Abstract: A computer implemented system and method are disclosed for updating an electronic calendar. The method includes receiving an electronic message in a natural language in which a change in role is expressed and, with a natural language processor implemented by a computer processor, automatically detecting the change in role within the email message, optionally storing the change in role in a contacts database, and proposing updates for entries in an electronic calendar based on the detected change in role.

Abstract: A method for extraction of events includes performing linguistic processing on a collection of text documents to identify predicates and respective arguments of the predicates and performing temporal processing on the collection of documents to normalize referential dates. A query is received which includes a topic and date information which defines a date range. A collection of excerpts from the collection of documents is identified, each excerpt including an argument which is based on the topic and a normalized reference to a date which matches the defined date range. A plurality of sets of events in the collection of excerpts is identified, each set of events including a plurality of the excerpts in the collection that are linked together by entailment relationships.

Abstract: A system and method for extraction of suggestions for improvement form a corpus of documents, such as customer reviews, are disclosed. A structured terminology provided or a topic includes a set of semantic classes, each including a set of terms. A thesaurus of terms relating to suggestions of improvement is provided. Text elements of text strings in the documents which are instances of terms in the structured terminology are labeled with the corresponding semantic class and text elements which are instances of terms in the thesaurus are also labeled. A set of patterns is applied to the labeled text strings to identify suggestions of improvement expressions. The patterns define syntactic relations between text elements, some of which are required to be instances of one of the terms in a particular semantic class or thesaurus. A set of suggestions for improvements is output based on the identified suggestions of improvement expressions.

Abstract: A computer-implemented system and method are provided for warning a user of a missing attachment to an email. The method may include automatically recognizing a natural language of text of an email and selecting a keyword list from a plurality of keyword lists, based on the recognized natural language. Each keyword list is associated with a respective natural language and includes at least one keyword. At least one of the keyword lists includes a multi-sense keyword having a plurality of senses. A first of the plurality of senses is recognized as referring to an attachment and a second of the plurality of senses is recognized as not referring to an attachment. The text of the email is processed to identify an instance, where present, of a keyword that is in the selected keyword list and, for a keyword which is a multi-sense keyword, at least one sense-related rule is applied to a portion of the text which includes the instance of the multi-sense keyword.

Abstract: A system and method for extraction of suggestions for improvement form a corpus of documents, such as customer reviews, are disclosed. A structured terminology provided or a topic includes a set of semantic classes, each including a set of terms. A thesaurus of terms relating to suggestions of improvement is provided. Text elements of text strings in the documents which are instances of terms in the structured terminology are labeled with the corresponding semantic class and text elements which are instances of terms in the thesaurus are also labeled. A set of patterns is applied to the labeled text strings to identify suggestions of improvement expressions. The patterns define syntactic relations between text elements, some of which are required to be instances of one of the terms in a particular semantic class or thesaurus. A set of suggestions for improvements is output based on the identified suggestions of improvement expressions.

Abstract: A system and method of developing rules for text processing enable retrieval of instances of named entities in a predetermined semantic relation (such as the DATE and PLACE of an EVENT) by extracting patterns from text strings in which attested examples of named entities satisfying the semantic relation occur. The patterns are generalized to form rules which can be added to the existing rules of a syntactic parser and subsequently applied to text to find candidate instances of other named entities in the predetermined semantic relation.

Abstract: A computer implemented electronic out-of-office message analysis system and method are disclosed. The method includes, for each of a plurality of users, receiving a user-generated electronic out-of-office message in a natural language in which a time window of absence and at least one alternate named contact are expressed and, based on the out-of-office message, generating a structured representation of the out-of-office message which links the alternate contact to a normalized representation of the time window. The structured representation of the out-of-office message is stored in a database. From the database it can be determined whether a current user's out-of-office message conflicts with another user's out-of-office message. If a conflict is detected, the current user can be notified.

Abstract: A computer-implemented system and method are provided for warning a user of a missing attachment to an email. The method may include automatically recognizing a natural language of text of an email and selecting a keyword list from a plurality of keyword lists, based on the recognized natural language. Each keyword list is associated with a respective natural language and includes at least one keyword. At least one of the keyword lists includes a multi-sense keyword having a plurality of senses. A first of the plurality of senses is recognized as referring to an attachment and a second of the plurality of senses is recognized as not referring to an attachment. The text of the email is processed to identify an instance, where present, of a keyword that is in the selected keyword list and, for a keyword which is a multi-sense keyword, at least one sense-related rule is applied to a portion of the text which includes the instance of the multi-sense keyword.

Abstract: A computer implemented system and method for processing text are disclosed. Partially processed text, in which named entities have been extracted by a standard named entity system, is processed to identify attributive relations between a named entity or proper noun and a corresponding attribute. A concept for the attribute is identified and, in the case of a named entity, compared with the named entity's context, enabling a confirmation or conflict between the two to be determined. In the case of a proper name, the attribute's context can be associated with the proper name, allowing the proper name to be recognized as a new named entity.

Abstract: A system, apparatus, method, and computer program product encoding the method are provided for expectation fulfillment evaluation. The system includes a natural language processing component that extracts sets of normalized tasks from an input expectation document and an input fulfillment document. A task list comparison component compares the two sets of tasks and identifies each match between a normalized task in the first set and a normalized task in the second set, each normalized task in the first set which has no matching task in the second set, and each normalized task in the second set which has no matching task in the first set. A report generator outputs a report based on the comparison.

Abstract: A collaborative event scheduling method and system are provided which allow participants and an event initiator to interact with a scheduler in a natural language form. Participants provide a respective availability announcement, which is processed to generate a representation of the user's availability within a time window specified for the event by the initiator. This includes extracting a temporal expression from the availability announcement, normalizing, if the temporal expression is determined to be referential, identifying an availability modality for each extracted temporal expression from a set of availability modalities. The generated representation is output for establishing a suitable time for the event within the time window based on the availability announcements of the participants.

Abstract: A linguistic rewriting rule for use in linguistic processing of an ordered sequence of linguistic tokens includes a token pattern recognition rule that matches the ordered sequence of linguistic tokens with a syntactical pattern. The token pattern recognition rule incorporates a character pattern recognition rule to match characters contained in an ambiguous portion of the ordered sequence of linguistic tokens with a character pattern defining a corresponding portion of the syntactical pattern.

Abstract: A parser for parsing text includes a tokenizing module which divides the text into an ordered sequence of linguistic tokens. A morphological module associates parts of speech with the linguistic tokens. A detection module identifies candidate titles of creative works, such as works of art. A filtering module filters the candidate titles of works to exclude citations of direct speech from the candidate titles of works. A comparison module compares any remaining candidate titles of works with titles of works in an associated knowledge base. The comparison module annotates the text when a match is found.

Abstract: String replacement is performed in text using linguistic processing. The linguistic processing identifies the existence of direct or indirect links between the string to be replaced and other strings in the text. Morphological, syntactic, anaphoric, or semantic inconsistencies, which are introduced in strings with the identified direct or indirect links to the string that is to be replaced are detected and corrected.

Abstract: A system and method of developing rules for text processing enable retrieval of instances of named entities in a predetermined semantic relation (such as the DATE and PLACE of an EVENT) by extracting patterns from text strings in which attested examples of named entities satisfying the semantic relation occur. The patterns are generalized to form rules which can be added to the existing rules of a syntactic parser and subsequently applied to text to find candidate instances of other named entities in the predetermined semantic relation.

Abstract: A computer implemented system and method for processing text are disclosed. Partially processed text, in which named entities have been extracted by a standard named entity system, is processed to identify attributive relations between a named entity or proper noun and a corresponding attribute. A concept for the attribute is identified and, in the case of a named entity, compared with the named entity's context, enabling a confirmation or conflict between the two to be determined. In the case of a proper name, the attribute's context can be associated with the proper name, allowing the proper name to be recognized as a new named entity.

Abstract: A parser for parsing text includes a tokenizing module which divides the text into an ordered sequence of linguistic tokens. A morphological module associates parts of speech with the linguistic tokens. A detection module identifies candidate titles of creative works, such as works of art. A filtering module filters the candidate titles of works to exclude citations of direct speech from the candidate titles of works. A comparison module compares any remaining candidate titles of works with titles of works in an associated knowledge base. The comparison module annotates the text when a match is found.

Abstract: An email organizer operates in conjunction with an email system (20) and a natural language processor (42, 44). An action deadline detector (50) detects action deadlines contained in email messages (30) based on syntactic information about the email messages provided by the natural language processor. A scorer (56) assigns priority scores to the email messages based at least on the action deadlines and a current date (58).

Abstract: A linguistic rewriting rule for use in linguistic processing of an ordered sequence of linguistic tokens includes a token pattern recognition rule that matches the ordered sequence of linguistic tokens with a syntactical pattern. The token pattern recognition rule incorporates a character pattern recognition rule to match characters contained in an ambiguous portion of the ordered sequence of linguistic tokens with a character pattern defining a corresponding portion of the syntactical pattern.

Abstract: Normalized output texts, such as rundowns or summaries, from raw texts belonging to a given domain are produced. The normalized output text may be generated in different languages and may take into account a user's interest. To this end, linguistic resources associated with a model of the domain are used both for input text analysis and output text generation.