MANAGEMENT OF LANGUAGE USAGE TO FACILITATE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

• US 20130304455A1
• Filed: 05/25/2012
• Published: 11/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: O'SULLIVAN, Patrick J., RAGUILLAT, Fred, Stern, Edith H., WILLNER, Barry E.
• Granted Patent: US 9,442,916 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/063 Content adaptation, e.g. replacement of unsuitable content

Abstract

Provided are techniques for providing annotations for revising a message. A message to be sent from a sender to a recipient is received. A meaning map associated with the sender and a meaning map associated with the recipient are obtained. The message is parsed into sub-constructs. The sub-constructs are compared in the meaning map associated with the sender and the meaning map associated with the recipient. Alternative language for the sub-constructs is identified. Annotations are provided based on the alternative language.

Claims

1. A method for providing annotations for revising a message, comprising:

receiving, using a processor of a computer, a message to be sent from a sender to a recipient;

using a meaning map associated with the sender to determine a first context of the message;

using a meaning map associated with the recipient to determine a second context of the message;

parsing the message into sub-constructs;

comparing the sub-constructs in the meaning map associated with the sender and the meaning map associated with the recipient; and

in response to the comparisons showing a difference greater than a threshold,

identifying alternative language for the sub-constructs in the message; and

providing annotations for the message to the sender based on the alternative language before the message is sent from the sender to the recipient, wherein the annotations indicate the second context of the message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein software is provided as a service in a cloud environment.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the message for the recipient;

obtaining the meaning map associated with the sender; and

providing annotations on how the sender meant the message to be interpreted based on the meaning map associated with the sender.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating a level of misunderstanding that is acceptable with each of one or more recipients who are to receive the message; and

providing annotations for each of the one or more recipients whose threshold exceeds the level.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving selection of a modality for each of one or more recipients who are to receive the message.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the annotations, receiving changes to the message.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein there are multiple recipients and different annotations are provided for different recipients.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the alternative language is identified using at least one of a personal dictionary and a personal thesaurus.