Concept matching of natural language queries with a database of document concepts

A computer system for forming a search query for searching a document database by a computer-implemented search process, the search process identifying documents likely to match the search query by matching individual terms of the search query to individual terms and sequences of terms in the document database, said system comprising:

• a) a first database consisting of a plurality of phrases derived from domain specific natural language phrases, each of said phrases consisting of a plurality of terms in original order;
• b) register means for storing an input query composed in natural language, the input query comprising a plurality of terms arranged in a user-selected order;
• c) parsing means responsive to said register means for parsing said input query into separate terms;
• d) first processing means for forming an ordered sequence of terms, the order of the terms being the same as the order of the terms in the input query;
• e) selecting means for selecting groups of terms, each group consisting of a plurality of successive terms of the sequence;
• f) first comparing means for comparing each group of terms in said register means to each phrase in said first database to identify each group of terms in the register means which matches a phrase in said first database;
• and
• g) second processing means for replacing each identified group of terms in said register means by a representation of the matching phrase in said first database.

A computer-implemented process for forming a search query for searching a document database by a computer-implemented search process, the search process identifying documents likely to match the search query by matching individual terms of the search query to individual terms and sequences of terms in the document database, the process for forming the search query comprising:

• a) providing a database containing a plurality of topics each having a descriptive topical text and an associated unique numerical key, each topical text being composed of a plurality of terms;
• b) input to a computer an input query composed in natural language;
• c) comparing the terms of the input query or the search query to each of the terms of the topical texts in the database;
• d) assigning a statistical weight to each topical text reflecting the probability that the topical text matches the query;
• e) ranking the topical texts based on the statistical weight;
• and
• f) inserting into the search query the numerical keys associated with up to n highest ranked topical texts, where n is a predetermined integer.

A computer system for forming a search query for searching a document database by a computer-implemented search process, the search process identifying documents likely to match the search query by matching individual terms of the search query to individual terms and sequences of terms in the document database, said system comprising:

• a) a read only memory containing a database consisting of a plurality of topics each having a descriptive topical text and an associated unique numerical key, each topical text being composed of a plurality of terms;
• b) register means for storing an input query composed in natural language, the input query comprising a plurality of terms arranged in a user-selected order;
• c) first comparing means for comparing the terms of the input query or the search query to each of the terms of the topical texts in the database;
• e) first processing means for assigning a statistical weight to each topical text reflecting the probability that the topical text matches the query;
• and
• f) ranking means for ranking the topical texts based on the statistical weight, said register means being responsive to the ranking means to store the numerical keys associated with up to n highest ranked topical texts, where n is a predetermined integer.

A computer-implemented process for searching a document database to identify documents likely to match a search query by matching individual terms of the search query to individual terms and sequences of terms in the document database, comprising:

• a) providing a first database containing a plurality of phrases derived from natural language phrases, each of said phrases consisting of a plurality of terms in original order;
• b) input to a computer an input query composed in natural language and comprising a plurality of terms arranged in a user-selected order;
• c) parsing said input query into separate terms in an ordered sequence, the order of the terms in the sequence being the same as the order of the terms in the input query;
• d) selecting groups of terms, each group consisting of a plurality of successive terms of the sequence;
• e) comparing each group of terms to each phrase in said first database to identify each group of terms of the input query that matches a phrase in said first database;
• f) replacing each identified group of terms of the input query by a representation of the matching phrase from said first database to form a search query, the search query comprising each representation substituted for groups of terms of the input query and each remaining term of the input query;
• g) comparing each term and representation of the search query to individual terms of a document database containing representations of the contents of texts of a plurality of documents;
• h) identifying terms of a document that at least partially match a representation of a phrase in the search query;
• and
• i) assigning a statistical weight to the document based on each occurrence of matched and partially matched terms in the document.

A computer system for searching a document database to identify documents likely to match a search query by matching individual terms of the search query to individual terms and sequences of terms in the document database, said system comprising:

• a) a first database consisting of a plurality of phrases derived from natural language phrases, each of said phrases consisting of a plurality of terms in original order;
• b) register means for storing an input query composed in natural language, the input query comprising a plurality of terms arranged in a user-selected order;
• c) parsing means responsive to said register means for parsing said input query into separate terms;
• d) first processing means for forming an ordered sequence of terms, the order of the terms being the same as the order of the terms in the input query;
• e) selecting means for selecting groups of terms, each group consisting of a plurality of successive terms of the sequence;
• f) first comparing means for comparing each group of terms in said register means to each phrase in said first database to identify each group of terms in the register means which matches a phrase in said first database;
• g) second processing means for replacing each identified group of terms in said register means by a representation of the matching phrase in said first database to form a search query;
• h) a second database containing representations of the contents of texts of a plurality of documents, each of said representations comprising a plurality of terms;
• i) second comparing means responsive to the second processing means and the second database for comparing each term and representation of the search query to individual terms of the second database;
• j) third processing means responsive to the second comparing means for identifying terms of a document that at least partially match a representation of the search query;
• and
• k) fourth processing means responsive to the third processing means for assigning a statistical weight to the document based on each occurrence of matched and partially matched terms in the document.