Named entity variations for multimodal understanding systems

A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions for determining variations for named entities, comprising:

• accessing a named entity list comprising a canonical phrase for each entry in the named entity list;
• determining candidate variations for the canonical phrase for one or more of the entries in the named entity list using click data;
• generating a score for each of the candidate variations that represents how related the candidate variation is to the corresponding named entity in the named entity list;
• determining candidate variations to include in a language understanding model using the scores;
• and
• adding the determined candidate variations to the language understanding model.

A system for determining variations for named entities, comprising:

• a processor and memory;
• an operating environment executing using the processor;
• a display;
• and
• a multimodal manager that is configured to perform actions comprising:
• accessing a named entity list comprising a canonical phrase for each entry in the named entity list;
• determining candidate variations for the canonical phrase for one or more of the entries in the named entity list using click data;
• generating a score for each of the candidate variations that represents how related the candidate variation is to the corresponding named entity in the named entity list;
• determining candidate variations to include in a language understanding model using the scores;
• and
• adding the determined candidate variations to the language understanding model.