2025.emnlp-main.1409@ACL

Total: 1

#1 Tailoring Table Retrieval from a Field-aware Hybrid Matching Perspective [PDF] [Copy] [Kimi] [REL]

Authors: Da Li, Keping Bi, Jiafeng Guo, Xueqi Cheng

Table retrieval, essential for accessing information through tabular data, is less explored compared to text retrieval. The row/column structure and distinct fields of tables (including titles, headers, and cells) present unique challenges. For example, different table fields have varying matching preferences: cells may favor finer-grained (word/phrase level) matching over broader (sentence/passage level) matching due to their fragmented and detailed nature, unlike titles. This necessitates a table-specific retriever to accommodate the various matching needs of each table field. Therefore, we introduce a Table-tailored HYbrid Matching rEtriever (THYME), which approaches table retrieval from a field-aware hybrid matching perspective. Empirical results on two table retrieval benchmarks, NQ-TABLES and OTT-QA, show that THYME significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baselines. Comprehensive analyses have confirmed the differing matching preferences across table fields and validated the efficacy of THYME.

Subject: EMNLP.2025 - Main