Assignment 2 problem solution

You can download GetSnippets.java here.

It is a very straightforward modification of GoogleAPIDemo. To run, call java -cp googleapi.jar GetSnippets [key] '"search string"'
It prints the first 5 snippets (or all of them if there are less than 5). It is implemented with an easily a list of tags to be removed from the output. Below is a summary of what people tried which you can use in more assignments. The bottom line here: a single query probably won't work, you need to have several and a way to combine the results.

Physical/abstract object

"Touch the /word/"
"Hold a /word/"
"looked at /word/"
"grabbed a /word/"
"hit a /word/"
"pile of /word/"
Can work for many physical objects, but will produce false negatives for many abstract objects. E.g. "hold the fundraiser" is much more frequent than "hold a spoon", though "fundraiser" is a less frequent word
"Hold the /word/ in hand"
"in front of a /word/"
Useful only for limited subclasses of objects - small physical objects that will fit in your hand and larger objects in front of which something can be located. "In front of a snail" will produce 0 hits.
"Speak about /word/" Does not do a good job in discriminating physical from abstract objects
"Speak of /word/" Seems to be considerately more frequent for abstract objects, but there are exceptions, such as "speak of him".
"What I mean by /word/"
"the concept of /word/"
Seems to work really well for many classes of abstract objects

Collection/Non-collection

"a /word/ of" Not useful in general, as could be expected. Because "of" is a general way to introduce a noun complement, there are too many constructions with "of" - "a child of divorced parents", " a box of chocolates", "an evening of pleasure",...
"a /word/ full of"
"a large /word/ of"
Works better than "a ... of ...", but there are still many counterexamples, such as "a box full of ..."
"one of that /word/" Adding "that" strongly encourages a singular NP complement, and seems to be a good test for collections
"one of that /word/" Adding "that" strongly encourages a singular NP complement, and seems to be a good test for collections
"members of /word/" Works well for many, but not all collections - "members of the herd" has rather low hits
"part of a /word/" Works for some collections, but too many other interfering possibilities - "part of the problem", "part of a house"
"the entire /word/" Works only for some collections. Many physical counterexamples such as "the entire box".