System and method for analysing natural language

Abstract

A computer implemented method for analysing natural language to determine a sentiment between two entities discussed in the natural language, comprising the following steps: receiving the natural language at a processing circuitry; analysing the natural language to determine a syntactic representation which shows syntactic constituents of the analysed natural language and to determine a sentiment score of each constituent; determining which constituents link the two entities; and calculating an overall sentiment score for the sentiment between the two entities by processing the sentiment score of each constituent of the constituents determined to link the two entities.

1 . A computer implemented method for analysing natural language contained in electronic text to determine a sentiment between pairs of two entities discussed in the natural language, comprising the following steps:
 receiving the electronic text containing the natural language at a processing circuitry;   analysing the natural language to determine a syntactic representation which shows the syntactic constituents of the analysed natural language together with determining a sentiment score of each constituent;   establishing a plurality of pairs of entities, each pair comprising two entities; and, for at least two of the established pairs:
 determining which constituents link the two entities of each pair; and 
 calculating an overall sentiment score for the sentiment between the two entities of each pair by processing the sentiment score of each constituent of the constituents determined to link the two entities. 
   
     
     
         2 . A method according to  claim 1  wherein all possible pairs of entities are established. 
     
     
         3 . A method according to  claim 2  wherein the overall sentiment score for the sentiment between the two entities is determined for every established pair. 
     
     
         4 . A method according to  claim 1  wherein the syntactic representation is a tree showing how the entities within the natural language are connected to one another. 
     
     
         5 . A method according to  claim 1  wherein the shortest syntactic dependency path between each entity pair is established, and (sub)contexts that make up the dependency path are then analysed. 
     
     
         6 . A method according to  claim 5  wherein the syntactic representation is a tree showing how the entities within the natural language are connected to one another, and wherein further a tree search is used to determine the shortest path through the tree to determine the shortest path between the two entities. 
     
     
         7 . A method according to  claim 4 , wherein the determination as to which constituents link the two entities of a pair comprises performing a tree search to determine a shortest path. 
     
     
         8 . A method according to  claim 1  wherein a sentiment score for a constituent is determined from an entity sentiment score of an entity within the natural language. 
     
     
         9 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein processing the sentiment score of each constituent of the constituents determined to link the two entities of a pair comprises using a windowed method to include a plurality of entities. 
     
     
         10 . A method according to  claim 9  wherein the windowed method comprises using a set of rules to provide a score for the arrangement of entities within the window. 
     
     
         11 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing executable computer program code for analysing natural language contained in electronic text to determine a sentiment between pairs of two entities discussed in the natural language, the computer program code executable to perform steps comprising:
 receiving the electronic text containing the natural language at a processing circuitry;   analysing the natural language to determine a syntactic representation which shows the syntactic constituents of the analysed natural language together with determining a sentiment score of each constituent;   establishing a plurality of pairs of entities, each pair comprising two entities; and, for at least two of the established pairs:   determining which constituents link the two entities of each pair; and   calculating an overall sentiment score for the sentiment between the two entities of each pair by processing the sentiment score of each constituent of the constituents determined to link the two entities.   
     
     
         12 . A computer system for analyzing natural language contained in electronic text to determine a sentiment between pairs of two entities discussed in the natural language comprising:
 a computer processor for executing computer program code; and   a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer program code comprising:
 an input module arranged to receive the electronic text containing the natural language at a processing circuitry; 
 an input/output subsystem of the processing circuitry arranged to move the received electronic text containing the natural language to a data storage; and 
 an analysing module arranged to:
 analyse the natural language to determine a syntactic representation which shows the syntactic constituents of the analysed natural language together with determining a sentiment score of each constituent; 
 establish, at a relation classifier, a plurality of pairs of entities, each pair comprising two entities; and, for at least two of the established pairs: 
 determine which constituents link the two entities of each pair; and 
 calculate an overall sentiment score for the sentiment between the two entities of each pair by processing the sentiment score of each constituent of the constituents determined to link the two entities.