Relationship analysis system and method for semantic disambiguation of natural language

• US 20070083359A1
• Filed: 10/07/2004
• Published: 04/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Howard Bender
• Original Assignee: Howard Bender
• Inventors: Bender, Howard
• Granted Patent: US 7,739,102 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/36 Creation of semantic tools, e.g. ontology or thesauri
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/58 Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product for natural language understanding, including forming pairs of words and/or phrases in independent phrases in a sentence, wherein each word and/or phrase is paired with every other word and/or phrase; determining meanings for the words and/or phrases; comparing the meanings of each word and/or phrase with each meaning of the other word and/or phrase in the pair; selecting the pairs with the best relationships; combining highly-related pairs with other highly-related pairs to form longer groups of words; exchanging word meanings for the longer groups with word meanings having a weaker relationship to determine if the exchanged word meanings provide an overall stronger relationship; and forming longer and longer groups until the sentence is understood.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for natural language understanding, comprising the steps of:

forming pairs of words and/or phrases in independent phrases in a sentence, wherein each word and/or phrase is paired with every other word and/or phrase;

determining meanings for the words and/or phrases;

comparing the meanings of each word and/or phrase with each meaning of the other word and/or phrase in the pair;

selecting the pairs with the best relationships;

combining highly-related pairs with other highly-related pairs to form longer groups of words;

exchanging word meanings for the longer groups with word meanings having a weaker relationship to determine if the exchanged word meanings provide an overall stronger relationship; and

forming longer and longer groups until the sentence is understood.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising employing the method for performing language-independent semantic analysis.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the forming step includes forming legitimate pairs of the words and/or the phrases in the independent phrases in the sentence.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting step includes selecting a same word, with different meanings, multiple times, if more than one pair has a strong relationship.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing syntactically-identical sentences with a potential idiom that changes meaning depending on the context using an ontology.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing the words and/or phrases of the groups to determine possible meanings based on a class and category structure.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising employing the method for performing machine translation.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising employing the method for performing concept determination.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising employing the concept determination for implementing message routing, and/or a search tool for finding text referring to a topic of interest.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising employing the method for performing multi-language text analysis.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising employing a graphical user interface for performing the multi-language text analysis.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising providing in the graphical user interface a search topic field for entering a search topic, a topic clarification field for entering a word for clarifying the search topic, means for selecting a directory to search, means for selecting a language for the multi-language text analysis, means for starting the multi-language text analysis, and means for viewing a report for listing a text matching the search topic.

13. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable instructions configured to cause one or more computer processors to execute the steps recited in claim 1.

14. A computer system comprising one or more computer processors configured to execute the steps recited in claim 1.

15. A system for natural language understanding, comprising:

means for forming pairs of words and/or phrases in independent phrases in a sentence, wherein each word and/or phrase is paired with every other word and/or phrase;

means for determining meanings for the words and/or phrases;

means for comparing the meanings of each word and/or phrase with each meaning of the other word and/or phrase in the pair;

means for selecting the pairs with the best relationships;

means for combining highly-related pairs with other highly-related pairs to form longer groups of words;

means for exchanging word meanings for the longer groups with word meanings having a weaker relationship to determine if the exchanged word meanings provide an overall stronger relationship; and

means for forming longer and longer groups until the sentence is understood.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the system is configured for performing language-independent semantic analysis.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the forming means includes means for forming legitimate pairs of the words and/or the phrases in the independent phrases in the sentence.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein selecting means includes means for selecting a same word, with different meanings, multiple times, if more than one pair has a strong relationship.

19. The system of claim 15, further comprising means for comparing syntactically-identical sentences with a potential idiom that changes meaning depending on the context using an ontology.

20. The system of claim 15, further comprising means for analyzing the words and/or phrases of the groups to determine possible meanings based on a class and category structure.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein the system is configured for performing machine translation.

22. The system of claim 15, wherein the system is configured for performing concept determination.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the concept determination is configured for implementing message routing, and/or a search tool for finding text referring to a topic of interest.

24. The system of claim 15, further comprising employing the system for performing multi-language text analysis.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising a graphical user interface for performing the multi-language text analysis.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the graphical user interface includes a search topic field for entering a search topic, a topic clarification field for entering a word for clarifying the search topic, means for selecting a directory to search, means for selecting a language for the multi-language text analysis, means for starting the multi-language text analysis, and means for viewing a report for listing a text matching the search topic.

27. The system of claim 15, wherein the means for determining, the means for comparing, the means for selecting, the means for combining, the means for exchanging, and the means for forming comprise one or more devices of a computer system.

28. The system of claim 15, wherein the means for determining, the means for comparing, the means for selecting, the means for combining, the means for exchanging, and the means for forming comprise one or more computer-readable instructions stored on a computer readable medium.