Recognition and classification of noun phrases in queries for effective retrieval

ABSTRACT

It has been shown that using phrases properly in the document retrieval leads to higher retrieval effectiveness. In this paper, we define four types of noun phrases and present an algorithm for recognizing these phrases in queries. The strengths of several existing tools are combined for phrase recognition. Our algorithm is tested using a set of 500 web queries from a query log, and a set of 238 TREC queries. Experimental results show that our algorithm yields high phrase recognition accuracy. We also use a baseline noun phrase recognition algorithm to recognize phrases from the TREC queries. A document retrieval experiment is conducted using the TREC queries (1) without any phrases, (2) with the phrases recognized from a baseline noun phrase recognition algorithm, and (3) with the phrases recognized from our algorithm respectively. The retrieval effectiveness of (3) is better than that of (2), which is better than that of (1). This demonstrates that utilizing phrases in queries does improve the retrieval effectiveness, and better noun phrase recognition yields higher retrieval performance.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.1 Content Analysis and Indexing
          Subjects: Dictionaries

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.1 Content Analysis and Indexing
          Subjects: Linguistic processing
      H.3.3 Information Search and Retrieval
          Subjects: Query formulation

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Experimentation

Keywords:
complex phrase, dictionary phrase, feedback, information retrieval, noun phrases, proper noun, simple phrase, verification