Phonetic String Matching: Lessons from Information Retrieval

Phonetic matching is used in applications such as name retrieval, where the spelling of a name is used to identify other strings that are likely to be of similar pronunciation. In this paper we explain the parallels between information retrieval and phonetic matching, and describe our new phonetic matching techniques. Our experimental comparison with existing techniques such as Soundex and edit distances, which is based on recall and precision, demonstrates that the new techniques are superior. In addition, reasoning from the similarity of phonetic matching and information retrieval, we have applied combination of evidence to phonetic matching. Our experiments with combining demonstrate that it leads to substantial improvements in effectiveness.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1996
• Where: SIGIR
• Authors: Justin Zobel, Philip W. Dart
• Keywords: Information Management, Information Retrieval, Phonetic Matching, Phonetic Matching Techniques, SIGIR 1996