CALIN

In the framework of an application dealing with classified advertisement matching, a dedicated user interface has been designed and implemented. Its major originality relies on the user's language which is neither an artificial one, nor the usual natural language, but in fact the ad language. Beyond the language itself, the interface provides some facilities such as paraphrasing or explanations when needed. An expert system approach has been adopted and the interface is built up from the knowledge given by experts. They are in charge of describing what are acceptable ads, from both syntax and semantics points of view … Although designed in the context of ad matching, that interface may interestingly be adapted to other retrieving systems. We especially think that an adlike language is well-suited to ask questions since it is based on natural simple expressions. A given sentence involves terms that stand for elementary conditions applying to instances of a logical object contained inside the information system. This approach defines a complete interface, involving both a language and aiding capabilities. Moreover, the query language, although less powerful, represents a compromise between artificial languages and the usual natural language, with respect to ergonomics and analysis complexity.