초록

Abstract

Our limited understanding of real-life music information queries is an impediment to developing music information retrieval (MIR) systems that meet the needs of real users. This study aims to contribute to developing a theorized understanding of how people seek music information by an empirical investigation of real-life queries, in particular, focusing on the accuracy of user-provided information and users' uncertainty expressions. This study found that much of users' information is inaccurate; users made various syntactic and semantic errors in providing this information. Despite these inaccuracies and uncertainties, many queries were successful in eliciting correct answers. A theory from pragmatics is suggested as a partial explanation for the unexpected success of inaccurate queries.