# Macro Grammars and Holistic Triggering for Efficient Semantic Parsing

Source: [Macro Grammars and Holistic Triggering for Efficient Semantic Parsing](<https://www.sota2.com/research/paper/68fa639b1e209131ce9ff95a>)

Collection index: [llms.txt](<https://www.sota2.com/research/llms.txt>)

Data updated: 2025-10-25T20:44:17.219Z

Authors: Yuchen Zhang, Panupong Pasupat, Percy Liang

Published: 2017-07-25T03:42:40.000Z

## Abstract

To learn a semantic parser from denotations, a learning algorithm must search over a combinatorially large space of logical forms for ones consistent with the annotated denotations. We propose a new online learning algorithm that searches faster as training progresses. The two key ideas are using macro grammars to cache the abstract patterns of useful logical forms found thus far, and holistic triggering to efficiently retrieve the most relevant patterns based on sentence similarity. On the WikiTableQuestions dataset, we first expand the search space of an existing model to improve the state-of-the-art accuracy from 38.7% to 42.7%, and then use macro grammars and holistic triggering to achieve an 11x speedup and an accuracy of 43.7%.

## Recorded benchmark results

A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage.

- [Semantic Parsing on WIKITABLEQUESTIONS (dev)](<https://www.sota2.com/research/sota/semantic-parsing-on-wikitablequestions-dev.md>): Semantic Parsing; WIKITABLEQUESTIONS (dev); Execution Accuracy (Best): 40.6.

- [Semantic Parsing on WIKITABLEQUESTIONS (test)](<https://www.sota2.com/research/sota/semantic-parsing-on-wikitablequestions-test.md>): Semantic Parsing; WikiTableQuestions (test); Execution Accuracy (Best): 43.7.

- [Table Question Answering on WikiTQ (dev)](<https://www.sota2.com/research/sota/table-question-answering-on-wikitq-dev.md>): Table Question Answering; WikiTQ (dev); Denotation Acc: 40.6.

- [Table Question Answering on WikiTQ (test)](<https://www.sota2.com/research/sota/table-question-answering-on-wikitq-test.md>): Table Question Answering; WikiTQ (test); Accuracy: not recorded.

- [Table Question Answering on WikiTableQuestions (test)](<https://www.sota2.com/research/sota/table-question-answering-on-wikitablequestions-test.md>): Table Question Answering; WikiTableQuestions (test); Accuracy: not recorded.

- [Table Question Answering on WikiTableQuestions (dev)](<https://www.sota2.com/research/sota/table-question-answering-on-wikitablequestions-dev.md>): Table-based Question Answering; WIKITABLEQUESTIONS (dev); Accuracy: not recorded.

## Original sources and implementation

[Original paper](<https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.07806>)

[PDF](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/1707.07806.pdf>)