Method and apparatus for determining unbounded dependencies during syntactic parsing

A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:

• constructing a syntactic parse structure of a segment found in a sentence of text;
• identifying a token outside of the segment;
• and
• searching the segment for a gap in a relationship that the token can fill, wherein the gap is not represented in the parse structure.

A computer-readable medium having a data structure, the data structure comprising:

• a token identity field that indicates the identity of a token that could satisfy a relationship within a text segment;
• a gap location field that indicates the location of a gap in a relationship in a text segment;
• and
• a role field that indicates the role the token would assume if placed in the gap.

A method of identifying non-local relationships during syntactic parsing, the method comprising:

• identifying a segment of text that can act as a filler in a non-local relationship found in a second segment of text;
• locating a first gap in a relationship in the second segment of text;
• locating a second gap in a relationship in the second segment of text;
• and
• indicating that the filler can be placed in both the first gap and the second gap.