Applied Natural Language Processing: Identification, Investigation and Resolution

Today, with digitally stored information available in abundance, even for many less commonly spoken languages, this information must by some means be filtered and extracted in order to avoid drowning in it. Automatic summarization is one such technique, where a computer summarizes a longer text into a shorter non-redundant form. The development of advanced summarization systems also for smaller languages may unfortunately prove too costly. Nevertheless, there will still be a need for summarization tools for these languages in order to curb the immense flow of digital information. This chapter sets the focus on automatic summarization of text using as few direct human resources as possible, resulting in what can be perceived as an intermediary system. Furthermore, it presents the notion of taking a holistic view of the generation of summaries.