System for connotative analysis of discourse

• US 6,332,143 B1
• Filed: 08/11/1999
• Issued: 12/18/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Lymbix, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Roedy Black Publishing Inc.
• Inventors: Chase, Wayne O.
• Primary Examiner(s): Breene, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rayyan, Susan F.
• Application Number:
  US09/372,737
• Time in Patent Office: 860 Days
• Field of Search: 707/5, 707/1, 704/1, 704/9, 704/10, 434/236, 434/169
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/237 Lexical tools

Abstract

A computerized interactive language reference system includes a database of terms with associated denotative, connotative and human interest information. The system goes through each word of a passage and determines whether there is an entry in the database for such word. For each term where there is an entry, there is a check to see if the term has more than one denotative meaning. Where there is more than one denotative meaning, an appropriate one of the denotative meanings is selected. The system evaluates the passage for positive emotional connotations, negative emotional connotations, global emotional connotations, human interest, connotations of power, connotations of activity and connotations of abstractness/concreteness. Dominant emotional connotations and dominant words also are specifically identified and ranked.

Claims

1. A method for analyzing a passage of discourse for connotative information, comprising the steps of:

identifying terms in the discourse which correspond to an entry in a database of terms, the database having a plurality of records, each record corresponding to a term of the data base and including;

a first field identifying the term for the corresponding record;

a second field for identifying a denotative context for the term in the first field;

a plurality of connotative fields, each one of the plurality of connotative fields storing a code corresponding to one selection of a plurality of predefined connotations, the plurality of predefined connotations comprising an indicator of no connotative association and a plurality of sets of emotional descriptors, each one set of the plurality of sets corresponding to a mutually exclusive one emotional category of a plurality of emotional categories;

the method further comprising the step of accumulating a respective tally for each one of a plurality of predefined connotations that is associated with the terms identified in the passage.

2. The method of claim 1, in which there are a plurality of tallies accumulated in the accumulating step and further comprising the step of combining the respective tallies of predefined connotations which correspond to a common emotional category for each one of the plurality of emotional categories.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of displaying a rating of emotion in which the rating is based upon the combined tallies.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

displaying a rating of positive emotions in which the rating is based upon the combined tallies; and

displaying a rating of negative emotions in which the rating is based upon the combined tallies.

5. The method of claim 1, in which there are a plurality of tallies accumulated in the accumulating step and further comprising the step of displaying a set of dominant connotations selected from the plurality of predefined connotations based upon the respective tallies.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

tracking the number of occurrences of terms identified in the passage that are associated with an emotional descriptor among the plurality of sets of emotional descriptors.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

evaluating the passage for use of terms identifying people; and

displaying a rating of human interest which is based upon the evaluation for use of terms identifying people.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

displaying a list of dominant terms identified in the passage which relate to people.

10. The method of claim 1, in which each record corresponding to a term of the data base further includes:

a power field for identifying a power rating associated with the term in the first field;

the method further comprising the steps of;

deriving an average power rating for the identified terms of the passage; and

displaying a power rating for the passage which is based upon the derived average power rating.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of:

displaying a list of terms which most impact the power rating for the passage.

12. The method of claim 1, in which each record corresponding to a term of the data base further includes:

an activity field for identifying an activity rating associated with the term in the first field;

the method further comprising the steps of;

deriving an average activity rating for the identified terms of the passage; and

displaying an activity rating for the passage which is based upon the derived average activity rating.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of:

displaying a list of terms which most impact the activity rating for the passage.

14. The method of claim 1, in which each record corresponding to a term of the data base further includes:

a field for identifying a rating along a scale of abstractness to concreteness associated with the term in the first field;

the method further comprising the steps of;

deriving an average rating of abstractness versus concreteness for the identified terms of the passage; and

displaying a rating of abstractness versus concreteness for the passage which is based upon the derived average rating of abstractness versus concreteness.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of:

displaying a list of terms which most impact the rating of abstractness versus concreteness for the passage.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

determining a percentage of words in the passage for which there is a corresponding term in the data base having an associated emotional descriptor from among the plurality of sets of emotional descriptors.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

determining a percentage of words in the passage which are among a set of core words for a language in which the passage is written.

18. The method of claim 1, in which the respective tallies are of emotional categories, and wherein the step of accumulating comprises accumulating the respective tally by emotional category for each one of a plurality of predefined connotations that is associated with the terms identified in the passage.

44. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

displaying an analysis message pertaining to the discourse based upon the accummulated respective tallies.

45. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

identifying an analysis message among a plurality of predefined analaysis messages based upon the accummulated respective tallies; and

displaying the identified analysis message.

6. The method of 5, in which the set of dominant connotations is displayed according to a categorization of the displayed connotations.

19. A computer system for executing a computer program which analyzes a passage of discourse for connotative information, the system comprising:

a data base having a plurality of records, each record including;

a first field identifying the term for the corresponding record;

a second field for identifying a denotative context for the term in the first field; and

a plurality of connotative fields, each one of the plurality of connotative fields storing a code corresponding to one selection of a plurality of predefined connotations, the plurality of predefined connotations comprising an indicator of no connotative association and a plurality of sets of emotional descriptors, each one set of the plurality of sets corresponding to a mutually exclusive one emotional category of a plurality of emotional categories;

the system further comprising;

means for identifying terms in the discourse which correspond to an entry in a database of terms;

means for accumulating a respective tally for each one of a plurality of predefined connotations that is associated with the terms identified in the passage.

20. The system of claim 19, in which the respective tallies are of emotional categories, and wherein the accumulating means accumulates the respective tally by emotional category for each one of the plurality of predefined connotations that is associated with the terms identified in the passage.

21. The system of claim 19, in which there are a plurality of tallies accumulated in the accumulating step and further comprising the step of combining the respective tallies of predefined connotations which correspond to a common emotional category for each one of the plurality of emotional categories.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising means for displaying a rating of emotion in which the rating is based upon the combined tallies.

23. The system of claim 21, further comprising:

means for displaying a rating of positive emotions in which the rating is based upon the combined tallies; and

means for displaying a rating of negative emotions in which the rating is based upon the combined tallies.

24. The system of claim 19, in which there are a plurality of tallies accumulated by the accumulating means and further comprising means for displaying a set of dominant connotations selected from the plurality of predefined connotations based upon the respective tallies.

26. The system of claim 19, further comprising means for tracking the number of occurrences of terms identified in the passage that are associated with an emotional descriptor among the plurality of sets of emotional descriptors.

27. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

means for evaluating the passage for use of terms relating to people; and

means for displaying a rating of human interest which is based upon the evaluation for use of terms relating to people.

28. The system of claim 27, further comprising means for displaying a list of dominant terms identified in the passage which relate to people.

29. The system of claim 19, in which each record corresponding to a term of the data base further includes:

a power field for identifying a power rating associated with the term in the first field;

the system further comprising;

means for deriving an average power rating for the identified terms of the passage; and

means for displaying a power rating for the passage which is based upon the derived average power rating.

30. The system of claim 29, further comprising means for displaying a list of terms which most impact the power rating for the passage.

31. The system of claim 19, in which each record corresponding to a term of the data base further includes:

an activity field for identifying an activity rating associated with the term in the first field;

the system further comprising;

means for deriving an average activity rating for the identified terms of the passage; and

means for displaying an activity rating for the passage which is based upon the derived average activity rating.

32. The system of claim 31, further comprising means for displaying a list of terms which most impact the activity rating for the passage.

33. The system of claim 19, in which each record corresponding to a term of the data base further includes:

a field for identifying a rating along a scale of abstractness to concreteness associated with the term in the first field;

the system further comprising;

means for deriving an average rating of abstractness versus concreteness for the identified terms of the passage; and

means for displaying a rating of abstractness versus concreteness for the passage which is based upon the derived average rating of abstractness versus concreteness.

34. The system of claim 33, further comprising means for displaying a list of terms which most impact the rating of abstractness versus concreteness for the passage.

35. The system of claim 19, further comprising means for determining a percentage of words in the passage for which there is a corresponding term in the data base having an associated emotional descriptor from among the plurality of sets of emotional descriptors.

36. The system of claim 19, further comprising means for determining a percentage of words in the passage which are among a set of core words for a language in which the passage is written.

46. The system of claim 19, in which the data base is a first data base, the system further comprising:

a second data base of predefined analytical messages; and

means for selecting a predefined analytical message from the second data base to display based upon the accummulated respective tallies.

25. The system of 24, in which the set of dominant connotations is displayed according to a categorization of the displayed connotations.

37. A computer readable storage medium for storing a connotative language reference, comprising a data base and computer executable code means of instructions, the data base comprising a plurality of records, each record including:

a first field identifying the term for the corresponding record;

a second field for identifying a denotative context for the term in the first field;

a plurality of connotative fields, each one of the plurality of connotative fields storing a code corresponding to one selection of a plurality of predefined connotations, the plurality of predefined connotations comprising an indicator of no connotative association and a plurality of sets of emotional descriptors, each one set of the plurality of sets corresponding to a mutually exclusive one emotional category of a plurality of emotional categories;

the computer executable code means comprising;

code means for identifying terms in the discourse which correspond to an entry in a database of terms; and

code means for accumulating a respective tally for each one of a plurality of predefined connotations that is associated with the terms identified in the passage.

38. The medium of claim 37, in which the respective tallies are of emotional categories, and wherein the accumulating code means is for accumulating the respective tally by emotional category for each one of the plurality of predefined connotations that is associated with the terms identified in the passage.

39. The medium of claim 37, in which there are a plurality of tallies accumulated by the accumulating code means and further comprising code means for combining the respective tallies of predefined connotations which correspond to a common emotional category for each one of the plurality of emotional categories.

40. The medium of claim 39, further comprising code means for displaying a rating of emotion in which the rating is based upon the combined tallies.

41. The medium of claim 39, further comprising:

code means for displaying a rating of positive emotions in which the rating is based upon the combined tallies; and

code means for displaying a rating of negative emotions in which the rating is based upon the combined tallies.

42. The medium of claim 37, in which there are a plurality of tallies accumulated by the accumulating code means and further comprising code means for displaying a set of dominant connotations selected from the plurality of predefined connotations based upon the respective tallies.

43. The medium of claim 37, further comprising:

code means for tracking the number of occurrences of terms identified in the passage that are associated with an emotional descriptor among the plurality of sets of emotional descriptors.

47. The medium of claim 37, in which the data base is a first data base, the medium further comprising a second data base of predefined analytical messages, the computer executable code means further comprising means for selecting a predefined analytical message from the second data base to display based upon the accummulated respective tallies.