Highly Frequent Terms and Sentence Retrieval

In this paper we propose a novel sentence retrieval method based on extracting highly frequent terms from top retrieved documents. We compare it against state of the art sentence retrieval techniques, including those based on pseudo-relevant feedback, showing that the approach is robust and competitive. Our results reinforce the idea that top retrieved data is a valuable source to enhance retrieval systems. This is especially true for short queries because there are usually few querysentence matching terms. Moreover, the approach is particularly promising for weak queries. We demonstrate that this novel method is able to improve significantly the precision at top ranks when handling poorly specified information needs.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: SPIRE
• Authors: David E. Losada, Ronald T. Fernández
• Keywords: Sentence Retrieval, Sentence Retrieval Method, Sentence Retrieval Techniques, SPIRE 2007