126 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
126 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
[[stemming]]
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=== Stemming
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_Stemming_ is the process of reducing a word to its root form. This ensures
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variants of a word match during a search.
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For example, `walking` and `walked` can be stemmed to the same root word:
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`walk`. Once stemmed, an occurrence of either word would match the other in a
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search.
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Stemming is language-dependent but often involves removing prefixes and
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suffixes from words.
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In some cases, the root form of a stemmed word may not be a real word. For
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example, `jumping` and `jumpiness` can both be stemmed to `jumpi`. While `jumpi`
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isn't a real English word, it doesn't matter for search; if all variants of a
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word are reduced to the same root form, they will match correctly.
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[[stemmer-token-filters]]
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==== Stemmer token filters
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In {es}, stemming is handled by stemmer <<analyzer-anatomy-token-filters,token
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filters>>. These token filters can be categorized based on how they stem words:
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* <<algorithmic-stemmers,Algorithmic stemmers>>, which stem words based on a set
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of rules
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* <<dictionary-stemmers,Dictionary stemmers>>, which stem words by looking them
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up in a dictionary
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Because stemming changes tokens, we recommend using the same stemmer token
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filters during <<analysis-index-search-time,index and search analysis>>.
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[[algorithmic-stemmers]]
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==== Algorithmic stemmers
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Algorithmic stemmers apply a series of rules to each word to reduce it to its
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root form. For example, an algorithmic stemmer for English may remove the `-s`
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and `-es` prefixes from the end of plural words.
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Algorithmic stemmers have a few advantages:
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* They require little setup and usually work well out of the box.
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* They use little memory.
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* They are typically faster than <<dictionary-stemmers,dictionary stemmers>>.
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However, most algorithmic stemmers only alter the existing text of a word. This
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means they may not work well with irregular words that don't contain their root
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form, such as:
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* `be`, `are`, and `am`
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* `mouse` and `mice`
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* `foot` and `feet`
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The following token filters use algorithmic stemming:
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* <<analysis-stemmer-tokenfilter,`stemmer`>>, which provides algorithmic
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stemming for several languages, some with additional variants.
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* <<analysis-kstem-tokenfilter,`kstem`>>, a stemmer for English that combines
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algorithmic stemming with a built-in dictionary.
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* <<analysis-porterstem-tokenfilter,`porter_stem`>>, our recommended algorithmic
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stemmer for English.
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* <<analysis-snowball-tokenfilter,`snowball`>>, which uses
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https://snowballstem.org/[Snowball]-based stemming rules for several
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languages.
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[[dictionary-stemmers]]
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==== Dictionary stemmers
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Dictionary stemmers look up words in a provided dictionary, replacing unstemmed
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word variants with stemmed words from the dictionary.
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In theory, dictionary stemmers are well suited for:
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* Stemming irregular words
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* Discerning between words that are spelled similarly but not related
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conceptually, such as:
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** `organ` and `organization`
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** `broker` and `broken`
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In practice, algorithmic stemmers typically outperform dictionary stemmers. This
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is because dictionary stemmers have the following disadvantages:
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* *Dictionary quality* +
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A dictionary stemmer is only as good as its dictionary. To work well, these
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dictionaries must include a significant number of words, be updated regularly,
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and change with language trends. Often, by the time a dictionary has been made
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available, it's incomplete and some of its entries are already outdated.
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* *Size and performance* +
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Dictionary stemmers must load all words, prefixes, and suffixes from its
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dictionary into memory. This can use a significant amount of RAM. Low-quality
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dictionaries may also be less efficient with prefix and suffix removal, which
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can slow the stemming process significantly.
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You can use the <<analysis-hunspell-tokenfilter,`hunspell`>> token filter to
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perform dictionary stemming.
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[TIP]
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====
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If available, we recommend trying an algorithmic stemmer for your language
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before using the <<analysis-hunspell-tokenfilter,`hunspell`>> token filter.
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====
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[[control-stemming]]
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==== Control stemming
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Sometimes stemming can produce shared root words that are spelled similarly but
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not related conceptually. For example, a stemmer may reduce both `skies` and
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`skiing` to the same root word: `ski`.
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To prevent this and better control stemming, you can use the following token
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filters:
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* <<analysis-stemmer-override-tokenfilter,`stemmer_override`>>, which lets you
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define rules for stemming specific tokens.
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* <<analysis-keyword-marker-tokenfilter,`keyword_marker`>>, which marks
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specified tokens as keywords. Keyword tokens are not stemmed by subsequent
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stemmer token filters.
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* <<analysis-condition-tokenfilter,`conditional`>>, which can be used to mark
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tokens as keywords, similar to the `keyword_marker` filter.
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For built-in <<analysis-lang-analyzer,language analyzers>>, you also can use the
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<<_excluding_words_from_stemming,`stem_exclusion`>> parameter to specify a list
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of words that won't be stemmed.
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