4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user utterance includes an utterance selected from a name utterance, a category utterance, a city utterance, a state utterance, a location utterance, and an address utterance.
1. A method for providing automated directory assistance, the method comprising: receiving a user utterance from a user accessing directory assistance; detecting a keyword in the user utterance; sending a query to a directory assistance database, the query based at least in part on the keyword; receiving, from the directory assistance database, received records that satisfy the query; determining hierarchical categories associated with the received records; and disambiguating the received records based at least in part on the hierarchical categories, including disambiguating a subset of the received records, wherein records in the subset share a common hierarchical category.