JP2003150614A - Text summarizing method and device, text summarizing program and storage medium stored with text summarizing program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent erroneous read by indicating that one sentence or a plurality of successive sentences are present between the separated sentences of a high importance degree without making them be adjacent to each other. SOLUTION: An appearing order is imparted to each sentence, the importance degree is calculated for each sentence and the sentences of the importance degree higher than a prescribed threshold or a prescribed number of the sentences are extracted. In the case of judging that the sentences extracted on the basis of the order are not adjacent, a symbol is inserted or a line is fed, information of the entire sentences including the symbol is calculated and the number of the sentences is increased or reduced until an information amount of the entire extracted sentences becomes equal to or less than a prescribed number of characters or a summarization degree. Sentence extraction/ information amount calculation are repeated and the extracted sentences (including the symbol) are displayed according to the order.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a text summarization method and apparatus, a text summarization program, and a storage medium storing the text summarization program, and more particularly to not only important sentences in text but also sentences sandwiched between important sentences. The present invention relates to a text summarization method and apparatus for generating a summarization text including a symbol indicating that a text has been dropped, a text summarization program, and a storage medium storing the text summarization program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in text summarization, when a sentence contains a previously specified clue,
An important sentence extraction method has been proposed in which the sentence is given importance, the sentences are arranged according to the given score, and the sentences having higher importance in the range of the summarization rate and the limited number of characters are selected and output in order. .

[0003]

However, in the above-described conventional text summarizing method, since only a sentence having a high degree of importance is output, and another sentence which is apart from a certain sentence is adjacent, a summary is read. , The problem of misinterpreting the meaning of the text occurs.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and one sentence that is not selected because of its low importance or a plurality of continuous sentences is symbolized and output, so that it is highly distant. Text summarization method and device, text summarization program and text summarization capable of preventing misreading by indicating that sentences are not adjacent to each other and one sentence or a plurality of consecutive sentences are present between them It is an object to provide a storage medium storing a program.

[0005]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the principle of the present invention.

The present invention (Claim 1) is a text summarizing method for summarizing a text consisting of at least three sentences, the text is divided into sentences, and a sequential sentence number is given to each divided sentence (step 1) Assigning importance to each sentence based on a certain instruction (step 2), preferentially selecting sentences from the ones with high importance (step 3), single sentence not selected or sentence number Replace a plurality of consecutive sentences with symbols or line feeds (step 4), and specify the number of characters of the selected sentence or the symbols replaced with the selected sentence, the specified limit number of characters, or the specified summarization rate. It is checked whether or not the number of characters exceeds the range calculated from (step 5). If not, the symbols replaced with the selected sentence are output in the order of sentence numbers (step 6).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the principle of the present invention.

The present invention (Claim 2) is a text summarizing device for summarizing a text composed of at least three sentences, the text is divided into sentences, and a sequential sentence number is given to each divided sentence. Sentence dividing means 1 and importance degree giving means 2 for giving importance degree to each sentence based on a certain instruction
An important sentence selecting means 3 for preferentially selecting a sentence from a sentence having a high degree of importance, and a sentence replacing means 4 for replacing a single sentence that is not selected or a plurality of sentences having consecutive sentence numbers with a symbol or a line feed. , The limit of checking whether the number of characters of the selected sentence or the symbol replaced with the selected sentence exceeds the specified number of characters or the number of characters calculated from the specified summarization rate. In the character number determination means 5 and the limited character number determination means 5, if the ranges are not exceeded,
The output unit 6 outputs the selected sentence and the replaced symbols in the sentence number order.

The present invention (claim 3) is a text summarizing program for summarizing a text composed of at least three sentences, wherein the text is divided into sentences and a sequential sentence number is given to each divided sentence. The sentence-breaking process,
The importance assignment process that assigns importance to each sentence based on certain instructions, the important sentence selection process that preferentially selects sentences from the ones with high importance, the single sentence that is not selected, or the sentence number From the sentence substitution process that replaces multiple consecutive sentences with symbols or line breaks, and the specified limit on the number of characters of the selected sentence or the symbols replaced with the selected sentence, or the specified summarization rate. In the limit character number judgment process that checks whether the number of characters exceeds the calculated number of characters, and in the limit character number judgment process, if the range is not exceeded, output the symbols replaced with the selected sentence in sentence number order Process and.

The present invention (Claim 4) is a storage medium storing a text summarization program for summarizing a text consisting of at least three or more sentences, wherein the text is divided into sentences and the divided sentences are sequentially divided. A sentence segmentation process that assigns sentence numbers, an importance assignment process that assigns importance to each sentence based on certain instructions, an important sentence selection process that preferentially selects sentences from those with high importance, and a selection Sentence substitution process that replaces a single sentence or multiple sentences with consecutive sentence numbers with symbols or line breaks, and a specified limit on the number of characters in the selected sentence or the symbol replaced with the selected sentence In the limit character count judgment process that checks whether the number of characters or the number of characters calculated from the specified summarization rate does not exceed the range, and the limit character count judgment process, If not exceeded, and an output process for outputting the replaced with the selected text symbol sentences numerical order. As described above, in the present invention, the input text is divided into sentences, and sentence numbers from the beginning to the Mth are sequentially given to the respective divided sentences. The degree of importance is given to each sentence thus obtained based on a certain instruction. According to the degree of importance given to each sentence, N sentences are preferentially selected from the sentences of high importance. At this time, for the (MN) sentences that are not selected, one sentence sandwiched between the selected sentences or a plurality of consecutive sentences is replaced with one symbol (or a line feed). It is checked whether the total number of characters of these selected sentences and the substituted symbols sandwiched between them exceeds the limit of the number of characters imposed on the abstract or the number of characters calculated from the abstraction rate. If the number of characters or the rate of summarization exceeds the limit, the number of N is changed, N sentences with high importance are selected again, and the sentences not selected are symbolized. It is checked whether the summarization rate is exceeded. If the number of characters and the summarization rate are not exceeded, the selected sentence and the replaced symbol are arranged and output in order of the sentence number. Also, when preferentially selecting N high-sentence sentences, first select in consideration of the limited number of characters and the summarization rate, and when changing the numerical value of N,
(N-1) may be selected, or the number of sentences may be selected one by one and changed to (N + 1) until the number of sentences becomes maximum within the range of the limited number of characters or the summarization rate. The method of selection does not matter as long as the degree is taken into consideration.

For example, if there is the following sentence,
"(1) Giant led a large number of points in the early stages due to Kiyohara's home run home run. (2) However, the pitchers were struck in the middle of the game, and Yakult came in at the end of the match. (3) Dominance entered overtime and Yakult won the goodbye with Furuta's timely hit. (4) As a result, the giant decided to lose to Yakult this season. ] If the important sentences are (1) and (4), the conventional summary results show that "Kiyohara led a large number of points in the early stages due to the base run of Mr. Kiyohara. As a result, the giant decided to lose to Yakult this term. The text "" is displayed as it is extracted, which is misleading as if the giant won the match. On the other hand, in the present invention, "Giants lead a large number of points in the early stages due to Kiyohara's home run. … As a result, the giant decided to lose to Yakult this season. It is possible to prevent the above misunderstanding by not connecting the two important sentences directly.

As described above, it becomes possible to preferentially leave a sentence having a high degree of importance, and to decide whether or not to leave a sentence so as to fit within a predetermined limited number of characters or a summarization rate, and the contents conflict with each other. For example, when sentences are extracted adjacent to each other,
By arranging the symbols between them and breaking the line, it is possible to avoid direct connection and improve the naturalness of the abstract by the reader.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of a text summarizing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The text summarizing device shown in FIG. 1 comprises a sentence dividing unit 1, an importance degree assigning unit 2, an important sentence selecting unit 3, a sentence replacing unit 4, a limited character number determining unit 5, an output unit 6 and a control unit 7. It The sentence dividing unit 1 divides the input text into sentences based on punctuations, line lengths and the presence / absence of special character strings, and assigns sequential sentence numbers from 1 to M sequentially from the first sentence.

The importance assigning unit 2 performs morphological analysis on each sentence, divides the sentence into morphemes, and matches with a pattern formed of morphemes held in advance, so that the morphemes forming the sentence match the pattern. If so, the importance of the pattern is given to the sentence. As this example, the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-148767 can be used. The method refers to the morpheme information of expressions that define the importance and the importance assignment table in which the importance is described, and determines the importance of each sentence from the importance of the expression included in each sentence of the document. Give. The higher the numerical value of the importance, the more important it is, and the sentence containing the expression described in the importance assignment table is assigned the highest value of the included expressions. .
In addition, the degree of importance set by default is given to a sentence that does not include the expression described in the degree-of-importance table. For documents with importance attached to each sentence, by further referring to the importance adjustment table in which the morpheme information of the expression for adjusting the importance and the importance adjustment value are described,
Adjust the assigned importance.

The important sentence selection unit 3 selects the top N sentences based on the degree of importance given to each sentence.

The sentence replacing unit 4 replaces the selected sentence and the sentence sandwiched between the selected sentence or a plurality of consecutive sentences with one symbol "..." For the remaining unselected sentences. Also, instead of replacing with symbols, there is also a way to insert a line break.

The limit character number determination unit 5 exceeds the specified limit number or the number of characters calculated from the summarization rate when the sum of the character numbers of the sentence selected by the important sentence selection unit 3 and the symbols replaced by the sentence replacement unit 4 exceeds the specified number. Check if there isn't.

The output unit 6 rearranges the symbols replaced with the selected sentence in the order of the sequential numbers from 1 to M and outputs them.

The control unit 7 controls each of the above components.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

Step 101) First, in the sentence dividing unit 1, the input text is divided into sentences, and sequential sentence numbers 1 to M are given.

Step 102) The importance assigning section 2 assigns importance to each sentence.

Step 103) The important sentence selection unit 3 selects the top N sentences based on the degree of importance given to the sentence.

Step 104) In the sentence replacement unit 4,
For the (M−N) sentences not selected in step 103, the sentence sandwiched between the selected sentences or a plurality of consecutive sentences is replaced with one instrument tail “...” Or “line feed”.

Step 105) Constraint character number determination unit 5
Checks whether the total sum of the numbers of characters replaced with the sentence selected in step 103 exceeds the number of characters specified in advance or the number of characters calculated from the summarization rate.

Step 106) If the value is exceeded,
The number of N is changed, the process proceeds to step 103, and the processes of step 103 and step 104 are performed again. This process is repeated until the number of characters and the summarization rate are not exceeded. For example, change N to (N-1) and repeat the above steps.

Step 107) In step 105, if the total sum of the numbers of characters of the symbols replaced with the selected sentence does not exceed the limited number of characters or the summarization rate, they are rearranged in the order of the sentence numbers and output as a summarized sentence.

[0031]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the text of the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 shows an example of the importance of each sentence of the text of the embodiment of the present invention.

The degree of importance of each sentence in FIG. 6 is obtained by dividing the text shown in FIG. 5 by the sentence dividing unit 1 and giving the degree of importance by the degree of importance providing unit 2. The importance of each sentence is the importance of a morpheme or a sequence of morphemes that make up a previously specified sentence.
It is realized by adding these morphemes to the appearing sentence. The method of assigning importance is described in the above-mentioned JP 2000-14.
The method disclosed in 876 can be applied.

For example, assuming that the specified limited number of characters is 300 bytes, the limited number of characters determination unit 5 selects the sentences in descending order of importance in consideration of the limited number of characters, 10, 4, 11, Selected in the order of the second sentence.
The number of characters at this time is 262 bytes. Furthermore, if the fifth sentence of high importance is added next, it exceeds 300 bytes, so the fifth sentence is not selected. Of the remaining sentences of the above-mentioned four selected sentences, the third sentence and the fifth to ninth sentences are sandwiched by the selected sentences, and therefore these are replaced by one symbol "...".

The total number of characters of the symbols replaced with the selected sentence is 266 bytes because one symbol has 2 bytes. Since the number of characters does not exceed the limit number of characters, they are replaced in the order of sentence numbers and output from the output unit 6. The output result is shown in FIG.

Further, when the limited number of characters is 265 bytes, it is the same until the above four sentences are selected, but the total number of characters including the replaced two symbols is 26.
Since it is 6 bytes, the number of characters exceeds the limit. In this case, select sentences from 4 to 10, according to the importance.
Reduced to the 4th and 11th sentences, 3 sentences. The remaining sentences sandwiched between the selected sentences are only 5 to 9 sentences, which are replaced by the symbol "..." In the sentence replacement unit 4. The remaining sentences sandwiched between the selected sentence and the replaced sentence are only 5 to 9 sentences, which are replaced with the symbol "...". The total sum of the selected sentence and the character string of the replaced symbol is 166 bytes, which does not exceed the limit number of characters, so the sentences are rearranged in the order of sentence numbers and output from the output unit 6.

In the case of outputting in a format with a line feed added at the end of the sentence, the number of characters of the line feed code is also added to calculate and it is determined whether the limit number of characters is not exceeded.

In the present invention, the above series of operations can be constructed as a program and installed in a computer used as a text summarizing device, or distributed through a network.

In addition, a hard disk device connected to a computer that uses the constructed program as a text summarizing device, a floppy (registered trademark) disk,
The present invention can be easily realized by storing it in a portable storage medium such as a CD-ROM and installing it when implementing the present invention.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but various modifications and applications are possible within the scope of the claims.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention, a sentence having a high degree of importance is left as it is, and a sentence having a low degree of importance is replaced with a symbol and included in the text summary.
Not only is it possible to understand the meaning of the text, but it is possible to prevent erroneous reading due to the fact that distant sentences of high importance are adjacent to each other.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a principle configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a text summarizing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an operation in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an example of text of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an example of the degree of importance of each sentence of text according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an example of an output result of a text summary according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Ordering means, sentence division 2 Importance calculation means, Importance assigning section 3 sentence extraction means, important sentence selection section 4 sentence replacement means, sentence replacement unit 5 Restricted character number determination means, restricted character number determination unit 6 Output means, output section 7 control unit

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Yoshihiko Hayashi             2-3-1, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo             Inside Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Inventor Ei Ohara             2-3-1, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo             Inside Telegraph and Telephone Corporation F-term (reference) 5B009 QA05 RB22                 5B075 ND03 NS01 PQ80

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A text summarizing method for summarizing a text consisting of at least three sentences, wherein the text is divided into sentences, a sequential sentence number is given to each of the divided sentences, and the text is divided into sentences based on a certain instruction. Each sentence is given a degree of importance, the sentence with the highest degree of importance is selected preferentially, and a single sentence that is not selected or multiple sentences with consecutive sentence numbers are replaced with symbols or line breaks. Check if the number of characters of the sentence or the symbol replaced with the selected sentence exceeds the specified limit number of characters or the range of the number of characters calculated from the specified summarization rate. If not, the text summarization method is characterized in that the symbols replaced with the selected sentence are output in the order of sentence numbers. 2. A text summarizing device for summarizing a text composed of at least three sentences, the sentence dividing device dividing the text into sentences, and giving a sequential sentence number to each divided sentence, Based on the instruction, importance degree assigning means for assigning importance to each sentence, important sentence selecting means for preferentially selecting a sentence from sentences with high importance, single sentence not selected, or sentence number A sentence replacement means that replaces multiple consecutive sentences with symbols or line breaks, and the number of characters of the selected sentence or the symbols replaced with the selected sentence is limited to the specified number of characters or the specified summarization rate. In the limited character number determination means for checking whether the number of characters exceeds the calculated number of characters, and in the limited character number determination means, if the number of characters does not exceed the range, the text replaced with the selected sentence And a means for outputting the numbers in the order of sentence numbers. 3. A text summarizing program for summarizing a text consisting of at least three sentences, the sentence dividing process for dividing the text into sentences, and giving a sequential sentence number to each divided sentence, Based on the instructions, the importance assignment process that assigns importance to each sentence, the important sentence selection process that preferentially selects sentences from the ones with high importance, the single sentence that is not selected, or the sentence number From the sentence replacement process that replaces multiple consecutive sentences with symbols or line breaks, and the specified limit on the number of characters of the selected sentence or the symbols replaced with the selected sentence, or the specified summarization rate. In the limit character number determination process for checking whether the number of characters exceeds the calculated number of characters, and in the limit character number determination process, if the range is not exceeded, A text summarization program, comprising: an output process for outputting the selected sentence and the replaced symbols in the sentence number order. 4. A storage medium storing a text summarization program for summarizing a text consisting of at least three sentences, wherein the text is divided into sentences, and a sentence is given a sequential sentence number for each divided sentence. A division process, an importance assigning process that assigns importance to each sentence based on a certain instruction, an important sentence selection process that preferentially selects sentences from those with high importance, and a single sentence that is not selected. Alternatively, a sentence replacement process that replaces multiple sentences with consecutive sentence numbers with symbols or line breaks, and a specified number of characters of the selected sentence or the symbols replaced with the selected sentence, or a specified number of characters In the limit character number determination process for checking whether the number of characters exceeds the range of the number of characters calculated from the summarized rate, and in the limit character number determination process, A storage medium storing a text summarization program, characterized in that it has an output process for outputting the selected sentence and the replaced symbols in the sentence number order if they do not exceed.