What is a named entity

PERS: Yellow, ORG: Orange, LOC: Blue 1

What is a Named Entity?

Lotte WilmsKoninklijke Bibliotheek

14 June 2013 - Belgrade


A named entity is a unique identifier of entities.

• PERSON: named person, family, or certain designated non-human individuals

• ORGANIZATION: named corporate, governmental, or other organizational entity

• LOCATION: name of politically or geographically defined location (cities, provinces, countries, international regions, bodies of water, mountains, etc.) and astronomical locations.

Source: 1999 Named Entity Recognition Task Definition, version 1.4, August 27 1999. ftp://jaguar.ncsl.nist.gov/ace/phase1/ne99_taskdef_v1_4.pdf

ftp://jaguar.ncsl.nist.gov/ace/phase1/ne99_taskdef_v1_4.pdf


Where are the named enities in the following sentence?

The American couple Bill and Susan Jones were

such great fans of Apple’s computers that they

took them everywhere, such as the Big Apple,

California and even to the Smiths.


The American couple Bill and Susan Jones were

such great fans of Apple’s computers that they

took them everywhere, such as the Big Apple,

California and even to the Smiths.


Special cases with named entities

Otto and Vivika Heino

Multi-modifier, multi-name expressions and nested expressions

Library and Archives Canada

Nested expression! Part of the organisation name, so not tagged as location

Image courtesy of Padraic Ryan


Special cases with named entitiesEntity expressions that modify non-taggables

and entities that possess other entities

Apple computer

Norway’s Parliament

Image courtesy of Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee


Special cases with named entitiesTaggable Aliases and definitive articles

AcronymsAliases

Only for established alternate way of referring

IBMNew York = the Big Apple

Only include the article when it is commonly associated with an entity


Guidelines for the entity PERSON

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Regular titles are not part of NE, but titles as prince/king/president/etc. are. Use common sense here

Appositives are too!

the Clintons

-s is alternate form

Scooby Doo

Even fictional characters are NE, human or animal


“I pray to God” vs. “he feels like a god”.

Only tag god when an actual God is meant

Other noteworthy guidelinesGuidelines for the entity PERSON

Saint George killed the dragon.

Do not tag religious titles or specifiers

The U.S. Vice President

The U.S. Vice President is not a unique attribution, so only tag location

My cat Dot is very lazy.

Animals haves names as well

He won the Nobel prize.

Do not tag diseases/weather formations/prizes/laws/etc. that are

named after people

The Bill Gates of the Netherlands

Do not tag Bill Gates, as this refers not to him, but to someone like him. Only tag location.


Guidelines for the entity LOCATION“Named heavenly bodies, continents, countries, provinces, counties, cities, regions, districts, towns, villages, neighborhoods, airports, military bases, railways, railroads, highways, bridges, street names, street addresses, oceans, seas, straits, bays, channels, sounds, rivers,islands, lakes, national parks, mountains, fictional or mythical locations, and certain structures, such as the Eiffel Tower and Washington Monument, that were built primarily as monuments.”

France The market place of Guestrow Mount Fiji

Designators that are integrally associated with a location are also tagged.


Guidelines for the entity LOCATION

Hyundai of Korea, Inc. Hyundai in Korea

The White House, Washington, D.C.

White House is an alias for U.S. president’s organisation


Guidelines for the entity LOCATION

Mississippi River west bank A German newspaper in Bamberg

Do not tag adjectival forms of locations

Do not tag unspecific locations such as the South or the Middle East

Do tag specific regions, such as the Auvergne


Guidelines for the entity ORGANISATIONTag “stock exchanges, multinational organizations, businesses, TV or radio stations, political parties, religions or religious groups, orchestras, bands, or musical groups, unions, non-generic governmental entity names such as “Congress” or “Chamber of Deputies,” sports teams and armies (unless designated only by country names, which are tagged as LOCATION), as well as fictional organizations.”

The Beatles The labor party De Tweede Kamer


Guidelines for the entity ORGANISATION

Four Seasons Hotel

Ghostbusters

Proper names referring to meeting places where organisational activities occur are also LOC.

‘the police’, ‘the government’ and other generic names are not tagged.

However, the Dutch army is tagged!


Correct or not?

Lotte was reading Romeo and Juliet on the plane to the Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade.

The Volkskrant is a newspaper that is printed by De Persgroep Nederland in Amsterdam.

My aunt Betty owns a dog Bob that loves going out to the Scheveningen beach.

Lotte was reading Romeo and Juliet on the plane to the Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade.

My aunt Betty owns a dog Bob that loves going out to the Scheveningen beach.


A named entity is a unique identifier of entities.

• PERSON: named person, family, or certain designated non-human individuals

• ORGANIZATION: named corporate, governmental, or other organizational entity

• LOCATION: name of politically or geographically defined location (cities, provinces, countries, international regions, bodies of water, mountains, etc.) and astronomical locations.

However, use common sense and keep it mind what you want to achieve!

Source: 1999 Named Entity Recognition Task Definition, version 1.4, August 27 1999. ftp://jaguar.ncsl.nist.gov/ace/phase1/ne99_taskdef_v1_4.pdf

ftp://jaguar.ncsl.nist.gov/ace/phase1/ne99_taskdef_v1_4.pdf


Questions?

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What is a named entity