Automatic classification of sentences in Dutch laws

The work described here builds on [1], where we presented a categorisation of norms or provisions in legislation. We claimed that the categories are characterized by the use of typical sentence structures and that this would enable automatic detection and classification. In this paper we present the results of experiments in such automatic classification of provisions. We have defined fourteen different categories of provisions, and compiled a list of 81 sentence structures for those categories from twenty Dutch laws. Based on these structures, a parser was used to classify the sentences in fi... Mehr ...

Verfasser: E. de Maat
R. Winkels
Dokumenttyp: conference contribution
Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
Verlag/Hrsg.: IOS Press
Sprache: unknown
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27448605
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : http://hdl.handle.net/11245/1.300593

The work described here builds on [1], where we presented a categorisation of norms or provisions in legislation. We claimed that the categories are characterized by the use of typical sentence structures and that this would enable automatic detection and classification. In this paper we present the results of experiments in such automatic classification of provisions. We have defined fourteen different categories of provisions, and compiled a list of 81 sentence structures for those categories from twenty Dutch laws. Based on these structures, a parser was used to classify the sentences in fifteen different Dutch laws, classifying 94% of 530 sentences correctly. It compares well with other, statistical approaches. An important improvement of our classifier will be the distinction of principal and auxiliary sentences.