Portuguese Temporal Expressions Recognition: From TE Characterization to an Effective TER Module Implementation

Taking into account the temporal dimension conveyed in texts is a challenge to natural language processing. At the same time this task is of great importance for a wide range of natural language processing applications. The goal of this paper is twofold. First a characterization of Portuguese temporal expressions as they appear in texts is presented. This classification is intended to meet the requirements of high inter-agreement between annotators of temporal expressions. Second, relying on this characterization, an effective temporal expression annotation tool is described. Results from its evaluation are reported.