The paraphrase search assistant

Abstract

We present a new linguistic approach to the construction of terminological feedback for use in interactive query refinement. The method exploits the tendency for key domain concepts within result sets to participate in families of semantically related lexical compounds. We outline an algorithm for computing a ranked list of result set "themes" and describe a web application, the Paraphrase Search Assistant, designed to make use of the theme extraction algorithm to support a recognition-based, iterative information seeking dialog.