Successes and challenges of Arabic sentiment analysis research: a literature review

Abstract

The analysis of sentiment in text has mainly been focused on the English language. The complexity of the Arabic language and its linguistic features that oppose those found in English resulted in the inability to adapt extant research to Arabic contexts limiting advancement in Arabic sentiment analysis. The need for Arabic sentiment analysis research is accentuated by the driving changes in different Arab regions like heavy political movements in some areas and fast growth in others. These changes help shape not just policies and implications of this region but affect the entire world on a global scale. Therefore, it is essential to utilise effective methods of sentiment analysis to analyse Arabic tweets to understand regional and global implications in microblogging mediums such as Twitter. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive review of Arabic sentiment analysis, present the pros and cons of the different approaches used and highlight the challenges of it. Finally, we outline the relevant gaps in the literature and suggest recommendations for future Arabic sentiment analysis research. - 2017, Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria.