Which process reduces words to their base or root form by removing prefixes and suffixes?

Which process reduces words to their base or root form by removing prefixes and suffixes?

• A. Lemmatization
• B. Stemming
• C. Dictionary (Heuristic)
• D. Machine Learning

Answer: (B)

In word normalization, the process that reduces words to their base form by removing prefixes and suffixes is stemming. It uses simple, rule-based trimming to strip off affixes, turning forms like running into run, jumps into jump, and trees into tree. This approach is fast and practical for tasks like search indexing and text matching, where you want different word forms to be treated as the same term. Lemmatization, by comparison, seeks the dictionary form (lemma) and uses linguistic context to decide the correct base form, which often isn’t just a straight affix removal. The other options don’t describe this exact affix-stripping method.

In word normalization, the process that reduces words to their base form by removing prefixes and suffixes is stemming. It uses simple, rule-based trimming to strip off affixes, turning forms like running into run, jumps into jump, and trees into tree. This approach is fast and practical for tasks like search indexing and text matching, where you want different word forms to be treated as the same term. Lemmatization, by comparison, seeks the dictionary form (lemma) and uses linguistic context to decide the correct base form, which often isn’t just a straight affix removal. The other options don’t describe this exact affix-stripping method.