---
name: "Text::English"
section: "3pm"
platform: "linux"
package: "libtext-english-perl"
version: "1.606-6"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Text::English"
---

# Text::English(3pm)

Porter's stemming algorithm

## NAME

Text::English - Porter's stemming algorithm

## SYNOPSIS

```
    use Text::English;
    @stems = Text::English::stem( @words );
```

## DESCRIPTION

This routine applies the Porter Stemming Algorithm to its parameters, returning the stemmed words. It is derived from the C program "stemmer.c" as found in freewais and elsewhere, which contains these notes:

```
   Purpose:    Implementation of the Porter stemming algorithm documented
               in: Porter, M.F., "An Algorithm For Suffix Stripping,"
               Program 14 (3), July 1980, pp. 130-137.
   Provenance: Written by B. Frakes and C. Cox, 1986.
```

I have re-interpreted areas that use Frakes and Cox's "WordSize" function. My version may misbehave on short words starting with "y", but I can't think of any examples.

The step numbers correspond to Frakes and Cox, and are probably in Porter's article (which I've not seen). Porter's algorithm still has rough spots (e.g current/currency, -ings words), which I've not attempted to cure, although I have added support for the British -ise suffix.

## NOTES

This is version 0.1. I would welcome feedback, especially improvements to the punctuation-stripping step.

## AUTHOR

Ian Phillipps \<ian@unipalm.pipex.com\>

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright Public IP Exchange Ltd (PIPEX). Available for use under the same terms as perl.