How is Stemming different from Lemmatization ? Explain how the word "Wolves" would be processed by stemming and lemmatization.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-21 03:20 · grounding rag
Model Answer
Stemming removes affixes from words to get the root/base form, but the result may not be a meaningful word. Lemmatization also removes affixes, but always produces a meaningful word (called a lemma).
Processing "Wolves":
- Stemming → wolv (not a meaningful word)
- Lemmatization → wolf (a meaningful word)
Source: Chapter 6, Section 6.5 – Text Processing (Stemming & Lemmatization)
---
Explanation
- The key distinction examiners look for: stemming is faster but may give non-meaningful results; lemmatization is slower but always gives a valid word.
- Use a clear example showing both outputs — "wolves" is a standard example. Writing just definitions without an example will cost marks on a 2-mark question.
- The term lemma for the output of lemmatization is good to include if space allows.