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Text Mining

Text Mining is the process of extracting meaningful information and patterns from unstructured text data using computational methods.

Definition

Text mining applies natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning techniques to discover patterns, trends, and insights in large text collections.

Common Techniques

Tokenization

Breaking text into words, sentences, or other units.

Named Entity Recognition (NER)

Identifying and classifying named entities (people, places, organizations, dates).

Sentiment Analysis

Determining the emotional tone of text.

Keyword Extraction

Identifying the most important terms in a document.

Applications in History

  • Newspaper analysis — Finding patterns across decades of publications
  • Correspondence networks — Mapping who wrote to whom
  • Legal documents — Extracting key terms and relationships