Low-rank regularization for sparse conjunctive feature spaces: An application to named entity classification

Abstract

Entity classification, like many other important problems in NLP, involves learning classifiers over sparse highdimensional feature spaces that result from the conjunction of elementary features of the entity mention and its context. In this paper we develop a low-rank regularization framework for training maxentropy models in such sparse conjunctive feature spaces. Our approach handles conjunctive feature spaces using matrices and induces an implicit low-dimensional representation via low-rank constraints. We show that when learning entity classifiers under minimal supervision, using a seed set, our approach is more effective in controlling model capacity than standard techniques for linear classifiers.