Term conflation for information retrieval

This paper describes two experiments concerned with term conflation for information retrieval, and the CATALOG retrieval system designed utilizing the results of the experiments. The experiments performed here has as their aim 1) finding a theoretical basis and method for maximizing the effect of conflation, and 2) determining if conflation can be automated with no loss of system performance.Experimental results indicate that,1. Experienced searchers generally truncate terms at root morpheme boundaries. When searchers do not truncate at root boundaries, the deviations are small.2. Small deviations from root boundaries do not significantly affect retrieval performance.3. There is no significant performance difference between automatic conflation and manual conflation carried out by experienced searchers.4. Based on 3, term conflation can be automated in a retrieval system with no average loss of performance, thus allowing easier and user access to the system.A retrieval system incorporating the information in 4 is described, and shown to be feasible.