Context based synonym filtering for natural language processing systems

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to be specifically configured to implement a conceptual context synonym verification engine and to:

• parse, by the conceptual context synonym verification engine, content provided by a natural language processing system, into one or more conceptual units, wherein each conceptual unit comprises a portion of text of the content that is associated with a single concept;
• for each conceptual unit in the one or more conceptual units, identify, by the conceptual context synonym verification engine, a term in the conceptual unit that has a synonym to be utilized during natural language processing of the content;
• determine, by the conceptual context synonym verification engine, a first measure of relatedness of the term to at least one other term in the conceptual unit;
• determine, by the conceptual context synonym verification engine, a second measure of relatedness of the synonym of the term to the at least one other term in the conceptual unit;
• determine, by the conceptual context synonym verification engine, whether or not to utilize the synonym when performing natural language processing on the conceptual unit, based on the first measure of relatedness and second measure of relatedness;
• configure, by the conceptual context synonym verification engine, the natural language processing system to utilize or not utilize the synonym, when performing natural language processing on the content, based on results of determining whether or not to utilize the synonym when performing natural language processing on the conceptual unit;
• and
• perform, by the natural language processing system, natural language processing on the content based on results of determining whether or not to utilize the synonym, wherein the content is electronic content that is input to the computing device.

An apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to be specifically configured to implement a conceptual context synonym verification engine and to:
• parse, by the conceptual context synonym verification engine, content provided by a natural language processing system, into one or more conceptual units, wherein each conceptual unit comprises a portion of text of the content that is associated with a single concept;
• for each conceptual unit in the one or more conceptual units, identify, by the conceptual context synonym verification engine, a term in the conceptual unit that has a synonym to be utilized during natural language processing of the content;
• determine, by the conceptual context synonym verification engine, a first measure of relatedness of the term to at least one other term in the conceptual unit;
• determine, by the conceptual context synonym verification engine, a second measure of relatedness of the synonym of the term to the at least one other term in the conceptual unit;
• determine, by the conceptual context synonym verification engine, whether or not to utilize the synonym when performing natural language processing on the conceptual unit, based on the first measure of relatedness and second measure of relatedness;
• configure, by the conceptual context synonym verification engine, the natural language processing system to utilize or not utilize the synonym, when performing natural language processing on the content, based on results of determining whether or not to utilize the synonym when performing natural language processing on the conceptual unit;
• and
• perform, by the natural language processing system, natural language processing on the content based on results of determining whether or not to utilize the synonym, wherein the content is electronic content that is input to the computing device.