parse natural language

Question

To start: I know this system will have flaws!

NOTE: Im adding a few other languages because I don\'t find this problem specific to php

Answer 1

I have been working on parsing menus and recipes (not finished) and this is my approach:

• find the sentences separators (I use AND as well as others)
• parse each sentence to find the key words that you need (light/bulbs/etc.., on/off)
• if you have a limited set of places (kitchen, bathroom, etc...)
  • search for those keywords, remove the others
  • ELSE
  • remove the extra words that some people might use (bright, colorful, etc...)
• store it into an array, something that might look like this:
  • what
  • where
• if you do not have one of the fields, leave it blank
• for each result check what you have and if you have a blank field fill it up with the previous parsing

I.E.: Turn the lights on in the bedroom and in the kitchen

• 1:
  • turn the light on in the bedroom
  • what: lights on
  • where: bedroom
• 2:
  • in the kitchen
  • what:
  • where: kitchen

what_2 is empty, then what_2 is lights on

keep in mind that sometime needs to fill up the array with the next results (depending on how the sentence is structured, but it is rare), I add a "+" or "-" to it so I know if I have to go forward or backwards to find the missing parts while parsing it