Computer-implemented systems and methods for taxonomy development

A computer program product, tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine readable storage medium, including instructions operable to cause a data processing apparatus to:

• identify a term within a document;
• determine a pre-defined threshold distance;
• identify a plurality of additional terms in the document, wherein the plurality of additional terms are located within the pre-defined threshold distance of the term;
• calculate a distance between the term and an additional term of the plurality of additional terms;
• determine a corresponding weight for the calculated distance, wherein determining the corresponding weight uses a proximity weighting scheme;
• calculate a score for the additional term using the calculated distance and the corresponding weight;
• generate a colocation matrix including a plurality of rows, wherein the colocation matrix is generated using the term, the plurality of additional terms, and the score;
• and
• determine a classifier for the document using the colocation matrix.

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• identifying a term within a document;
• determining a pre-defined threshold distance;
• identifying a plurality of additional terms in the document, wherein the plurality of additional terms are located within the pre-defined threshold distance of the term;
• calculating a distance between the term and an additional term of the plurality of additional terms;
• determining a corresponding weight for the calculated distance, wherein determining the corresponding weight uses a proximity weighting scheme;
• calculating a score for the additional term using the calculated distance and the corresponding weight;
• generating a colocation matrix including a plurality of rows, wherein the colocation matrix is generated using the term, the plurality of additional terms, and the score;
• and
• determining a classifier for the document using the colocation matrix.