abbreviations

Table of common abbreviations

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Syntax

tbl = abbreviations
tbl = abbreviations('Language',language)

Description

Abbreviations containing periods like "appt.", "Dr.", and "fig." affect sentence detection. The addSentenceDetails and addPartOfSpeechDetails functions use tables of abbreviations to detect sentence boundaries. The abbreviations function outputs the default table used by these functions. You can use this table to help create custom tables of abbreviations to specify sentence detection behavior.

The function supports English, Japanese, German, and Korean language. The Japanese and Korean abbreviation lists are empty because in these languages, abbreviations do not usually impact sentence detection.

example

tbl = abbreviations returns a table of common English abbreviations.

example

tbl = abbreviations('Language',language) specifies the abbreviation language.

Examples

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Open Live Script

View a table of abbreviations. You can use this table to detect abbreviations and sentences when using addSentenceDetails. 

tbl = abbreviations;
head(tbl)
ans=8×2 table
    Abbreviation     Usage 
    ____________    _______

       "ATS"        regular
       "Ao"         regular
       "BEF"        regular
       "Ba"         regular
       "Bd"         regular
       "Bi"         regular
       "Bq"         regular
       "Cent"       regular
Open Live Script

View a table of German abbreviations. Use this table to help create custom tables of abbreviations for sentence detection when using addSentenceDetails. 

tbl = abbreviations('Language','de');
head(tbl)
ans=8×2 table
    Abbreviation     Usage 
    ____________    _______

       "A.T"        regular
       "ABl"        regular
       "Abb"        regular
       "Abdr"       regular
       "Abf"        regular
       "Abfl"       regular
       "Abh"        regular
       "Abk"        regular

Input Arguments

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Abbreviation language, specified as one of the following:

  • 'en' – English

  • 'ja' – Japanese

  • 'de' – German

  • 'ko' – Korean

If you specify 'ja' or 'ko', then the function returns an empty table. For more information about language support in Text Analytics Toolbox™, see Language Considerations.

Output Arguments

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Table of abbreviations. The addSentenceDetails and splitSentences functions, by default, use this table to detect sentence boundaries. This table only contains abbreviations typically written with periods.

The table has two variables:

  • Abbreviation – Abbreviation, specified as a string

  • Usage – Type of abbreviation, specified as a categorical scalar

The following table describes the possible values of Usage and the behavior of addSentenceDetails and splitSentences when observing abbreviations of these types.

UsageBehaviorExample AbbreviationExample TextDetected Sentences
regularIf the next word is a capitalized sentence starter, then break at the trailing period. Otherwise, do not break at the trailing period."appt.""Book an appt. We'll meet then."

"Book an appt."

"We'll meet then."

"Book an appt. today.""Book an appt. today."
innerDo not break after trailing period."Dr.""Dr. Smith.""Dr. Smith."
referenceIf the next token is not a number, then break at a trailing period. If the next token is a number, then do not break at the trailing period."fig.""See fig. 3.""See fig. 3."
"Try a fig. They are nice."

"Try a fig."

"They are nice."

unitIf the previous word is a number and the following word is a capitalized sentence starter, then break at a trailing period."in.""The height is 30 in. The width is 10 in."

"The height is 30 in."

"The width is 10 in."

If the previous word is a number and the following word is not capitalized, then do not break at a trailing period."The item is 10 in. wide.""The item is 10 in. wide."
If the previous word is not a number, then break at a trailing period."Come in. Sit down."

"Come in."

"Sit down."

The Japanese and Korean abbreviation lists are empty because in these languages, abbreviations do not usually impact sentence detection

See Also

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Topics

Introduced in R2018a

Text Analytics Toolbox Documentation

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