Optimal Multi-Paragraph Text Segmentation by Dynamic Programming

There exist several methods of calculating a similarity curve, or a sequence of similarity values, representing the lexical cohesion of successive text constituents, e.g., paragraphs. Methods for deciding the locations of fragment boundaries are, however, scarce. We propose a fragmentation method based on dynamic programming. The method is theoretically sound and guaranteed to provide an optimal splitting on the basis of a similarity curve, a preferred fragment length, and a cost function defined. The method is especially useful when control on fragment size is of importance.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: ACL
• Authors: Oskari Heinonen
• Keywords: ACL 1998, ACL 2007, Similarity Curve, Similarity Values, Successive Text Constituents