Name entity extraction using language models

摘要

A name entity extraction technique using language models is provided. A general language model is provided for the natural language understanding domain. A language model is also provided for each name entity. The name entity language models are added to the general language model. Each language model is considered a state. Probabilities are applied for each transition within a state and between each state. For each word in an utterance, the name extraction process determines a best current state and a best previous state. When the end of the utterance is reached, the process traces back to find the best path. Each series of words in a state other than the general language model state is identified as a name entity. A technique is provided to iteratively extract names and retrain the general language model until the probabilities do not change. The name entity extraction technique of the present invention may also use a general language model with uniform probabilities to save the time and expense of training the general language model.