Learning Question Classifiers

In order to respond correctly to a free form factual question given a large collection of texts, one needs to understand the question to a level that allows determining some of the constraints the question imposes on a possible answer. These constraints may include a semantic classification of the sought after answer and may even suggest using different strategies when looking for and verifying a candidate answer. This paper presents a machine learning approach to question classification. We learn a hierarchical classifier that is guided by a layered semantic hierarchy of answer types, and eventually classifies questions into finegrained classes. We show accurate results on a large collection of free-form questions used in TREC 10.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2002
• Where: COLING
• Authors: Xin Li, Dan Roth
• Keywords: COLING 2002, COLING 2008, Form Factual Question, Large Collection, Possible Answer