Opinion Object

Anita Ciunova-Shuleska, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, North Macedonia
anita@eccf.ukim.edu.mk

Nikolina Palamidovska-Sterjadovska, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, North Macedonia
nikolina@eccf.ukim.edu.mk

The term ‘opinion object’ refers to the subject or entity about which someone expresses their opinion. Opinions can be expressed on anything, ranging from physical entities to abstract concepts; so an opinion object can be a person, a place, a product, an idea, an event, an organisation, a situation, a topic, or any other entity that can be a target of someone's opinion. People often express their opinions about objects through various means, including conversation, writing (such as reviews or blog posts), social media posts, surveys, or ratings. When discussing an opinion, the identification of the opinion object is crucial to provide context and clarity of the opinion itself. For example, consider the following social media post: ‘This song stands out for its rich melody and meaningful lyrics!’, where the opinion object is the song itself. Similarly, in a statement like: ‘The new government policy on renewable energy shows real commitment to sustainability’, the opinion object is the specific decision of the government. By recognising the opinion object, it becomes easier to understand and analyse the expressed opinion, shifting the focus from the opinion itself. The object can have a set of components and a set of attributes, as well as further appropriate subsets. For example, in product reviews, the object is usually the product and/or its specific attributes.

Keywords: entity, opinion object, target of opinion

Related Entries: Opinion Holder

References:
Ding, X., Liu, B., & Yu, P. S. (2008). A holistic lexicon-based approach to opinion mining. Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining (pp. 231-240). https://doi.org/10.1145/1341531.1341561
Kim, S. M., & Hovy, E. (2006). Extracting opinions, opinion holders, and topics expressed in online news media text. Proceedings of the Workshop on Sentiment and Subjectivity in Text (pp. 1-8).
Oskamp, S., & Schultz, P. W. (2005). Attitudes and opinions. Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410611963