Deriving ontology based on linguistics and community tag clouds

• US 8,359,191 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2008
• Issued: 01/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chen, Feng-Wei, George, David G., Medicke, John A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Desir, Pierre-Louis
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sirjani, Fariba
• Application Number:
  US12/184,731
• Publication Number:
  US 20100030552A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,635 Days
• Field of Search: 704/270, 704/245, 704 1- 10
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology

Abstract

In some embodiments, a method comprises receiving a tag cloud including tags that hyperlink to web content. The method can also comprise separating the tags into different linguistic categories, assigning a weight to each tag, and grouping the tags into clusters, wherein tags in a cluster are associated with a context. The method can also include determining one or more domains for the tag clusters, wherein a domain is a broadest class that defines one or more of the tags in a linguistic category, determining a hierarchy for the tags based on the weights of the tags, and identifying linguistic relationships between the tags. The method can also comprise determining properties associated with one or more of the tags and one or more of the domains, wherein the tag'"'"'s properties are determined using linguistic analysis and storing the tags, the hierarchies, the linguistic relationships, and the properties.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a tag cloud including a plurality of tags that hyperlink to web content, wherein the tag cloud is chosen by a user and wherein each of the plurality of tags are chosen by users of the web content from among words appearing in the web content;

separating each of the plurality of tags into linguistic categories;

assigning a weight to each of the plurality of tags, wherein the weight is based on a number of times the tag is selected by the users of the web content plus a number of times the tag appears as a title in the web content divided by a number of times the tag appears in the web content;

grouping at least a first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with a noun linguistic category into tag clusters, wherein each tag in each tag cluster is associated with a common context;

determining a domain for each of the tag clusters, wherein each domain defines one or more of the tags of the noun linguistic category that belong to the tag cluster;

for each of the first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with the noun linguistic category, determining, in accordance with the weights of the tags, a weighted ontology tree for the tags based on results from a visual thesaurus;

for each of a second subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with a verb linguistic category, identifying linguistic relationships between each tag of the second subset of the plurality of tags and each of the domains; and

determining properties associated with one or more of the plurality of tags and one or more of the domains, wherein the properties are determined using linguistic analysis.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the linguistic categories include at least one of verbs, nouns, adjectives, synonyms, derived words, and translated words.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the properties includes:

determining supplement information about the one or more tags of the first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with the noun linguistic category, wherein the supplement information includes data from an online dictionary;

parsing the supplement information into a syntax structure tree by classifying the supplement information into parts of speech including noun phrases, verb phrases, and adjective phrases; and

processing the parsed supplemental information to determine one or more attributes associated with the one or more tags of the first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with the noun linguistic category.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a second plurality of tags that hyperlink to second web content;

determining that one or more of the second plurality of tags are associated with the domain that is part of an existing ontology;

determining one or more new attributes and relationships associated with the one or more of the second plurality of tags and one or more of the first plurality of tags associated with the domain; and

augmenting the existing ontology to reflect the second plurality of tags, the new attributes, and the new relationships.

5. The method of claim 1 also comprising:

storing the plurality of tags, the weighted ontology tree, the linguistic relationships, and the properties in an ontology repository;

receiving a request to generate a tag ontology, wherein the tag ontology is generated from information in the ontology repository;

determining relevant information from the ontology repository based on user-defined ontology parameters;

pruning the tag ontology based on a pruning threshold, wherein the pruning threshold determines a conciseness or verbosity of the tag ontology; and

presenting the tag ontology, wherein the tag ontology is in the form of a hierarchy tree.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein tag ontology includes a classification of the one or more of the tags, an association of the tags with synonyms, an indication of context for the tags, and definitions of relationships between one or more of the tags.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein user-defined ontology parameters include one or more of pruning threshold, ontology class, ontology sub-class, ontology language, requirement of ontology attributes, ontology relationships, and ontology siblings.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein a third subset of the plurality of tags with a weight lower than the pruning threshold are removed from the tag ontology.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

dynamically generating the tag ontology in a user-specified ontology language.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said grouping at least the first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with the noun linguistic category into tag clusters comprises:

determining that a first tag of the first subset of the plurality of tags and a second tag of the first subset of the plurality of tags have a common characteristic and are semantically similar; and

grouping the first tag of the first subset of the plurality of tags and the second tag of the first subset of the plurality of tags into a first cluster.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining the domain name for each of the tag clusters comprises:

selecting one of the tags in the tag cluster that is associated with the lowest weight; and

designating the selected tag with the lowest weight as the domain associated with the tag cluster, wherein the domain describes other of the tags that belong to the tag cluster.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein for each of the first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with the noun linguistic category, said determining the weighted ontology tree for the subset of the plurality of tags based on the weights of the tags comprises:

ordering the tags of the first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with the noun linguistic category based on the weight assigned to each of the tags;

for each of the ordered first subset of the plurality of tags,

determining a hierarchy associated with the tag based on accessing the visual thesaurus, wherein the hierarchy associated with the tag indicates a semantic classification of the tag;

determining whether the hierarchy associated with the tag comprises another of the plurality of the tags;

if it is determined that the hierarchy associated with the tag comprises another of the plurality of tags, determining not to analyze the identified another of the plurality of the tags; and

combining the hierarchies determined for each tag of the first subset of the plurality of tags to yield the weighted ontology tree associated with all tags of the first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with the noun linguistic category, wherein the weighted ontology tree indicates relationships between each of the first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with the noun linguistic category.

13. A system comprising:

a tag cloud linguistic analyzer configured to receive a tag cloud including a plurality of tags that hyperlink to web content, wherein the tag cloud is chosen by a user and wherein each of the plurality of tags are chosen by users of the web content from among words appearing in the web content,

the tag cloud linguistic analyzer configured to separate each of the plurality of tags into linguistic categories, and to assign a weight to each of the plurality of tags, wherein the weight is based on a number of times the tag is selected by the users of the web content plus a number of times the tag appears as a title in the web content divided by a number of times the tag appears in the web content;

a semantic domain analyzer configured to group at least a first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with a noun linguistic category into tag clusters, wherein tags in each tag cluster are associated with a common context, and to determine a domain for each of the tag clusters, wherein each domain defines one or more of the tags of the noun linguistic category that belong to the tag cluster;

a taxonomy builder configured to determine, for each of the first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with the noun linguistic category and in accordance with the weights of the tags, a weighted ontology tree for the subset of the plurality of tags based on results from a visual thesaurus;

a relationship analyzer configured to identify, for each of a second subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with a verb linguistic category, linguistic relationships between each tag of the second subset of the plurality of tags and each of the domains;

an attribute analyzer configured to determine properties associated with one or more of the plurality of tags and one or more of the domains, wherein the properties are determined using linguistic analysis;

an ontology repository to store the tags, the hierarchies, the linguistic relationships, and the properties; and

a processor configured to execute one or more of the tag cloud linguistic analyzer, the semantic domain analyzer, the taxonomy builder, the relationship analyzer, the attribute analyzer, and the ontology repository.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the different linguistic categories include at least one of verbs, nouns, adjectives, synonyms, derived words, and translated words.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the attribute analyzer is further configured to determine supplement information about the one or more tags of the first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with the noun linguistic category, wherein the supplement information includes data from an online dictionary,

to parse the supplement information into a syntax structure tree by classifying the supplement information into parts of speech including noun phrases, verb phrases, and adjective phrases, and

processing the parsed supplemental information to determine one or more attributes associated with the one or more tags of the first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with the noun linguistic category.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the system is further configured to

receive a second plurality of tags that hyperlink to second web content;

determine that one or more of the second plurality of tags are associated with the domain that is part of an existing ontology;

determine one or more new attributes and relationships associated with the one or more of the second plurality of tags and one or more of the first plurality of tags associated with the domain; and

augment the existing ontology to reflect the second plurality of tags, the new attributes, and the new relationships.

17. The system of claim 13 also comprising:

one or more applications configured to receive a request to generate a tag ontology, wherein the tag ontology is generated from information stored in an ontology repository;

an ontology generator configured to determine relevant information from the ontology repository based on user-defined ontology parameters and to present the tag ontology, wherein the tag ontology is in the form of a hierarchy tree, and

an ontology pruner configured to prune the tag ontology based on a pruning threshold, wherein the pruning threshold determines a conciseness or verbosity of the tag ontology.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein tag ontology includes a classification of the one or more of the tags, an association of the tags with synonyms, an indication of context for the tags, and definitions of relationships between one or more of the tags.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein user-defined ontology parameters include one or more of pruning threshold, ontology class, ontology sub-class, ontology language, requirement of ontology attributes, ontology relationships, and ontology siblings.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the ontology pruner is configured to remove, from the tag ontology, a third subset of the plurality of tags with a weight lower than the pruning threshold.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the ontology generator configured to dynamically generate in a user-specified ontology language including OWL and RDF, wherein an ontology language is used to encode ontology.

22. One or more machine-readable storage devices having stored therein a program product, which when executed by a set of one or more processor units causes the set of one or more processor units to perform operations comprising:

receiving a tag cloud including a plurality of tags that hyperlink to web content, wherein the tag cloud is chosen by a user and wherein each of the plurality of tags are chosen by users of the web content from among words appearing in the web content;

separating each of the plurality of tags into linguistic categories;

assigning a weight to each of the plurality of tags, wherein the weight is based on a number of times the tag is selected by the users of the web content plus a number of times the tag appears as a title in the web content divided by a number of times the tag appears in the web content;

grouping at least a first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with a noun linguistic category into tag clusters, wherein each tag in each tag cluster is associated with a common context;

determining a domain for each of the tag clusters, wherein each domain defines one or more of the tags of the noun linguistic category that belong to the tag cluster;

for each of the first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with the noun linguistic category, determining, in accordance with the weights of the tags, a weighted ontology tree for the first subset of the plurality of tags based on results from a visual thesaurus;

for each of a second subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with a verb linguistic category, identifying linguistic relationships between each tag of the second subset of the plurality of tags and each of the domains; and

determining properties associated with one or more of the plurality of tags and one or more of the domains, wherein the properties are determined using linguistic analysis.

23. The one or more machine readable storage devices of claim 22, wherein the different linguistic categories include at least one of verbs, nouns, adjectives, synonyms, derived words, and translated words.

24. The one or more machine readable storage devices of claim 22, wherein the determining the properties includes:

determining supplement information about the one or more tags of the first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with the noun linguistic category, wherein the supplement information includes data from an online dictionary;

parsing the supplement information into a syntax structure tree by classifying the supplement information into parts of speech including noun phrases, verb phrases, and adjective phrases; and

processing the parsed supplemental information to determine one or more attributes associated with the one or more tags of the first subset of the plurality of tags that are associated with the noun linguistic category.

25. The one or more machine readable storage devices of claim 22, further comprising:

receiving a second plurality of tags that hyperlink to second web content;

determining that one or more of the second plurality of tags are associated with the domain that is part of an existing ontology;

determining one or more new attributes and relationships associated with the one or more of the second plurality of tags and one or more of the first plurality of tags associated with the domain; and

augmenting the existing ontology to reflect the second plurality of tags, the new attributes, and the new relationships.