pygeonlp, A python module for geotagging Japanese texts

pygeonlp is an open source software for geotagging/geoparsing Japanese natural language text to extract place names.

More detailed Japanese documentation and API references are available in the /docs/source directory. You can also find the latest online documentation at PyGeoNLP Reference.

How To Use

Import pygeonlp.api and initialize it by specifying the directory where the place-name database is placed.

>>> import pygeonlp.api as api
>>> api.init(db_dir='mydic')

Then, run geoparse("text to parse") .

>>> result = api.geoparse("国立情報学研究所は千代田区にあります。")

The result is a list of dict objects, with POS/Spatial attributes assigned to each word.

A GeoJSON representation is obtained by JSON-encoding each dict object.

>>> import json
>>> print(json.dumps(result, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False))
[
  {
    "type": "Feature",
    "geometry": null,
    "properties": {
      "surface": "国立",
      "node_type": "NORMAL",
      "morphemes": {
        "conjugated_form": "名詞-固有名詞-地名語",
        "conjugation_type": "*",
        "original_form": "国立",
        "pos": "名詞",
        "prononciation": "コクリツ",
        "subclass1": "固有名詞",
        "subclass2": "地名修飾語",
        "subclass3": "*",
        "surface": "国立",
        "yomi": "コクリツ"
      }
    }
  }, ... 
  {
    "type": "Feature",
    "geometry": {
      "type": "Point",
      "coordinates": [
        139.753634,
        35.694003
      ]
    },
    "properties": {
      "surface": "千代田区",
      "node_type": "GEOWORD",
      "morphemes": {
        "conjugated_form": "*",
        "conjugation_type": "*",
        "original_form": "千代田区",
        "pos": "名詞",
        "prononciation": "",
        "subclass1": "固有名詞",
        "subclass2": "地名語",
        "subclass3": "WWIY7G:千代田区",
        "surface": "千代田区",
        "yomi": ""
      },
      "geoword_properties": {
        "address": "東京都千代田区",
        "body": "千代田",
        "body_variants": "千代田",
        "code": {},
        "countyname": "",
        "countyname_variants": "",
        "dictionary_id": 1,
        "entry_id": "13101A1968",
        "geolod_id": "WWIY7G",
        "hypernym": [
          "東京都"
        ],
        "latitude": "35.69400300",
        "longitude": "139.75363400",
        "ne_class": "市区町村",
        "prefname": "東京都",
        "prefname_variants": "東京都",
        "source": "1/千代田区役所/千代田区九段南1-2-1/P34-14_13.xml",
        "suffix": [
          "区"
        ],
        "valid_from": "",
        "valid_to": "",
        "dictionary_identifier": "geonlp:geoshape-city"
      }
    }
  },
  {
    "type": "Feature",
    "geometry": null,
    "properties": {
      "surface": "に",
      "node_type": "NORMAL",
      "morphemes": {
        "conjugated_form": "*",
        "conjugation_type": "*",
        "original_form": "に",
        "pos": "助詞",
        "prononciation": "ニ",
        "subclass1": "格助詞",
        "subclass2": "一般",
        "subclass3": "*",
        "surface": "に",
        "yomi": "ニ"
      }
    }
  },...
]

Pre-requirements

pygeonlp requires MeCab C++ library and UTF8 dictionary for Japanese morphological analysis.

Also, the C++ implementation part depends on Boost C++.

$ sudo apt install libmecab-dev mecab-ipadic-utf8 libboost-all-dev

Install

The pygeonlp package can be installed with the pip command. It is recommended that you upgrade pip and setuptools to the latest versions before running it.

$ pip install --upgrade pip setuptools
$ pip install pygeonlp

The database needs to be prepared the first time.

Prepare the database

Execute the command to register the basic place name word analysis dictionaries (*.json, *.csv) in this package into the database under mydic/.

>>> import pygeonlp.api as api
>>> api.setup_basic_database(db_dir='mydic/')

This command registers three dictionaries:

• "Prefectures of Japan" (geonlp:geoshape-pref),

• "Historical Administrative Area Data Set Beta Dictionary of Place Names" (geonlp:geoshape-city)

• "Railroad Stations in Japan (2019)" (geonlp:ksj-station-N02-2019)

Install GDAL library (Optional)

If the GDAL library is installed, pygeonlp can use "spatial distance" for disambiguation when there are multiple place names with the same name, thus improving accuracy. You can also use spatial filters.

$ sudo apt install libgdal-dev
$ pip install gdal

Install jageocoder (Optional)

pygeonlp can use address-geocoding if an address-dictionary for jageocoder is installed.

See the jageocoder documentation for installation instructions.

Run tests (Optional)

Run the unit tests with pytest command.

Uninstall

Use pip command to uninstall.

$ pip uninstall pygeonlp

Delete the database

When you register a place-name word analysis dictionary to the database, it will create a sqlite3 database and some other files in the specified directory.

If you want to delete them, just delete the whole directory.

$ rm -r mydic/

License

The 2-Clause BSD License

Acknowledgements

This software is supported by DIAS (Data Integration and Analysis System) and ROIS-DS CODH (Center for Open Data in the Humanities).

It was also supported by JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency) PRESTO program.