Using the semantics of texts for information retrieval: A concept- and domain relation-based approach

Abstract

Our hypothesis is that assessing the relevance of a document with respect to a query is equivalent to assessing the conceptual similarity between the terms of the query and those of the document. In this article, we therefore propose a method of calculating conceptual similarity. Our information retrieval strategy is based on exploring an ontology and domain relations between concepts marked by verbal forms. Our approach overall is implemented by a prototype and the results obtained are evaluated. We thus show that a semantic IR system based on concepts improves recall with respect to a classic IR system and that a semantic IR system based on concepts and domain relations improves precision with respect to IR based on concepts alone.