To solve the problem of counting the number of occurrences of a word and its synonyms in a
corpus of text documents using computational thinking, we can break it down into the four pillars
of computational thinking: decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithm
design.
1. Decomposition:
- Break the problem into smaller, manageable parts:
- Read the text documents from the corpus.
- Identify the target word and its synonyms.
- Count occurrences of the target word and each synonym in the text.
- Summarize the counts in a readable format.
2. Pattern Recognition:
- Look for patterns in how words are used in the text:
- Words may appear in different forms (e.g., plural, tense variations).
- Synonyms may be used interchangeably in similar contexts.
- Recognizing these patterns will help in ensuring accurate counting.
3. Abstraction:
- Focus on the essential features of the problem:
- Create a list of synonyms for the target word.
- Define what constitutes a "count" (e.g., case sensitivity, punctuation).
- This helps in simplifying the problem and removing unnecessary details.
4. Algorithm Design:
- Create a step-by-step procedure to solve the problem:
1. Load the text documents.
2. Define the target word and its synonyms.
3. Initialize a count for each word.
4. Loop through each document:
- For each document, read the text.
- For each word in the text, check if it matches the target word or its synonyms.
- Increment the respective counts.
5. Output the counts.
Next, let's express this algorithm using a flowchart.
Flowchart:
1. Start
2. Load text documents
3. Define target word and synonyms
4. Initialize counts to zero
5. For each document in documents:
- Read the document text
- For each word in text:
- If word matches target or synonym:
- Increment count for that word
6. Output counts
7. End
Now, let's express the algorithm using pseudocode:
Pseudocode:
```
START
LOAD documents
DEFINE target_word
DEFINE synonyms_list
INITIALIZE counts_dict to {target_word: 0, synonyms: {synonym1: 0, synonym2: 0, ...}}
FOR each document in documents DO
READ document_text
SPLIT document_text into words
FOR each word in words DO
IF word equals target_word THEN
INCREMENT counts_dict[target_word] by 1
ELSE IF word in synonyms_list THEN
INCREMENT counts_dict[synonym] by 1
END IF
END FOR
END FOR
OUTPUT counts_dict
END
```
Finally, let's implement the solution in Python:
```python
import os
from collections import defaultdict
def count_word_and_synonyms(corpus_path, target_word, synonyms):
counts = defaultdict(int) # Initialize counts for target word and synonyms
# Loop through each document in the corpus
for filename in [Link](corpus_path):
if [Link]('.txt'): # Assuming text files
with open([Link](corpus_path, filename), 'r', encoding='utf-8') as file:
text = [Link]()
words = [Link]() # Split text into words
# Count occurrences
for word in words:
if [Link]() == target_word.lower():
counts[target_word] += 1
elif [Link]() in [[Link]() for synonym in synonyms]:
counts[[Link]()] += 1 # Count the synonym
return counts
# Example usage
corpus_path = 'path/to/text/documents' # Update with the actual path
target_word = 'happy'
synonyms = ['joyful', 'content', 'cheerful']
result = count_word_and_synonyms(corpus_path, target_word, synonyms)
print(result)
```
This Python code defines a function that counts the occurrences of a target word and its
synonyms in text documents located in a specified directory. The results are stored in a dictionary
and printed at the end.