ClearTalk explained

ClearTalk is a controlled natural language—a kind of a formal language for expressing information that is designed to be both human-readable (being based on English) and easily processed by a computer.

Anyone who can read English can immediately read ClearTalk, and the people who write ClearTalk learn to write it while using it. The ClearTalk system itself does most of the training through use: the restrictions are shown by menus and templates and are enforced by immediate syntactic checks. By consistently using ClearTalk for its output, a system reinforces the acceptable syntactic forms.

It is used by CODE4, the experimental knowledge management software Ikarus, and by a knowledge base management system Fact Guru.^[1]

ClearTalk is easily readable by most people who can read English, and requires very little training to write. Databases of information have been written using ClearTalk by a 9-year old human.

More than 25,000 facts have been encoded in ClearTalk.

ClearTalk allows varying degrees of formality or specificity, allowing the author to choose to leave or remove ambiguity.

ClearTalk was created in 1988 and fell out of use about 2006. It is the oldest controlled natural language with a formal representation.

References

• Abdelaal . Hazem Safwat . Davis . Brian . CNLs for the semantic web: a state of the art . Language Resources and Evaluation . 51 . 1 . 2017 . 1574-020X . 10.1007/s10579-016-9351-x . 191–220 . 17 January 2024.
• Ghali . Nagi . 1993 . Managing software development knowledge: A conceptually-oriented software engineering environment (COSEE) . University Of Ottawa . Master of Science in Computer Science . 10.20381/RUOR-11335 . free . 10393/6565 . free . 978-0-315-89627-7.
• Kuhn . Tobias . 8 June 2013 . Controlled Natural Language and Opportunities for Standardization . LaRC 2013, Pretoria (South Africa) . 17 January 2024.
• Kuhn . Tobias . 2014 . A Survey and Classification of Controlled Natural Languages . Computational Linguistics . 40 . 1 . 0891-2017 . 10.1162/COLI_a_00168 . free . 121–170. 1507.01701 .
• Lethbridge . Timothy Christian . November 1994 . Practical Techniques for Organizing and Measuring Knowledge . University of Ottawa . Ontario, Canada . PhD . 17 January 2024.
• Skuce . Douglas Richard . 1988 . An English-like Syntax and a Smalltalk Tool for Conceptual Graphs . Workshop on Conceptual Graphs. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA . 3.1.5.1–3.1.5.10.
• Book: Sowa, John F. . 2004 . Graphics and Languages for the Flexible Modular Framework . 10.1007/978-3-540-27769-9_3 . Wolff . Karl Erich . Pfeiffer . Heather D. . Delugach . Harry S. . Conceptual Structures at Work . Lecture Notes in Computer Science . 3127 . 31–51 . Springer . Berlin . 978-3-540-27769-9 . http://www.jfsowa.com/pubs/gal4fmf.htm . 17 January 2024.
• Web site: Sowa . John F. . 28 January 2011 . Fact Guru . Ontolog mailing list . 17 January 2024.

Further reading

• Abdelaal . Hazem Safwat . 6 October 2019 . Knowledge extraction from simplified natural language text . National University of Ireland, Galway . PhD . 10379/15492 . free.
• Christensen . Jon L. . Pierson . Brian E. . March 1994 . Integrating computers into calculus instruction . Monterey, California . Naval Postgraduate School . Masters . 10945/30883 . free.
• Book: Lethbridge . Timothy Christian . Skuce . Douglas Richard . 1992 . Beyond hypertext: knowledge management for technical documentation . 313–322 . 10.1145/147001.147056 . free . https://www.site.uottawa.ca/~tcl/papers/km/BeyondHypertext.pdf . 17 January 2024 . SIGDOC '92: Proceedings of the 10th annual international conference on Systems documentation. Ottawa, Canada. October 13-16, 1992 . ACM . New York, NY . 978-0-89791-532-8.
• Lethbridge . Timothy Christian . Skuce . Douglas Richard . 1992 . Informality in knowledge exchange . AAAI-92 Workshop on Knowledge Representation Aspects of Knowledge Acquisition. June 15, 1992 . 93–99 . 17 January 2024. Other formats
  • Skuce . Douglas Richard . 1991 . A language and system for making definitions of technical concepts . Journal of Systems and Software . 14 . 1 . 10.1016/0164-1212(91)90087-M . 39–50.
  • Skuce . Douglas Richard . 1993 . A multi-functional knowledge management system . Knowledge Acquisition . 5 . 3 . 10.1006/knac.1993.1011 . 305–346.
• Skuce . Douglas Richard . 1995 . Knowledge management in software design: a tool and a trial . Software Engineering Journal . 10 . 5 . 10.1049/sej.1995.0024 . 183.
• Web site: Skuce . Douglas Richard . 17 April 1996 . Cleartalk Concepts . University of Ottawa . https://web.archive.org/web/19971014054456/http://www.csi.uottawa.ca/~kavanagh/Ikarus/Cleartalk.html . 14 October 1997 . dead.
• Web site: Skuce . Douglas Richard . 29 April 2003 . A Controlled Language for Knowledge Formulation on the Semantic Web . 17 January 2024.
• Skuce . Douglas Richard . Lethbridge . Timothy Christian . 1992 . A knowledge representation for interactive knowledge management . Third International Conference on the Principles of Knowledge Representation. and Reasoning. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
• Skuce . Douglas Richard . Lethbridge . Timothy Christian . 1994 . CODE4: A multifunctional knowledge management system . KAW’94: 8th Banff Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge Based Systems Workshop. Banff, Canada . 17 January 2024. HTML
• Skuce . Douglas Richard . Lethbridge . Timothy Christian . 1995 . CODE4: a unified system for managing conceptual knowledge . International Journal of Human-Computer Studies . 42 . 4 . 10.1006/ijhc.1995.1019 . 413–451 . 17 January 2024.
• Book: Sowa, John F. . 2000 . Ontology, Metadata, and Semiotics . 55–81 . https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312987111 . 17 January 2024 . Ganter . B. . Mineau . G.W. . Conceptual Structures: Logical, Linguistic, and Computational Issues: 8th International Conference on Conceptual Structures, ICCS 2000 Darmstadt, Germany, August 14-18, 2000 Proceedings . Springer . Berlin . Lecture Notes in Computer Science . 978-3-540-67859-5 . HTML
• Sowa . John F. . 2002 . Architectures for intelligent systems . IBM Systems Journal . 41 . 3 . 0018-8670 . 10.1147/sj.413.0331 . 331–349 . HTML

Notes and References

1. Web site: Fact Guru.