Inferring relation types between temporal elements and entity elements

1. A computer-implemented method for inferring a relation type between elements of a span of text, the method comprising:

receiving, by a processing device, the span of text, the span of text comprising a plurality of elements including at least an entity element and a temporal element;

organizing, by the processing device, the span of text as a natural language processing (NLP) parse tree;

traversing, by the processing device, the NLP parse tree, wherein the traversing comprises:

identifying the entity element and the temporal element,

identifying individual nodes of the span of text between the entity element and the temporal element, and

concatenating the individual nodes of the span of text between the entity element and the temporal element to generate the relation type between the entity element and the temporal element, wherein the relation type is based on the individual nodes of the span of text between the entity element and the temporal element; and

associating, by the processing device, the entity element, the relation type, and the temporal element together.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:

annotating an electronic file with the associated entity element, the relation type, and the temporal element.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , organizing the span of text further comprises identifying a part of speech associated with each of the plurality elements of the span of text.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the part of speech is selected from a group consisting of a verb, a noun, and a preposition.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the temporal element is a date.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the temporal element is a date and a time.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the entity element is a medical element.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the medical element is a medical procedure.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the medical element is a medication.

10. A system comprising:

a memory comprising computer readable instructions; and

a processing device for executing the computer readable instructions, the computer readable instructions controlling the processing device to perform operations for inferring a relation type between elements of a span of text, the operations comprising:

receiving, by the processing device, the span of text, the span of text comprising a plurality of elements including at least an entity element and a temporal element;

organizing, by the processing device, the span of text as a natural language processing (NLP) parse tree;

traversing, by the processing device, the NLP parse tree, wherein the traversing comprises:

identifying the entity element and the temporal element,

identifying individual nodes of the span of text between the entity element and the temporal element, and

concatenating the individual nodes of the span of text between the entity element and the temporal element to generate the relation type between the entity element and the temporal element, wherein the relation type is based on the individual nodes of the span of text between the entity element and the temporal element; and

associating, by the processing device, the entity element, the relation type, and the temporal element together.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise:

annotating an electronic file with the associated entity element, the relation type, and the temporal element.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein organizing the span of text further comprises identifying a part of speech associated with each of the plurality elements of the span of text.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the part of speech is selected from a group consisting of a verb, a noun, and a preposition.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the temporal element is a date.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the temporal element is a date and a time.

16. The system of claim 10 , wherein the entity element is a medical element.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the medical element is a medical procedure.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein the medical element is a medication.

19. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform operations for inferring a relation type between elements of a span of text, the operations comprising:

receiving, by the processing device, the span of text, the span of text comprising a plurality of elements including at least an entity element and a temporal element;

organizing, by the processing device, the span of text as a natural language processing (NLP) parse tree;

traversing, by the processing device, the NLP parse tree, wherein the traversing comprises:

identifying the entity element and the temporal element,

identifying individual nodes of the span of text between the entity element and the temporal element, and

concatenating the individual nodes of the span of text between the entity element and the temporal element to generate the relation type between the entity element and the temporal element, wherein the relation type is based on the individual nodes of the span of text between the entity element and the temporal element; and

associating, by the processing device, the entity element, the relation type, and the temporal element together.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 , wherein the operations further comprise:

annotating an electronic file with the associated entity element, the relation type, and the temporal element.