Method and apparatus for providing proper or partial proper name recognition

• US 20060015484A1
• Filed: 07/15/2004
• Published: 01/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch LLC (Robert Bosch GmbH)
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch LLC (Robert Bosch GmbH)
• Inventors: Zhao, Lin, Weng, Fuliang
• Granted Patent: US 7,865,356 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/295 Named entity recognition

Abstract

A method of proper name recognition includes classifying each word of a word string with a tag indicating a proper name entity category or a non-named entity category, and correcting the tag of a boundary word of the word string.

Claims

1. A method of proper name recognition, comprising:

classifying each word of a word string with a tag indicating one of a proper named entity category and a non-named entity category; and

correcting the tag of a word of the word string.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the tag corresponds to a position relative to a named entity of the proper name entity category.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the proper named entity category includes two named entities.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each word is classified using a memory-based named entity classifier.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each word is classified using a maximum entropy based classifier.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each word is classified using a memory-based learning classifier and a maximum entropy based classifier.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the tag is corrected using a boundary correction procedure.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each word is classified using a memory-based named entity classifier and a maximum entropy based classifier, and the tag is corrected using a boundary correction procedure.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forming a pool of candidate full names for a given partial proper name;

changing the tag of a boundary word of the given partial proper name to indicate a non-named entity category if the boundary word does not exist in the pool of candidate full names;

examining a neighboring word of the given partial proper name; and

assigning the neighboring word of the given partial proper name to the named entity category if the neighboring word occurs in the candidate full name with the same ordering.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forming a pool of candidate full names that have a maximum number of words occurring in a given partial proper name, wherein an order of matched words of the candidate full names is the same as that of the partial proper name;

removing a candidate full name from the pool if when one or more inner words in the given partial proper name is removed the resulting partial proper name is a substring in the candidate full name;

changing the tag of a boundary word of the partial proper name to the non-named entity category tag if the boundary word does not exist in the full name pool;

examining a neighboring word of the partial proper name; and

assigning the neighboring word to the partial proper name if the neighboring word occurs in the candidate full name and with the same ordering.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

removing a candidate full name from the pool if matching part of speech tags of the candidate full name are all non-content words, unless all of the part of speech tabs in the candidate full name are non-content words.

3. The method of claim 3, wherein the tag is selected from the IOB tag set.

13. A system for proper name recognition, comprising:

a baseline named entity classifier to assign a named entity tag to each word of a word string; and

a correction module to correct the named entity tag of a word of the word string.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the baseline named entity classifier includes a memory-based learning classifier.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the named entity classifier includes a maximum entropy based classifier.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the named entity classifier includes a memory-based learning classifier and a maximum entropy based classifier.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the named entity classifier is configured to perform IOB tagging.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the correction module includes a boundary correction module.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the baseline named entity classifier includes a memory-based classifier and a maximum entropy based classifier, and the correction module includes a boundary correction module.

20. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a database including full proper names,

wherein the correction module is configured to select one or more candidate names from the database and correct the named entity tag of one or more words of the word string based on a comparison of the candidate names and a given partial proper name.

21. A processing arrangement to perform proper name recognition, comprising:

an input arrangement to receive a word string;

a first set of instructions to assign a named entity tag to each word of the word string;

a second set of instructions to correct the named entity tag of a boundary word of the word string;

a central processing unit to execute the first and second set of instructions; and

an output arrangement to output a result of the executed instructions.

22. A storage medium having a set of instructions executable by a processor to perform the following:

classifying each word of a word string with a tag indicating one of a proper name entity category and a non-named entity category; and

correcting the tag of a boundary word of the word string.

23. The storage medium of claim 22, further comprising:

forming a pool of candidate full names for a given partial proper name;

changing the tag of a boundary word of the given partial proper name to indicate a non-named entity category if the boundary word does not exist in the pool of candidate full names;

examining a neighboring word of the given partial proper name; and

assigning the neighboring word of the given partial proper name to the named entity category if the neighboring word occurs in the candidate full name with the same ordering.

24. The storage medium of claim 22, further comprising:

forming a pool of candidate full names that have a maximum number of words occurring in a given partial proper name, wherein an order of matched words of the candidate full names is the same as that of the partial proper name;

removing a candidate full name from the pool if when one or more inner words in the given partial proper name is removed the resulting partial proper name is a substring in the candidate full name;

removing a candidate full name from the pool if matching part of speech tags of the candidate full name are all non-content words, unless all of the part of speech tabs in the candidate full name are non-content words;

changing a tag of a boundary word of the partial proper name to the non-named entity category tag if the boundary word does not exist in the full name pool;

examining a neighboring word of the partial proper name; and

assigning the neighboring word to the partial proper name if the neighboring word occurs in the candidate full name and with the same ordering.