340 Chapter 12 Natural laNguage INterfaCe: QuestIoN aNswerINg system
Any sentence in which the word “militants” appears after the verb “killed” is
an object entity, whereas we are looking for sentences in which “militants”
is the subject. This example emphasizes the importance of the sequence of
words in a sentence. In a passive sentence, the SVO sequence is not followed
but the passiveness of the sentence can be determined by the tense of the
verb, which helps in deciding whether the sentence is correct. This fact un-
derlines the importance of verb tense (past tense or past participle). If the
question is in passive voice, this logic also works. XOV* type questions fall
in this category. “By whom were militants killed?” is an example ...