Method and apparatus for word stemming using spelling correction algorithms

摘要

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for stemming a word entered into a computer utilizing a spelling correction algorithm (118). The method includes the steps of deriving a stem of the entered word through the use of a spelling correction algorithm and returning the stem. In the preferred embodiment, the spelling algorithm is a word similarity metric, for example, an edit distance metric, that compares the entered word with candidate stems in a lexicon. An input device (110) and screen monitor (112) coupled with processor (116), utilizes both an information retrieval algorithm (122) and a stemming algorithm (118) with lexicon (120) to produce a stem of an entered word.