NAME¶
Lingua::Stem::En - Porter's stemming algorithm for 'generic' English
SYNOPSIS¶
use Lingua::Stem::En;
my $stems = Lingua::Stem::En::stem({ -words => $word_list_reference,
-locale => 'en',
-exceptions => $exceptions_hash,
});
DESCRIPTION¶
This routine applies the Porter Stemming Algorithm to its parameters, returning
the stemmed words.
It is derived from the C program "stemmer.c" as found in freewais and
elsewhere, which contains these notes:
Purpose: Implementation of the Porter stemming algorithm documented
in: Porter, M.F., "An Algorithm For Suffix Stripping,"
Program 14 (3), July 1980, pp. 130-137.
Provenance: Written by B. Frakes and C. Cox, 1986.
I have re-interpreted areas that use Frakes and Cox's "WordSize"
function. My version may misbehave on short words starting with "y",
but I can't think of any examples.
The step numbers correspond to Frakes and Cox, and are probably in Porter's
article (which I've not seen). Porter's algorithm still has rough spots (e.g
current/currency, -ings words), which I've not attempted to cure, although I
have added support for the British -ise suffix.
CHANGES¶
1999.06.15 - Changed to '.pm' module, moved into Lingua::Stem namespace,
optionalized the export of the 'stem' routine
into the caller's namespace, added named parameters
1999.06.24 - Switch core implementation of the Porter stemmer to
the one written by Jim Richardson <jimr@maths.usyd.edu.au>
2000.08.25 - 2.11 Added stemming cache
2000.09.14 - 2.12 Fixed *major* :( implementation error of Porter's algorithm
Error was entirely my fault - I completely forgot to include
rule sets 2,3, and 4 starting with Lingua::Stem 0.30.
-- Benjamin Franz
2003.09.28 - 2.13 Corrected documentation error pointed out by Simon Cozens.
2005.11.20 - 2.14 Changed rule declarations to conform to Perl style convention
for 'private' subroutines. Changed Exporter invokation to more
portable 'require' vice 'use'.
2006.02.14 - 2.15 Added ability to pass word list by 'handle' for in-place stemming.
2009.07.27 2.16 Documentation Fix
METHODS¶
- stem({ -words => \@words, -locale => 'en', -exceptions =>
\%exceptions });
- Stems a list of passed words using the rules of US English. Returns an
anonymous array reference to the stemmed words.
Example:
my @words = ( 'wordy', 'another' );
my $stemmed_words = Lingua::Stem::En::stem({ -words => \@words,
-locale => 'en',
-exceptions => \%exceptions,
});
If the first element of @words is a list reference, then the stemming is
performed 'in place' on that list (modifying the passed list directly
instead of copying it to a new array).
This is only useful if you do not need to keep the original list. If you
do need to keep the original list, use the normal semantic of
having 'stem' return a new list instead - that is faster than making your
own copy and using the 'in place' semantics since the primary
difference between 'in place' and 'by value' stemming is the creation of a
copy of the original list. If you don't need the original list,
then the 'in place' stemming is about 60% faster.
Example of 'in place' stemming:
my $words = [ 'wordy', 'another' ];
my $stemmed_words = Lingua::Stem::En::stem({ -words => [$words],
-locale => 'en',
-exceptions => \%exceptions,
});
The 'in place' mode returns a reference to the original list with the words
stemmed.
- stem_caching({ -level => 0|1|2 });
- Sets the level of stem caching.
'0' means 'no caching'. This is the default level.
'1' means 'cache per run'. This caches stemming results during a single
call to 'stem'.
'2' means 'cache indefinitely'. This caches stemming results until
either the process exits or the 'clear_stem_cache' method is called.
- clear_stem_cache;
- Clears the cache of stemmed words
NOTES¶
This code is almost entirely derived from the Porter 2.1 module written by Jim
Richardson.
SEE ALSO¶
Lingua::Stem
AUTHOR¶
Jim Richardson, University of Sydney
jimr@maths.usyd.edu.au or http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au:8000/jimr.html
Integration in Lingua::Stem by
Benjamin Franz, FreeRun Technologies,
snowhare@nihongo.org or http://www.nihongo.org/snowhare/
COPYRIGHT¶
Jim Richardson, University of Sydney Benjamin Franz, FreeRun Technologies
This code is freely available under the same terms as Perl.
BUGS¶
TODO¶