Natural language edit controls: constrained natural language devices in user interfaces

The concept of "natural language edit controls" (NLECs) is introduced. NLECs are special-purpose devices within graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for inputting part of a user's query in natural language which, when combined with other GUI controls for inputting the remainder of the query, can be used to build the most effective interface for a particular application. NLECs require less grammatical and lexical information than the equivalent component of a traditional natural language interface; hence their customization and maintenance costs tend to be lower.