An information retrieval model using the fuzzy proximity degree of term occurences

Based on the idea that the closer the query terms in a document are, the more relevant this document is, we propose a mathematical model of information retrieval based on a fuzzy proximity degree of term occurences. Our model is able to deal with Boolean queries, but contrary to the traditional extensions of the basic Boolean information retrieval model, it does not explicitly use a proximity operator. A single parameter allows to control the proximity degree required. With conjunctive queries, setting this parameter to low values requires a proximity at the phrase level and with high values, the required proximity can continuously be relaxed to the sentence or paragraph levels. We conducted some experiments and present the results. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.3.3 [Information Storage and Retrieval]: Information Search and Retrieval—retrieval models General Terms Theory, Experimentation Keywords Proximity, fuzzy set theory, fuzzy proximity

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: SAC
• Authors: Michel Beigbeder, Annabelle Mercier
• Keywords: Applied Computing, Fuzzy Proximity, Fuzzy Proximity Degree, Proximity Degree, SAC 2005