Patent ID: 7496621

Claim:
A method for generating a natural language sentence, said method comprising the steps of: retrieving one or more stored sentences having semantic features similar to semantic features of a system-generated semantic representation, said retrieval being guided at least in part by an ease with which said one or more stored sentences are adapted to produce a grammatically correct output sentence, said retrieval comprising: comparing a semantic representation of one of said one or more stored sentences with said system-generated semantic representation in order to assess a degree of similarity between said one of said one or more stored sentences and said system-generated semantic representation, wherein said degree of similarity is assessed by computing a similarity measure based on a distance between all propositions contained in said semantic representation of said one of said one or more stored sentences and all propositions contained within said system-generated semantic representation; identifying one or more propositions contained in said semantic representation of said one of said one or more stored sentences that differ from one or more propositions contained in said system-generated semantic representation; identifying one or more adaptation operators that may be applied to said one of said one or more stored sentences to produce a grammatically correct output sentence; calculating an adaptation cost representing a likelihood that application of said one or more adaptation operators to said one of said one or more stored sentences will produce a grammatically correct output sentence; and adding said one of said one or more stored sentences to a list of retrieved sentences if said adaptation cost meets a predefined criterion; and applying one or more adaptation operators to one or more of said retrieved sentences in order to modify said retrieved sentences.