Extracting Semantic Orientations of Words using Spin Model

We propose a method for extracting semantic orientations of words: desirable or undesirable. Regarding semantic orientations as spins of electrons, we use the mean field approximation to compute the approximate probability function of the system instead of the intractable actual probability function. We also propose a criterion for parameter selection on the basis of magnetization. Given only a small number of seed words, the proposed method extracts semantic orientations with high accuracy in the experiments on English lexicon. The result is comparable to the best value ever reported.

Automatically generating a sentiment lexicon for the Malay language

This paper aims to propose an automated sentiment lexicon generation model specifically designed for the Malay language. Lexicon-based Sentiment Analysis (SA) models make use of a sentiment lexicon for SA tasks, which is a linguistic resource that comprises a priori information about the sentiment properties of words. A sentiment lexicon is an indispensable resource for SA tasks. This is evident in the emergence of a large volume of research focused on the development of sentiment lexicon generation algorithms. This is not the case for low-resource languages such as Malay, for which there is a lack of research focused on this particular area. This has brought up the motivation to propose a sentiment lexicon generation algorithm for this language. WordNet Bahasa was first mapped onto the English WordNet to construct a multilingual word network. A seed set of prototypical positive and negative terms was then automatically expanded by recursively adding terms linked via WordNet’s synonymy and antonymy semantic relations. The underlying intuition is that the sentiment properties of newly added terms via these relations are preserved. A supervised classifier was employed for the word-polarity tagging task, with textual representations of the expanded seed set as features. Evaluation of the model against the General Inquirer lexicon as a benchmark demonstrates that it performs with reasonable accuracy. This paper aims to provide a foundation for further research for the Malay language in this area

Connotation Frames: A Data-Driven Investigation

Through a particular choice of a predicate (e.g., "x violated y"), a writer can subtly connote a range of implied sentiments and presupposed facts about the entities x and y: (1) writer's perspective: projecting x as an "antagonist"and y as a "victim", (2) entities' perspective: y probably dislikes x, (3) effect: something bad happened to y, (4) value: y is something valuable, and (5) mental state: y is distressed by the event. We introduce connotation frames as a representation formalism to organize these rich dimensions of connotation using typed relations. First, we investigate the feasibility of obtaining connotative labels through crowdsourcing experiments. We then present models for predicting the connotation frames of verb predicates based on their distributional word representations and the interplay between different types of connotative relations. Empirical results confirm that connotation frames can be induced from various data sources that reflect how people use language and give rise to the connotative meanings. We conclude with analytical results that show the potential use of connotation frames for analyzing subtle biases in online news media.Comment: 11 pages, published in Proceedings of ACL 201

Mining the Relation between Sentiment Expression and Target Using Dependency of Words

PACLIC 20 / Wuhan, China / 1-3 November, 200