Processing natural language text using autonomous punctuational structure

A method comprising steps of:

• storing text data representing a natural language text that includes words and punctuational features with positions relative to the words;
• the text data including structure data indicating types of text units at the boundaries of which the punctuational features are positioned, the structure data further indicating nesting relationships between the words and the text units such that the punctuational features and their positions relative to the words can be determined from the structure data;
• and
• operating on the text data to produce codes indicating the words and the punctuational features in the natural language text;
• the step of operating on the text data comprising a substep of determining the punctuational features and their positions relative to the words from the structure data;
• the codes produced by the step of operating on the text data being in a sequence such that the codes indicate that the punctuational features are in their positions relative to the words as determined from the structure data.

A method comprising steps of:

• obtaining codes representing a natural language text that includes words and punctuational features, the codes being in a sequence such that the codes indicate that the punctuational features are in positions relative to the words;
• and
• operating on the codes to produce text data representing the natural language text;
• the text data including structure data indicating types of text units at the boundaries of which the punctuational features are positioned, the structure data further indicating nesting relationships between the words and the text units such that the punctuational features and their positions relative to the words as indicated by the codes can be determined from the structure data.

A data structure produced for use in a system that includes:

• memory for storing the data sturcture;
• and
• a processor connected for accessing the data structure when stored in the memory;
• the data structure comprising text data representing a natural language text that includes words and punctuational features with positions relative to the words;
• the text data comprising structure data indicating types of text units at the boundaries of which the punctuational features are positioned, the structure data further indicating nesting relationships between the words and the text units such that the processor can access the text data and use the structure data to determine the punctuational features and their positions relative to the words when the data structure is stored in the memory.

A system comprising:

• memory for storing text data representing a natural language text that includes words and punctuational features with positions relative to the words;
• the text data including structure data indicating types of text units at the boundaries of which the punctuational features are positioned, the structure data further indicating nesting relationships between the words and the text units such that the structure data can be used to detrermine the punctuational features and their positions relative to the words;
• and
• a processor connected for accessing the text data when stored in the memory, the processor comprising means for using the structure data to determine the punctuational features and their positions relative to words.