Hierarchical text classification methods and their specification

Hierarchical text classification refers to assigning text documents to the categories in a given category tree based on their content. With large number of categories organized as a tree, hierarchical text classification helps users to find information more quickly and accurately. Nevertheless, hierarchical text classification methods in the past have often been constructed in a proprietary manner. The construction steps often involve human efforts and are not completely automated. In this chapter, we therefore propose a specification language known as HCL (Hierarchical Classification Language). HCL is designed to describe a hierarchical classification method including the definition of a category tree and training of classifiers associated with the categories. Using HCL, a hierarchical classification method can be materialized easily with the help of a method generator system.