Latent semantic analysis and Fiedler retrieval

Latent semantic analysis (LSA) is a method for information retrieval and processing which is based upon the singular value decomposition. It has a geometric interpretation in which objects (e.g. documents and keywords) are placed in a low-dimensional geometric space. In this paper, we derive an alternative algebraic/geometric method for placing objects in space to facilitate information analysis. We show that our method is closely related to LSA, and essentially equivalent for particular choices of scaling parameters. We then show that our approach supports a number of generalizations and extensions that existing LSA approaches cannot handle.