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<Paper uid="C82-2040">
  <Title>LEXACO ORIGINAL OPERATOR BLOWOUT WELL MECHANICAL LOG PILE WELL DRILLING PROBLEM WILDCAT WELL - 168- E~ITT CURRENT OPERATOR</Title>
  <Section position="1" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="abstr">
    <SectionTitle>
NATURAL LANGUAGE DATA BASE ACCESS WITH PEARL
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    <Paragraph position="0"> Ct., and Cognitive Systems, Inc. of New Haven, Ct.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> Data bases access is typically approached as a prog~anming problem rather than a user interface problem. Wez. conseq ently see situations where only programmers can access information in data bases, in spite of the fact that the people who need this information are typically non-pro~'a~ners. The most desirable way to extend data base access capabilities to naive user populations is by means of a natural language interface or &amp;quot;front-end&amp;quot; system that can process requests stated in the user's natural language. PEARL is a domaln-lndependent system for natural language analYsis that can be customized to handle domain-specific queries to existing data bases.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> PEARL analyzes English input with expectation-driven p~rsing techniques end question answering strate@les developed by Artificial Intelligence researchers (Lehnert, /1978/, Sohank and Riesbeck /1976/, Riesbeok /1975/, Gershmsn /1979/, Birnbaum and Selfridge /1979/, and produces code in whatever query language is currently being used to access a specific data base. PEARL can therefore be adapted to any data base that has a query language access module.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3"> In any realistic application of natural language analysis, we can expect users to make mistakes, forget to specify necessary parameters, and use words that are not in the system's vocabulary. PEARL is designed to handle these inevitable occurrences with interactive user dialogues that - 167 allow the user %0 augment, verify and alter the system's interpretation of an input request. PEARL accepts requests in unrestricted English: no constraints are placed on the user to stay within a restricted vocabulary or artificial syntax.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="4"> The following examples of PEARL in action are taken from a version of PEARL that has been customized to handle requests made by geologists to a data base conte/ning information about oil wells. The geologists in this user population axe oil exploratlonlsts with acoess to a deg~phlcs package that can generate maps on the basis of information in the database. The map requests given be.low are highly domain-specific and therefore contain many technical terms used by oil explorationist s.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="6"> *I want a map of all wells drilled before May 1, 1980 but asince April 30, 1970 that show the tog formation below 2000 , ~s-~e themselves deeper than 5000&amp;quot;, and are operated by Emitt.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="7"> I only want to see wildcat wells where the operator reported 9a drilli~ problem, and that have macha~Lical logs, blew out, and were drilled by Lexaco within the area defined by %latltude 30 deg 20 mln 30 sec to 31:20:30 and 80-81. Make sthe scale 1&amp;quot; = 300 meters.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="8">  scale, of I&amp;quot; = 984.252 &amp;quot; PEARL uses conceptually-driven techniques for language ana~sis which mast be customized for specific domains and task orientations. To customize PEARL for a new data base application, we mast conduct a thorough study of typical l~uage use for that application, so that PEARL will be able to handle technical or idiosyncratic constructions and vocabulary items. Once PEARL is capable of processing a realistic spect- 169 rum of possible language use, PEARL automatically adjusts to the expertise of individual users. Expert users are allowed to state their requests in as concise a manner as desired, while inexperienced users are carefully queried about possible ambiguities and insufficient specifications. This inherent flexibility is a natural by-product of a~7 competent lan6~age processing system, and a necessary featul~ for effective and satisfylng m-~/m~ch~e conznuzLtcation,</Paragraph>
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