System and method for summarization combining natural language generation with structural analysis

• US 20040044519A1
• Filed: 08/30/2002
• Published: 03/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Polanyi, Livia, van den Berg, Martin H.
• Granted Patent: US 7,305,336 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/345 Summarisation for human users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/35 Discourse or dialogue representation

Abstract

A system and method of summarizing text comprising performing structural summarization of a source text and compressing at least one relationship in the structural summarization.

Claims

1. A method of summarizing source text, comprising:

performing structural summarization of the source text; and

compressing at least one relationship in the structural summarization.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the structural summarization is accomplished by ranking nodes in a discourse tree.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the structural summarization is based on one of Linguistic Discourse Model, Rhetorical Structure Theory, Discourse Structures Theory, and Structured Discourse Representation Theory.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the source text is represented as a discourse structure comprised of one or more discourse units.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein:

the at least one relationship expresses a coordination relationship between a plurality of discourse units.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a text summary based on the structural summarization and the at least one compressed relationship.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein:

portions of the generated text summary that are based on the at least one compressed relationship are distinguished from other portions of the generated text summary.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein:

the source text underlying the at least one compressed relationship in the generated text summary can be accessed.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein:

compressing the at least one relationship is based on default unification.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein:

generating a text summary based on the at least one compressed relationship uses natural language generation.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the at least one relationship is directly ascertainable.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the at least one relationship includes at least one other relationship that can be compressed.

13. A method of summarizing source text, comprising:

applying default unification to at least one coordination-type relationship in a structural representation of the source text to create at least one compressed representation.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein:

a coordination-type relationship expresses a symmetric relationship between a plurality of discourse units.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

performing structural summarization of the source text, the structural summarization to be accomplished by pruning nodes in the structural representation.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein:

the structural representation is based on one of Linguistic Discourse Model, Rhetorical Structure Theory, Discourse Structures Theory, and Structured Discourse Representation Theory.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein:

the source text is represented as a discourse structure comprised of one or more discourse units.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

generating a text summary based on the structural representation and the at least one compressed representation.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein:

portions of the generated text summary that are based on the at least one compressed representation are distinguished from other portions of the generated text summary.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein:

the source text underlying the at least one compressed representation in the generated text summary can be accessed.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein:

generating a text summary based on the at least one compressed representation uses natural language generation.

22. The method of claim 13 wherein:

the at least one relationship is directly ascertainable.

23. The method of claim 13 wherein:

the at least one relationship includes at least one other relationship that can be compressed.

24. A method for selecting coordination relationships for compression, the method comprising:

structurally summarizing a representation of a discourse; and

selecting at least one coordination relationship in the representation, wherein the at least one coordination relationship is susceptible to compression.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein:

a coordination relationship is susceptible to compression if it is directly ascertainable.

26. The method of claim 24 wherein:

a coordination relationship is susceptible to compression if it includes at least one other relationship that is susceptible to compression.

27. A system for summarizing source text comprising:

a means for parsing the source text;

a means for performing structural summarization on the parsed source text; and

a means for compressing at least one coordination relationship in the structural summarization.

28. The system of claim 27 further comprising:

a means for generating a text summary.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein:

the means for generating a text summary includes a natural language generator.

30. The method of claim 28 wherein:

the generated text summary is based on the structural summarization and the at least one compressed relationship.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein:

portions of the generated text summary that are based on the at least one compressed relationship are distinguished from other portions of the generated text summary.

32. The method of claim 30 wherein:

the source text underlying the at least one compressed relationship in the generated text summary can be accessed.

33. A machine readable medium having instructions stored thereon that when executed by a processor cause a system to:

perform structural summarization of a source text; and

compress at least one relationship in the structural summarization.

34. The machine readable medium of claim 33 wherein:

the structural summarization is accomplished by ranking nodes in a discourse tree.

35. The machine readable medium of claim 33 wherein:

the structural summarization is based on one of Linguistic Discourse Model, Rhetorical Structure Theory, Discourse Structures Theory, and Structured Discourse Representation Theory.

36. The machine readable medium of claim 33 wherein:

the source text is represented as a discourse structure comprised of one or more discourse units.

37. The machine readable medium of claim 36 wherein:

the at least one relationship expresses a coordination-type relationship between a plurality of discourse units.

38. The machine readable medium of claim 33, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

generate a text summary based on the structural summarization and the at is least one compressed relationship.

39. The machine readable medium of claim 38 wherein:

portions of the generated text summary that are based on the at least one compressed relationship are distinguished from other portions of the generated text summary.

40. The machine readable medium of claim 38 wherein:

the source text underlying the at least one compressed relationship in the generated text summary can be accessed.

41. The machine readable medium of claim 33 wherein:

compressing the at least one relationship is based on default unification.

42. The machine readable medium of claim 38 wherein:

generating a text summary based on the at least one compressed relationship uses natural language generation.

43. The machine readable medium of claim 33 wherein:

the at least one relationship is directly ascertainable.

44. The machine readable medium of claim 33 wherein:

the at least one relationship includes at least one other relationship that can be compressed.