Natural language processing for developing queries

A method for retrieving text strings responsive to a user's query comprising:

• (a) identifying normalized forms of at least some of the words of a natural language user query input by a user,
• (b) retrieving text strings from an associated memory, each of the retrieved text strings including at least one word with a normalized form which is recognized as equivalent to one of the identified normalized forms;
• and
• (c) where more than one text string is retrieved, refining the user's query comprising selecting at least one of three available refinements:
• (i) presenting subparts of the user's query as alternate refined queries,
• (ii) presenting a plurality of expressions as query refinements, each of the expressions representing a different meaning of a user query or of a refined query, and
• (iii) presenting extensions of a refined query as alternate query refinements.

A system for retrieving text strings responsive to a user query comprising:

• a memory which stores indexed text strings;
• a processor which identifies normalized forms of at least some of the words of a natural language user query input by a user and retrieves text strings from the memory, each of the retrieved text strings including at least one word with a normalized form which is indexed as being equivalent to one of the identified normalized forms, and, where more than one text string is retrieved, refining the user's query comprising at least one of:
• (i) presenting subparts of the user's query as alternate refined queries;
• (ii) presenting a plurality of expressions as query refinements, each of the expressions representing a different meaning of a user query or of a refined query;
• and
• (iii) presenting extensions of a refined query as alternate query refinements.

A storage medium storing instructions which when executed by an associated processor:

• (a) identify normalized forms of at least some of the words of a natural language user query input by a user, the user query describing a problem experienced with a machine,
• (b) retrieve problem statements from an associated memory, each of the retrieved problem statements including at least one word with a normalized form which is recognized as equivalent to one of the identified normalized forms, each of the retrieved problem statements being associated with at least one solution sequence for addressing the problem with the machine;
• and
• (c) where more than one problem statement is retrieved, refining the user's query comprising at least one of:
• (i) present subparts of the user's query as alternate refined queries;
• (ii) present a plurality of expressions as query refinements, each of the expressions representing a different meaning of a user query or of a refined query;
• and
• (iii) present extensions of a refined query as alternate query refinements.