International Business Machines Corporation

Charles E McManis, Jr

Douglas A Smith

Malous Melissa Kossarian

Jennifer Ann English

A technique for answering questions includes receiving a question directed to a first subject. A mathematical operation is performed between each of one or more first topic vectors (associated with the first subject) and each of one or more second topic vectors (associated with a second subject) to generate respective strength values. Relevant ones of the respective strength values are summed to provide an overall strength value, which is utilized to determine a semantic distance (SD) between the first subject and the second subject. In response to the SD being within a threshold distance value (TDV), information associated with the first subject and the second subject is utilized to answer the question. In response to the SD not being within the TDV, information associated with the first subject is utilized to answer the question.

Answering questions based on semantic distances between subjects

A computer-implemented method according to one embodiment includes identifying a plurality of documents associated with a predetermined subject, where each of the plurality of documents contains textual data, analyzing the textual data of each of the plurality of documents to identify one or more categories within the plurality of the documents, and returning the one or more categories identified within the plurality of the documents.

Identifying categories within textual data

A technique for calculating a semantic distance between subjects includes performing a mathematical operation between each of one or more first topic vectors and each of one or more second topic vectors to generate respective strength values. The first topic vectors are associated with respective first topics of a first subject, the second topic vectors are associated with respective second topics of a second subject, and the respective strength values are indicative of a relative closeness between associated ones of the first and second topics. Relevant ones of the respective strength values are summed to provide an overall strength value between the first subject and the second subject. A semantic distance between the first subject and the second subject is determined based on the overall strength value.

Techniques for determining a semantic distance between subjects

Determining a semantic distance between subjects

Embodiments provide a system and method for semantic distance calculation. The method can involve receiving a plurality of documents having a set of subjects extracted through the use of latent dirichlet allocation; for each document in the plurality of documents, generating a classification list comprising a ranking of the one or more subjects based on the relevance of each subject to the document; for each classification list, calculating the semantic distance between each subject present on the classification list; aggregating the plurality of classification lists; and creating a distance matrix containing the relative semantic distances between each member of the set of subjects.

Phenomenological semantic distance from latent dirichlet allocations (LDA) classification

Embodiments provide a system and method for semantic distance calculation. The method can involve ingesting a plurality of documents; extracting a set of subjects from the plurality of documents using latent dirichlet allocation; for each document in the plurality of documents, generating a classification list comprising a ranking of the one or more subjects based on the relevance of each subject to the document; for each classification list, calculating the semantic distance between each subject present on the classification list; aggregating the plurality of classification lists; and creating a distance matrix containing the relative semantic distances between each member of the set of subjects.

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Charles E McManis, Jr