Natural language interfaces to databases – an introduction

Abstract This paper is an introduction to natural language interfaces to databases (NLIDBS). A brief overview of the history of NLIDBS is first given. Some advantages and disadvantages of NLIDBS are then discussed, comparing NLIDBS to formal query languages, form-based interfaces, and graphical interfaces. An introduction to some of the linguistic problems NLIDBS have to confront follows, for the benefit of readers less familiar with computational linguistics. The discussion then moves on to NLIDB architectures, portability issues, restricted natural language input systems (including menu-based NLIDBS), and NLIDBS with reasoning capabilities. Some less explored areas of NLIDB research are then presented, namely database updates, meta-knowledge questions, temporal questions, and multi-modal NLIDBS. The paper ends with reflections on the current state of the art.

• Publication year

  1995

• Venue

  Natural Language Engineering

• Publication date

  1995-03-01

• Fields of study

  Linguistics, Computer Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1017/S135132490000005XarXiv cmp-lg/9503016
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• 米国BBN Systems and Technologies社海外派遣報告

  1997cited by this paper
• Is natural language querying practical?

  1994cited by this paper
• CLARE: A Contextual Reasoning and Cooperative Response Framework for the Core Language Engine

  1994cited by this paper
• The Core Language Engine

  1994influential reference
• MASQUE/SQL: an efficient and portable natural language query interface for relational databases

  1993cited by this paper
• Temporal Databases: Theory, Design, and Implementation

  1993cited by this paper
• Aspects of the automatic generation of SQL statements in the Natural Language Query Interface

  1992cited by this paper
• Accessing Relational and NF2 Databases Through Database Set Predicates

  1992cited by this paper
• Interfacing a Natural Language Front-End to a Relational Database

  1992influential reference
• The role of natural language in a multimodal interface

  1992influential reference
• An exploratory study of ad hoc query languages to databases

  1992cited by this paper
• Accessing Relational and Higher Databases Through Database Set Predicates in Logic Programming Languages

  1991cited by this paper
• Formal Semantics and Pragmatics for Natural Language Querying

  1991cited by this paper
• Prolog for Natural Language Processing

  1991cited by this paper
• A Formal Approach to Translating English into SQL

  1991cited by this paper
• Natural Language Interfaces: A new philosophy

  1991influential reference
• Computer dialogue laboratory SRI International

  1991cited by this paper
• Natural language processing in LISP

  1990cited by this paper
• Using a Natural Language Interface with Casual Users

  1990cited by this paper
• Formal semantics and pragmatics for natural language querying

  1990cited by this paper
• Multiple Underlying Systems: Translating User Requests into Programs to Produce Answers

  1990influential reference
• Empirical Study of Predictive Powers of Simple Attachment Schemes for Post-modifier Prepositional Phrases

  1990cited by this paper
• Logic Programming and Databases

  1990cited by this paper
• Workshop on the Evaluation of Natural Language Processing Systems

  1990cited by this paper
• Natural language interfaces to databases

  1990cited by this paper
• A Hybrid Approach to Representation in the Janus Natural Language Processor

  1989cited by this paper
• Dialog Control in a Natural Language System

  1989cited by this paper
• Access to Multiple Underlying Systems in Janus

  1989cited by this paper
• User studies and the design of Natural Language Systems

  1989cited by this paper
• Efficient Database Access from Prolog

  1989cited by this paper
• Natural Language Querying of Historical Databases

  1988cited by this paper
• Principles of database and knowledge-base systems, Vol. I

  1988cited by this paper
• Exploring Artificial Intelligence

  1988cited by this paper
• Knowledge base management system

  1988cited by this paper
• Tense, Quantifiers, and Contexts

  1988influential reference
• Principles of Database and Knowledge-Base Systems, Volume II

  1988influential reference
• Natural languages

  1988cited by this paper
• Database applications using Prolog

  1988cited by this paper
• TEAM: An Experiment in the Design of Transportable Natural-Language Interfaces

  1987cited by this paper
• Expert database systems

  1987cited by this paper
• PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF A BREADTH-FIRST PARSING ALGORITHM: THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

  1987cited by this paper
• Generating English Paraphrases From Formal Relational Calculus Expressions

  1986cited by this paper
• Resolving pronoun references

  1986influential reference
• REMIT: a natural language paraphraser for relational query expressions

  1986cited by this paper
• Readings in natural language processing

  1986cited by this paper
• Identifying the knowledge requirements of an expert system's natural language processing interface

  1986cited by this paper
• Natural-Language Interfaces

  1986influential reference
• An Introduction to Unification-Based Approaches to Grammar

  1986cited by this paper
• A Field Evaluation of Natural Language for Data Retrieval

  1985cited by this paper
• Semantics of Temporal Queries and Temporal Data

  1985influential reference
• Problems and some solutions in customization of natural language database front ends

  1985cited by this paper
• ASK is transportable in half a dozen ways

  1985influential reference
• Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar

  1985cited by this paper
• Portability of syntax and semantics in DATALOG

  1985cited by this paper
• Transportable natural language processing through simplicity—the PRE system

  1985influential reference
• The IRUS Transportable Natural Language Database Interface

  1984cited by this paper
• LDC-1

  1984cited by this paper
• Communicating with databases in natural language

  1984cited by this paper
• Interaction of Knowledge Sources in a Portable Natural Language Interface

  1984cited by this paper
• Distributed Databases: Principles and Systems

  1984cited by this paper
• The Syntax and Semantics of User-Defined Modifiers in Transportable Natural Language Processor

  1984cited by this paper
• Experience with INTELLECT: Artificial Intelligence Technology Transfer

  1984cited by this paper
• Natural Language Computing: The Commercial Applications

  1984influential reference
• Computational Models of Discourse

  1983cited by this paper
• TEAM: A Transportable Natural-Language Interface System

  1983influential reference
• An Experimental Comparison of Natural and Structured Query Languages

  1983cited by this paper
• Menu-Based Natural Language Understanding

  1983influential reference
• Problems in Natural-Language Interface to DBMS With Examples From EUFID

  1983influential reference
• A Robust Portable Natural Language Data Base Interface

  1983cited by this paper
• Discourse Pragmatics and Ellipsis Resolution in Task-Oriented Natural Language Interfaces

  1983influential reference
• Formal semantics for time in databases

  1983cited by this paper
• Usable natural language interfaces through menu-based natural language understanding

  1983cited by this paper
• Cooperative Responses From a Portable Natural Language Database Query System

  1983cited by this paper
• Recognizing Intentions From Natural Language Utterances

  1983cited by this paper
• IR-NLI : An Expert Natural Language Interface to Online Data Bases

  1983cited by this paper
• Transportability and Generality in a Natural-Language Interface System

  1983cited by this paper
• Introducing ASK, A Simple Knowledgeable System

  1983influential reference
• Denotational Semantics for “Natural” Language Question-Answering Programs

  1983cited by this paper
• Cooperative Responses from a Portable Natural Language Query System

  1982cited by this paper
• An Efficient Easily Adaptable System for Interpreting Natural Language Queries

  1982influential reference
• Recognizing intentions from natural language utterances

  1982cited by this paper
• Applied Computational Linguistics in Perspective: Proceedings of the Workshop

  1982cited by this paper
• Natural Language Access to Data Bases: Interpreting Update Requests

  1981influential reference
• Anaphora in Natural Language Understanding: A Survey

  1981cited by this paper
• Operating Statistics for the Transformational Question Answering System

  1981influential reference
• Introduction to Montague semantics

  1980influential reference
• Cooperative responses from a portable natural language data base query system.

  1979cited by this paper
• Experience with ROBOT in 12 Commercial, Natural Language Data Base Query Applications

  1979cited by this paper
• Principles Of Database And Knowledge-Base Systems

  1979cited by this paper
• An English language question answering system for a large relational database

  1978cited by this paper
• The ROBOT System: Natural language processing applied to data base query

  1978cited by this paper
• User Oriented Data Base Query with the ROBOT Natural Language Query System

  1977cited by this paper
• Semantic grammar: an engineering technique for constructing natural language understanding systems

  1977cited by this paper
• Developing a natural language interface to complex data

  1977influential reference
• Practical Natural Language Processing: The REL System as Prototype

  1975cited by this paper
• Seven Steps to Rendezvous with the Casual User

  1974cited by this paper
• A Relational Model for Large Shared Data Banks

  1970cited by this paper
• A relational model of data for large shared data banks

  1970cited by this paper
• REL: A Rapidly Extensible Language system

  1969cited by this paper
• Procedural semantics for a question-answering machine

  1899cited by this paper

• Cluster Workload Allocation: Semantic Soft Affinity Using Natural Language Processing

  2026cites this paper
• In-depth Analysis of LLM-based Schema Linking

  2026cites this paper
• Structured Prompt Language: Declarative Context Management for LLMs

  2026cites this paper
• NLI4DB: A Systematic Review of Natural Language Interfaces for Databases

  2025cites this paper
• Text to Query Plans for Question Answering on Large Tables

  2025cites this paper
• Text to SQL Generation Using Beam Search and an Enhanced Bert Model

  2025cites this paper
• ASASQL: Active Data Synthesis and Annotation for Efficient Natural Language SQL Generation in Cloud Systems

  2025cites this paper
• Khai thác mô hình ngôn ngữ lớn để chuyển đổi ngôn ngữ tự nhiên thành truy vấn Cypher một cách hiệu quả

  2025cites this paper
• E-Commerce Enhancement Through Intelligent Customer Interaction: Integration of GPT-Powered Chatbot with Sentiment Analysis

  2025cites this paper
• EICopilot: Search and Explore Enterprise Information Over Large-Scale Knowledge Graphs with LLM-Driven Agents

  2025cites this paper
• Fusing Knowledge and Language: A Comparative Study of Knowledge Graph-Based Question Answering with LLMs

  2025cites this paper
• A Spatial Attention-Based Transductive Long Short-Term Memory for Semantic Parsing Trained with a Semi-Supervised Method

  2025cites this paper
• CogniSQL-R1-Zero: Lightweight Reinforced Reasoning for Efficient SQL Generation

  2025cites this paper
• Domain Specific Question to SQL Conversion with Embedded Data Balancing Technique

  2025cites this paper
• MGRR-SQL: Multi-Granularity Relevant Retrieval-Based in-Context Learning Approach for Text-to-SQL Generation

  2025cites this paper
• Towards Complex Table Question Answering Over Tabular Data Lakes (Extended Version)

  2025cites this paper
• Domain- and Language-Adaptable Natural Language Interface for Property Graphs

  2025cites this paper
• UNJOIN: Enhancing Multi-Table Text-to-SQL Generation via Schema Simplification

  2025cites this paper
• Automated Validating and Fixing of Text-to-SQL Translation with Execution Consistency

  2025cites this paper
• Pi-SQL: Enhancing Text-to-SQL with Fine-Grained Guidance from Pivot Programming Languages

  2025cites this paper
• Empowering Non-Technical Users: A Chatbot-Driven Approach to Database Management

  2025cites this paper
• Natural Language to Overpass Query: A Multi-Step Approach Using Task Decomposition and Key-Value Correction

  2025cites this paper
• Prompt Tuning for Natural Language to SQL with Embedding Fine-Tuning and RAG

  2025cites this paper
• Design and Performance Analysis for Tabular Data by Using LLM’s with Limited VRAM

  2025cites this paper
• Agentic AI System for Data-Driven Question Answering Using SQL Generation with Large Language Models

  2025cites this paper
• DynaQuery: A Self-Adapting Framework for Querying Structured and Multimodal Data

  2025cites this paper
• Transduction is All You Need for Structured Data Workflows

  2025cites this paper
• Converting Human Text into Database Queries Using Natural Language Processing: A Hybrid Approach with Multinomial Logistic Regression and T5

  2025cites this paper
• GradeSQL: Test-Time Inference with Outcome Reward Models for Text-to-SQL Generation from Large Language Models

  2025cites this paper
• OmniSQL: Synthesizing High-quality Text-to-SQL Data at Scale

  2025cites this paper
• Benchmarking Geospatial Question Answering with MapQA

  2025cites this paper
• Towards a Barrier-free GeoQA Portal: Natural Language Interaction with Geospatial Data Using Multi-Agent LLMs and Semantic Search

  2025cites this paper
• XPathia: A Deep Learning Approach for Translating Natural Language into XPath Queries for Non-Technical Users

  2025cites this paper
• RAISE: Reasoning Agent for Interactive SQL Exploration

  2025cites this paper
• Arctic-Text2SQL-R1: Simple Rewards, Strong Reasoning in Text-to-SQL

  2025cites this paper
• Reasoning-SQL: Reinforcement Learning with SQL Tailored Partial Rewards for Reasoning-Enhanced Text-to-SQL

  2025cites this paper
• Task Splitting and Prompt Engineering for Cypher Query Generation in Domain-Specific Knowledge Graphs

  2025cites this paper
• WirelessMathBench: A Mathematical Modeling Benchmark for LLMs in Wireless Communications

  2025cites this paper
• Needle: A Generative AI-Powered Multi-modal Database for Answering Complex Natural Language Queries

  2024cites this paper
• Data-Secure Natural Language Interfaces to Databases via Large Language Models

  2024influential citation
• Classifying the state of knowledge-based question answering: patterns, progress, and prospects

  2024cites this paper
• The Future of Database Systems: Innovations and Challenges in Natural Language Interfaces

  2024cites this paper
• Large Language Model Based Semantic Parsing for Intelligent Database Query Engine

  2024cites this paper
• Grounding Natural Language to SQL Translation with Data-Based Self-Explanations

  2024cites this paper
• SQL-GEN: Bridging the Dialect Gap for Text-to-SQL Via Synthetic Data And Model Merging

  2024cites this paper
• Multi-hop Database Reasoning with Virtual Knowledge Graph

  2024cites this paper
• Towards Optimizing SQL Generation via LLM Routing

  2024cites this paper
• Intelligent Search Engine Tool for Querying Database Systems

  2024cites this paper
• The Death of Schema Linking? Text-to-SQL in the Age of Well-Reasoned Language Models

  2024cites this paper
• Enhancing Relational Database Interaction through Open AI and Stanford Core NLP-Based on Natural Language Interface

  2024cites this paper
• MedT5SQL: a transformers-based large language model for text-to-SQL conversion in the healthcare domain

  2024cites this paper
• Case-Based Reasoning Approach for Solving Financial Question Answering

  2024cites this paper
• Applying inductive logic programming to automate the function of an intelligent natural language interfaces for databases

  2024cites this paper
• CHASE-SQL: Multi-Path Reasoning and Preference Optimized Candidate Selection in Text-to-SQL

  2024cites this paper
• A semi-supervised learning approach for semantic parsing boosted by BERT word embedding

  2024cites this paper
• IDENTIFIKASI JENIS OPERASI DATA MANIPULATION LANGUAGE BERBASIS BILSTM PADA KALIMAT BERBAHASA INDONESIA

  2024cites this paper
• Natural Language Data Interfaces: A Data Access Odyssey (Invited Talk)

  2024influential citation
• CoE-SQL: In-Context Learning for Multi-Turn Text-to-SQL with Chain-of-Editions

  2024cites this paper
• A comprehensive survey on answer generation methods using NLP

  2024cites this paper
• Metasql: A Generate-Then-Rank Framework for Natural Language to SQL Translation

  2024cites this paper
• Lifting the Answer: Reranking Candidates on Data Augmented Text-to-SQL

  2023cites this paper
• DBCopilot: Scaling Natural Language Querying to Massive Databases

  2023cites this paper
• Application of Noise Filter Mechanism for T5-Based Text-to-SQL Generation

  2023cites this paper
• Can Large Language Models Predict Data Correlations from Column Names?

  2023cites this paper
• Control in Hybrid Chatbots

  2023cites this paper
• A Naive approach: Translation of Natural Language to Structured Query Language

  2023cites this paper
• Natural Language Interfaces for Tabular Data Querying and Visualization: A Survey

  2023cites this paper
• APPLICATION UTILISATION OF API AND B-SHARE APPLICATION FOR PROVIDING BLOOD AVAILABILITY INFORMATION

  2023cites this paper
• L2CEval: Evaluating Language-to-Code Generation Capabilities of Large Language Models

  2023cites this paper
• Gar: A Generate-and-Rank Approach for Natural Language to SQL Translation

  2023cites this paper
• Interactive Table Synthesis With Natural Language

  2023cites this paper
• Spider4SPARQL: A Complex Benchmark for Evaluating Knowledge Graph Question Answering Systems

  2023cites this paper
• History Semantic Graph Enhanced Conversational KBQA with Temporal Information Modeling

  2023cites this paper
• ScienceBenchmark: A Complex Real-World Benchmark for Evaluating Natural Language to SQL Systems

  2023cites this paper
• Enhancing Unsupervised Semantic Parsing with Distributed Contextual Representations

  2023cites this paper
• AI for Low-Code for AI

  2023cites this paper
• Charting the Evolution and Future of Conversational Agents: A Research Agenda Along Five Waves and New Frontiers

  2023cites this paper
• Towards Digital Nature: Bridging the Gap between Turing Machine Objects and Linguistic Objects in LLMMs for Universal Interaction of Object-Oriented Descriptions

  2023cites this paper
• Multilingual spatial domain natural language interface to databases

  2023cites this paper
• An ontology-aided, natural language-based approach for multi-constraint BIM model querying

  2023cites this paper
• Creating CREATE queries with multi-task deep neural networks

  2023cites this paper
• Multimodal Neural Databases

  2023cites this paper
• A survey on deep learning approaches for text-to-SQL

  2023cites this paper
• DBCopilot: Natural Language Querying over Massive Databases via Schema Routing

  2023cites this paper
• Natural Language Data Interfaces: From Keyword Search to ChatGPT, are we there yet?

  2023cites this paper
• DIR: A Large-Scale Dialogue Rewrite Dataset for Cross-Domain Conversational Text-to-SQL

  2023cites this paper
• Business-Driven Data Recommender System: Design and Implementation

  2023cites this paper
• Towards Natural Language-Based Visualization Authoring

  2022cites this paper
• HQLgen: deep learning based HQL query generation from program context

  2022cites this paper
• Transformer models used for text-based question answering systems

  2022cites this paper
• Methodology for creating natural language interfaces to information systems in a specific domain area

  2022cites this paper
• Exploring the Feasibility of Crowd-Powered Decomposition of Complex User Questions in Text-to-SQL Tasks

  2022cites this paper
• Bridging the Generalization Gap in Text-to-SQL Parsing with Schema Expansion

  2022cites this paper
• Evaluation of Question Answering Systems: Complexity of Judging a Natural Language

  2022cites this paper
• The Grand Challenges in Information Systems

  2022cites this paper
• Natural Language to SQL Queries: A Review

  2022cites this paper
• A Review of NLIDB with Deep Learning: Findings, Challenges and Open Issues

  2022cites this paper
• Low-Code Programming Models

  2022cites this paper
• Tackling Temporal Questions in Natural Language Interface to Databases

  2022cites this paper
• A natural language querying interface for process mining

  2022cites this paper