Disambiguation of dependent referring expression in natural language processing

• US 9,286,291 B2
• Filed: 02/15/2013
• Issued: 03/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bufe, John P., Byron, Donna Karen, Pikovsky, Alexander, Seabolt, Edward E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Tammy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Leland, III, Edwin S
• Application Number:
  US13/768,136
• Publication Number:
  US 20140236569A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,124 Days
• Field of Search: 704/9
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/247 Thesauruses; Synonyms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/289 Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/295 Named entity recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/40 Processing or translation of natural language natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30

Abstract

A system, and computer program product for disambiguation of dependent referring expression in natural language processing are provided in the illustrative embodiments. A portion of a document in a set of document is selected, the portion including a set of dependent referring expression instances. The portion is filtered to identify an instance from a set of dependent referring expression instances by using a linguistic characteristic of the instance, the instance of dependent referring expression referring to a full expression occurring in the set of documents. The full expression is located in one member document in the set of documents by locating where the dependent referring expression is defined to be a stand-in for the full expression. The instance is resolved using the full expression such that information about the full expression is available at a location of the instance.

Claims

1. A computer usable program product comprising a computer usable storage device including computer usable code for disambiguation of dependent referring expression in natural language processing, the computer usable code comprising:

computer usable code for selecting a portion of a document in a set of documents, the portion including a set of dependent referring expression instances;

computer usable code for filtering the portion to identify an instance from a set of dependent referring expression instances by using a linguistic characteristic of the instance, the instance of dependent referring expression referring to a full expression, the full expression occurring in another document in the set of documents;

computer usable code for locating the full expression in one member document in the set of documents by locating where the dependent referring expression is defined to be a stand-in for the full expression; and

computer usable code for resolving, using a processor and a memory, the instance using the full expression such that information about the full expression is available at a location of the instance, wherein the computer usable code for resolving comprises;

computer usable code for modifying the instance by adding data at a location of the instance, such that the data makes the information about the full expression accessible from the location of the instance;

computer usable code for modifying the document to produce a second document, wherein the second document includes a mapping between the instance and the full expression in a metadata section of the second document, the metadata section being distinct from a location of the instance; and

computer usable code for linking the instance to the mapping using a link, wherein the link is usable to make the information about the full expression accessible from the location of the instance.

2. The computer usable program product of claim 1, further comprising:

computer usable code for outputting a second set of documents corresponding to the set of documents, wherein a document in the second set of document corresponds to the document in the set of documents, and wherein the document in the second set of documents includes a modified form of the instance responsive to the resolving.

3. The computer usable program product of claim 1, wherein the computer usable code for resolving comprises:

computer usable code for replacing the instance with a copy of the full expression.

4. The computer usable program product of claim 1, wherein none of the documents in the set of documents is a generally purposed repository usable for translating a document not in the set of documents.

5. The computer usable program product of claim 1, wherein the set of documents is configured for natural language processing of cumulative contents of the set of documents.

6. The computer usable program product of claim 1, wherein the computer usable code is stored in a computer readable storage medium in a data processing system, and wherein the computer usable code is transferred over a network from a remote data processing system.

7. The computer usable program product of claim 1, wherein the computer usable code is stored in a computer readable storage medium in a server data processing system, and wherein the computer usable code is downloaded over a network to a remote data processing system for use in a computer readable storage medium associated with the remote data processing system.

8. A data processing system for disambiguation of dependent referring expression in natural language processing, the data processing system comprising:

a storage device including a storage medium, wherein the storage device stores computer usable program code; and

a processor, wherein the processor executes the computer usable program code, and wherein the computer usable program code comprises;

computer usable code for selecting a portion of a document in a set of documents, the portion including a set of dependent referring expression instances;

computer usable code for filtering the portion to identify an instance from a set of dependent referring expression instances by using a linguistic characteristic of the instance, the instance of dependent referring expression referring to a full expression, the full expression occurring in another document in the set of documents;

computer usable code for locating the full expression in one member document in the set of documents by locating where the dependent referring expression is defined to be a stand-in for the full expression; and

computer usable code for resolving, using a processor and a memory, the instance using the full expression such that information about the full expression is available at a location of the instance, wherein the computer usable code for resolving comprises;

computer usable code for modifying the instance by adding data at a location of the instance, such that the data makes the information about the full expression accessible from the location of the instance;

computer usable code for modifying the document to produce a second document, wherein the second document includes a mapping between the instance and the full expression in a metadata section of the second document, the metadata section being distinct from a location of the instance; and

computer usable code for linking the instance to the mapping using a link, wherein the link is usable to make the information about the full expression accessible from the location of the instance.