speculate about how such a "concept web" might be used to support the analysis and generation of natural language texts as well as spoken language. © 2009 Springer-Verlag London.