Patent ID: 7379867

Claim:
A computer implemented method of classifying a natural language input, comprising: training a plurality of statistical classification components jointly in relation to one another to maximize a conditional likelihood of a class given a word string using an application of the rational growth transform, the plurality of statistical classification components being n-gram language model classifiers that each correspond to a different class, wherein each class corresponds to a different category of subject matter, and wherein training the plurality of statistical classification components comprises: identifying an optimal number of rational function growth transform iterations and an optimal conditional maximum likelihood (CML) weight β max to facilitate application of the rational function growth transform, wherein identifying comprises: splitting a collection of training data into a collection of main data and a collection of held-out data; using the main data to estimate a series of relative frequencies for the statistical classification components; and using the held-out data to tune the optimal number of rational function growth transform iterations and the optimal CML weight β max ; receiving a natural language input; applying the plurality of statistical classification components to the natural language input so as to classify the natural language input into a particular one or more of the plurality of classes that represent the category or categories of subject matter that is best correlated to the natural language input; wherein using the held-out data to tune comprises: fixing a preset number N of rational function growth transform iterations to be run; fixing a range of values to be explored for determining the optimal CML weight β max ; for each value β max , running as many rational function growth transform functions as possible up to N such that the conditional likelihood of the main data increases at each iteration; and identifying as optimal the number of rational function growth transforms iterations; and the β max value that maximizes the conditional likelihood of the held-out data; and wherein training the plurality of statistical classification components further comprises: pooling the main and held-out data to form a combined collection of training data; and training the plurality of statistical classification components on the combined collection of training data using the optimal number of rational function growth transform iterations and the optimal CML weight β max .