Telmi: a reusable information retrieval system and its applications

The use of an information retrieval (IR) system would be easier if natural language processing were applied. There are essentially two different ways to use NLP techniques: as a user interface coupled with a factual database, or as an integrated part of a system which deals with a textual database. In this paper, two approaches are presented, that of MGS, a commercialized system in use in France Télécom, and that of Telmi, a France Télécom research system. Telmi is an information retrieval system designed for use with medium sized databases of short text. The characteristics of the system include fine‐grained NLP, an open domain and large scale knowledge base, automated indexing based on conceptual representation of texts, and reusability of the NLP tools. The knowledge base is (semi) automatically extracted from a monolingual machine‐readable dictionary (MRD). Telmi is integrated into a production‐scale prototype which implements a Minitel Information Service (IS) for the use of the general public. France Télécom Minitel(i) and its problems are described, along with the solutions Telmi offers. The paper then goes on to describe how France Télécom intends to reuse, in a continuation of the present project, the Telmi tools in a multilingual system, particularly in (semi)automatic data acquisition from multilingual MRDs.