1. Introduction

1.1. Tutorial's Goal

In this tutorial, we will explore Sentiment Analysis, a significant aspect of Natural Language Processing (NLP). We will be implementing sentiment analysis models using Python and its popular libraries: NLTK (Natural Language Tool Kit) and TextBlob.

1.2. Learning Outcome

By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to understand the basics of sentiment analysis and implement sentiment analysis models using Python.

1.3. Prerequisites

• Basic understanding of Python programming language.
• Familiarity with NLP would be helpful but not mandatory.

2. Step-by-Step Guide

2.1. Understanding Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment Analysis, also known as opinion mining, is a subfield of NLP that deals with extracting subjective information from text or speech, such as opinions or attitudes. In practical terms, it's the process of determining whether a piece of writing is positive, negative, or neutral.

2.2. Python Libraries for Sentiment Analysis

Python offers several libraries for sentiment analysis, including NLTK, TextBlob, and Vader Sentiment. We will be using NLTK and TextBlob in this tutorial.

3. Code Examples

3.1. Sentiment Analysis with NLTK

First, we need to install the library using pip:

pip install nltk

Next, we import the necessary modules and download the vader_lexicon, which is necessary for sentiment analysis.

import nltk
nltk.download('vader_lexicon')

Then, we initialize the Vader Sentiment Analyzer and analyze a sample sentence.

from nltk.sentiment.vader import SentimentIntensityAnalyzer

sia = SentimentIntensityAnalyzer()
text = "I love this tutorial, it's incredibly helpful!"
print(sia.polarity_scores(text))

The output will be a dictionary with four items, representing the sentiment scores. They include 'pos' (positive), 'neg' (negative), 'neu' (neutral), and 'compound' (aggregated score).

3.2. Sentiment Analysis with TextBlob

First, we need to install the TextBlob library:

pip install textblob

Next, import the TextBlob module and create a TextBlob object, then use the sentiment property.

from textblob import TextBlob

text = "I love this tutorial, it's incredibly helpful!"
blob = TextBlob(text)
print(blob.sentiment)

The output will be a named tuple of the form Sentiment(polarity, subjectivity). Polarity is a float that lies between [-1,1], -1 indicates negative sentiment and 1 indicates a positive sentiment. Subjectivity is a float that lies in the range of [0,1].

4. Summary

• We've learned the basics of sentiment analysis and how it's used in the field of NLP.
• We've explored two Python libraries, NLTK and TextBlob, for performing sentiment analysis.
• We've coded examples to perform sentiment analysis on text.

5. Practice Exercises

5.1. Exercise 1: Basic Sentiment Analysis

Perform sentiment analysis on the following sentence using both NLTK and TextBlob:
"The weather today is terrible!"

5.2. Exercise 2: Comparing Sentiments

Compare the sentiment scores of the following sentences using both NLTK and TextBlob:
1. "I absolutely love this restaurant!"
2. "This is the worst movie I've ever seen."

5.3. Exercise 3: Analyzing Real-World Data

Find a dataset of product or movie reviews, perform sentiment analysis on the reviews, and summarize the results.

Additional Resources

• NLTK Documentation
• TextBlob Documentation
• VADER: A Parsimonious Rule-Based Model for Sentiment Analysis of Social Media Text