TECHNIQUES FOR DISCRIMINATIVE DEPENDENCY PARSING

A computer-implemented method can include receiving a speech input representing a question, converting the speech input to a string of characters, and obtaining tokens each representing a potential word. The method can include determining one or more part-of-speech (POS) tags for each token and determining sequences of the POS tags for the tokens, each sequence of the POS tags including one POS tag per token. The method can include determining one or more parses for each sequence of the POS tags for the tokens and determining a most-likely parse and its corresponding sequence of the POS tags for the tokens to obtain a selected parse and a selected sequence of the POS tags for the tokens. The method can also include determining a most-likely answer to the question using the selected parse and the selected sequence of the POS tags for the tokens and outputting the most-likely answer.