System and method for automatically summarizing fine-grained opinions in digital text

Abstract

A method and system for automatically summarizing fine-grained opinions in digital text are disclosed. Accordingly, a digital text is analyzed for the purpose of extracting all opinion expressions found in the text. Next, the extracted opinion expressions (referred to herein as opinion frames) are analyzed to generate opinion summaries. In forming an opinion summary, those opinion frames sharing in common an opinion source and/or opinion topic may be combined, such that an overall opinion summary indicates an aggregate opinion held by the common source toward the common topic.

1 . A computer-implemented method, using a processor, for generating an opinion summary from a digital text, said method comprising:
 extracting a plurality of opinion expressions from the digital text using the processor, each opinion expression identified by a grammatical element and associated with an opinion source to which the opinion expression is to be attributed, an opinion topic, an opinion polarity and an opinion strength, wherein the digital text includes opinions expressions from a plurality of opinion sources;   identifying those opinion expressions that share a common opinion source and a common opinion topic using the processor; and   combining the opinion polarities and opinion strengths of those opinion expressions that share a common opinion source to form an overall opinion summary with one aggregate opinion frame for each common opinion source-topic pairing.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying those opinion expressions that share a common opinion source includes identifying those opinion expressions that have a common real-world opinion source expressed in the digital text with different language. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying those opinion expressions that share a common opinion topic includes identifying those opinion expressions that have a common real-world opinion topic expressed in the digital text with different language. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 for those opinion expressions that share a common opinion source and common opinion topic, generating an overall opinion summary having opinion polarities and opinion strengths based on averaging those opinion polarities of the opinion expressions that share the common opinion source and common opinion topic, wherein the averaging takes into consideration the opinion strength associated with each opinion polarity.   
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 for those opinion expressions that share a common opinion source and a common opinion topic, generating an overall opinion summary having an opinion polarity and opinion strength based on the opinion polarity and opinion strength of the opinion expression identified as having the most extreme opinion polarity and opinion strength of the opinion expressions that share a common opinion source and common opinion topic.   
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 for those opinion expressions that share a common opinion source and a common opinion topic, generating an overall opinion summary which indicates whether there is a conflict between any two opinion polarities of any two opinion expressions that share a common opinion source and common opinion topic.   
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein each opinion expression is associated with at least one of an author and a publisher of the digital text in which the opinion expression is located. 
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the grammatical element is at least one of a word, a plurality of words, and a phrase. 
     
     
         9 . A computer-implemented method, using a processor, for generating an opinion summary from a digital text, said method comprising:
 extracting a plurality of opinion expressions from the digital text using the processor, each opinion expression identified by a grammatical element and associated with an opinion source to which the opinion expression is to be attributed, an opinion topic, an opinion polarity and an opinion strength, wherein the digital text includes opinions expressions from a plurality of opinion sources;   organizing the plurality of opinion expressions into data fields, including an opinion source field, using the processor; and   generating an opinion summary with one aggregate opinion frame for each unique opinion topic.   
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 9 , wherein identifying those opinion expressions that share a common opinion topic includes identifying those opinion expressions that have a common real-world opinion topic expressed in the digital text with different language. 
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 for those opinion expressions that share a common opinion topic, generating an overall opinion summary having opinion polarities and opinion strengths based on averaging those opinion polarities of the opinion expressions that share the common opinion topic, wherein the averaging takes into consideration the opinion strength associated with each opinion polarity.   
     
     
         12 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 for those opinion expressions that share a common opinion topic, generating an overall opinion summary having an opinion polarity and opinion strength based on the opinion polarity and opinion strength of the opinion expression identified as having the most extreme opinion polarity and opinion strength of the opinion expressions that share a common opinion topic.   
     
     
         13 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 for those opinion expressions that share a common opinion topic, generating an overall opinion summary which indicates whether there is a conflict between any two opinion polarities of any two opinion expressions that share a common opinion topic.   
     
     
         14 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 for each overall opinion summary associated with a unique topic, determining at least one of the number of and the percentage of positive opinion expressions and/or negative opinion expressions directed toward the unique topic.   
     
     
         15 . A computer-implemented method, using a processor, for generating an opinion summary from a digital text, said method comprising:
 extracting a plurality of opinion expressions from the digital text using the processor, each opinion expression identified by a grammatical element and associated with an opinion source to which the opinion expression is to be attributed, an opinion topic, an opinion polarity and an opinion strength, wherein the digital text includes opinions expressions from a plurality of opinion sources;   identifying those opinion expressions that share a common opinion source using the processor; and   combining the opinion polarities and opinion strengths of those opinion expressions that share a common opinion source to form an overall opinion summary with one aggregate opinion frame for each common opinion source.   
     
     
         16 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 15 , wherein identifying those opinion expressions that share a common opinion source includes identifying those opinion expressions that have a common real-world opinion source expressed in the digital text with different language. 
     
     
         17 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 for those opinion expressions that share a common opinion source, generating an overall opinion summary having opinion polarities and opinion strengths based on averaging those opinion polarities of the opinion expressions that share the common opinion source, wherein the averaging takes into consideration the opinion strength associated with each opinion polarity.   
     
     
         18 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 for those opinion expressions that share a common opinion source, generating an overall opinion summary having an opinion polarity and opinion strength based on the opinion polarity and opinion strength of the opinion expression identified as having the most extreme opinion polarity and opinion strength of the opinion expressions that share a common opinion source.   
     
     
         19 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 for those opinion expressions that share a common opinion source, generating an overall opinion summary which indicates whether there is a conflict between any two opinion polarities of any two opinion expressions that share a common opinion source.   
     
     
         20 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 for each overall opinion summary associated with a unique opinion source, determining at least one of the number of and the percentage of positive opinion expressions and/or negative opinion expressions associated with the unique opinion source.