Goal: Automatically extract concepts, relationships, and rules from textbook-style content to bootstrap domain knowledge bases.
Key insight: Educational texts are structured to teach; this structure can be exploited for knowledge extraction.
Textbook Content
│
▼
┌───────────────────┐
│ Structure Parser │ ← Identify sections, definitions, examples
└───────────────────┘
│
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┌───────────────────┐
│ Pattern Matcher │ ← Find definitional patterns
└───────────────────┘
│
▼
┌───────────────────┐
│ Relation Extractor│ ← Extract relationships
└───────────────────┘
│
▼
┌───────────────────┐
│ Rule Inducer │ ← Generate rules from examples
└───────────────────┘
│
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┌───────────────────┐
│ KB Constructor │ ← Build knowledge base
└───────────────────┘
│
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DSL Knowledge Base
"A mammal is a warm-blooded vertebrate animal that has hair or fur and produces milk to feed its young."
Extracted DSL:isA Mammal Vertebrate has Mammal warm_blooded Or (has Mammal hair) (has Mammal fur) has Mammal milk_production purpose milk_production feeding_young
| Pattern | Relation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| "X is part of Y" | partOf X Y | "The heart is part of the circulatory system" |
| "X causes Y" | causes X Y | "Smoking causes lung cancer" |
| "X is located in Y" | locatedIn X Y | "The brain is located in the skull" |
| "X has property Y" | has X Y | "Water has high specific heat" |
| "X requires Y" | requires X Y | "Photosynthesis requires sunlight" |
| "If X then Y" | Implies X Y | "If temperature drops below 0°C, water freezes" |
// Pattern: All examples show mammals have fur/hair @r_induced Implies (isA ?x Mammal) (Or (has ?x fur) (has ?x hair)) // Confidence: 3/3 examples (100%)
// From a biology textbook chapter
Extracted concept graph:
┌─────────────┐
│ Animal │
└──────┬──────┘
│ isA
┌──────────────┼──────────────┐
│ │ │
┌──────▼──────┐ ┌─────▼─────┐ ┌──────▼──────┐
│ Mammal │ │ Bird │ │ Reptile │
└──────┬──────┘ └───────────┘ └─────────────┘
│ isA
┌───────┼───────┐
│ │ │
┌───▼───┐ ┌─▼──┐ ┌──▼──┐
│ Cat │ │Dog │ │Whale│
└───────┘ └────┘ └─────┘
Properties extracted:
- has Mammal warm_blooded
- has Bird feathers
- has Reptile scales
| Source Type | Confidence | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Explicit definition | 1.0 | Author's stated definition |
| Direct statement | 0.95 | Clear factual claim |
| Example inference | 0.8 | Derived from examples |
| Pattern induction | 0.7 | Statistical generalization |
| Implicit relation | 0.6 | Inferred from context |
| Domain | Source Types | Key Patterns |
|---|---|---|
| Biology | Textbooks, Wikipedia | Taxonomies, body systems, processes |
| Physics | Textbooks, equations | Laws, quantities, relationships |
| Law | Legal codes, case law | Rights, obligations, conditions |
| Medicine | Medical references | Symptoms, diagnoses, treatments |