mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Neural Symbolic Machines: Learning Semantic Parsers on Freebase with Weak Supervision

arXiv 1611.00020 ↗First posted 31 Oct 2016cs.CL cs.AI cs.LGcited by 101

Not on the map. Why?

Abstract (arXiv)

Harnessing the statistical power of neural networks to perform language understanding and symbolic reasoning is difficult, when it requires executing efficient discrete operations against a large knowledge-base. In this work, we introduce a Neural Symbolic Machine, which contains (a) a neural "programmer", i.e., a sequence-to-sequence model that maps language utterances to programs and utilizes a key-variable memory to handle compositionality (b) a symbolic "computer", i.e., a Lisp interpreter that performs program execution, and helps find good programs by pruning the search space. We apply REINFORCE to directly optimize the task reward of this structured prediction problem. To train with weak supervision and improve the stability of REINFORCE, we augment it with an iterative maximum-likelihood training process. NSM outperforms the state-of-the-art on the WebQuestionsSP dataset when trained from question-answer pairs only, without requiring any feature engineering or domain-specific knowledge.

Key facts. Cited by 101 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). First posted on arXiv 31 Oct 2016.

Builds on

No reference list yet.

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2018: 5; 2019: 0; 2020: 0; 2021: 39; 2022: 23; 2023: 21; 2024: 8; 2025: 3; 2026: 2.

101 papers.

Sort:

By area:

  1. 2023Beyond Human Data: Scaling Self-Training for Problem-Solving with Language Modelscited by 325
  2. 2022Binding Language Models in Symbolic Languagescited by 224
  3. 2022ConvFinQA: Exploring the Chain of Numerical Reasoning in Conversational Finance Question Answeringcited by 194
  4. 2018Self-Imitation Learningcited by 135
  5. 2021HiTab: A Hierarchical Table Dataset for Question Answering and Natural Language Generationcited by 117
  6. 2021Case-based Reasoning for Natural Language Queries over Knowledge Basescited by 107
  7. 2021Improving Multi-hop Knowledge Base Question Answering by Learning Intermediate Supervision Signalscited by 100
  8. 2022Subgraph Retrieval Enhanced Model for Multi-hop Knowledge Base Question Answeringcited by 93
  9. 2023On the Opportunities and Challenges of Foundation Models for Geospatial Artificial Intelligencecited by 88
  10. 2021RnG-KBQA: Generation Augmented Iterative Ranking for Knowledge Base Question Answeringcited by 86
  11. 2021Improving Coherence and Consistency in Neural Sequence Models with Dual-System, Neuro-Symbolic Reasoningcited by 85
  12. 2021A Survey on Complex Knowledge Base Question Answering: Methods, Challenges and Solutionscited by 77
38 more
  1. 2024TrustAgent: Towards Safe and Trustworthy LLM-based Agentscited by 62
  2. 2021TransferNet: An Effective and Transparent Framework for Multi-hop Question Answering over Relation Graphcited by 60
  3. 2022TIARA: Multi-grained Retrieval for Robust Question Answering over Large Knowledge Basescited by 59
  4. 2018Reliability and Learnability of Human Bandit Feedback for Sequence-to-Sequence Reinforcement Learningcited by 57
  5. 2022Don't Generate, Discriminate: A Proposal for Grounding Language Models to Real-World Environmentscited by 57
  6. 2021Neuro-Symbolic Artificial Intelligence: Current Trendscited by 54
  7. 2021Complex Knowledge Base Question Answering: A Surveycited by 52
  8. 2023KnowledGPT: Enhancing Large Language Models with Retrieval and Storage Access on Knowledge Basescited by 52
  9. 2021AR-LSAT: Investigating Analytical Reasoning of Textcited by 49
  10. 2022ArcaneQA: Dynamic Program Induction and Contextualized Encoding for Knowledge Base Question Answeringcited by 48
  11. 2021AIT-QA: Question Answering Dataset over Complex Tables in the Airline Industrycited by 44
  12. 2023Enhancing Few-shot Text-to-SQL Capabilities of Large Language Models: A Study on Prompt Design Strategiescited by 44
  13. 2021From LSAT: The Progress and Challenges of Complex Reasoningcited by 43
  14. 2022Knowledge Graph Embedding: A Survey from the Perspective of Representation Spacescited by 41
  15. 2021A Survey on Neural-symbolic Learning Systemscited by 39
  16. 2021Neural-Symbolic Solver for Math Word Problems with Auxiliary Taskscited by 38
  17. 2022Learning Math Reasoning from Self-Sampled Correct and Partially-Correct Solutionscited by 38
  18. 2021Program Transfer for Answering Complex Questions over Knowledge Basescited by 34
  19. 2022NeuPSL: Neural Probabilistic Soft Logiccited by 34
  20. 2022Towards Data-and Knowledge-Driven Artificial Intelligence: A Survey on Neuro-Symbolic Computingcited by 34
  21. 2023AD-AutoGPT: An Autonomous GPT for Alzheimer's Disease Infodemiologycited by 34
  22. 2018Improving a Neural Semantic Parser by Counterfactual Learning from Human Bandit Feedbackcited by 32
  23. 2018Generative Adversarial Self-Imitation Learningcited by 25
  24. 2021Conversational Question Answering over Knowledge Graphs with Transformer and Graph Attention Networkscited by 24
  25. 2021Geographic Question Answering: Challenges, Uniqueness, Classification, and Future Directionscited by 24
  26. 2022Knowledge Base Question Answering: A Semantic Parsing Perspectivecited by 22
  27. 2021GNN is a Counter? Revisiting GNN for Question Answeringcited by 21
  28. 2023Exploring New Frontiers in Agricultural NLP: Investigating the Potential of Large Language Models for Food Applicationscited by 21
  29. 2021Reasoning Over Virtual Knowledge Bases With Open Predicate Relationscited by 18
  30. 2024Softened Symbol Grounding for Neuro-symbolic Systemscited by 16
  31. 2025SEDM: Scalable Self-Evolving Distributed Memory for Agentscited by 16
  32. 2022Multi-Step Deductive Reasoning Over Natural Language: An Empirical Study on Out-of-Distribution Generalisationcited by 15
  33. 2021From Paraphrasing to Semantic Parsing: Unsupervised Semantic Parsing via Synchronous Semantic Decodingcited by 14
  34. 2023API-Assisted Code Generation for Question Answering on Varied Table Structurescited by 14
  35. 2021On The Ingredients of an Effective Zero-shot Semantic Parsercited by 13
  36. 2021Multi-Row, Multi-Span Distant Supervision For Table+Text Questioncited by 12
  37. 2023Reasoning over Hierarchical Question Decomposition Tree for Explainable Question Answeringcited by 11
  38. 2023Bring Your Own KG: Self-Supervised Program Synthesis for Zero-Shot KGQAcited by 11

50 most cited of 101 All 101 (JSON)