Korean spelling error correction using a Hangul similarity algorithm

Abstract

Increasingly people use computers for word processing. This helps reduce word processing time and fatigue of hands, but may increase the possibility of occurrence of spelling errors. Although spelling errors are generally easy to find and correct, it is hard to make a document totally free of spelling errors partly due to lack of knowledge of users or presence of spelling errors which are difficult to notice. Since there is no set of online word processing rules and manners in place and problems of spelling errors are not often raised, spelling errors in important documents may lead to decrease in reliability. Even experts cannot correct spelling errors perfectly, so there is a need for research to come up with spelling correction methods for the general public. This study aims to correct spelling errors using Korean alphabet similarity algorithm. To this end, words most similar to misspelled words found in a corpus containing spelling errors collected by previous research were identified to correct spelling errors by measuring frequency of simultaneous appearance with adjacent words.