Method and apparatus for displaying items of information organized in a hierarchical structure

A method of displaying a hierarchical tree of nodes, each node of which comprises an item of information representing a concept defining a noun, a name of numerical value or a unit, wherein at least two of said concepts have an is-a relation as a hierarchical relationship therebetween, a generic relation comprising a general relation as a non-hierarchical relationship therebetween or an instance relation that comprises an exemplified relation of a corresponding generic relation, said method comprising the steps of:

• displaying a hierarchical tree of nodes indicative of is-a relations among the concepts;
• selecting a first node from the hierarchical tree of nodes;
• displaying, in response to the first node, the selected first node and a partial hierarchical tree of nodes lower than the selected first node;
• displaying an attribute representing the generic relation corresponding to the instance relation which exists among the nodes of the partial hierarchical tree;
• selecting an attribute from among the displayed attributes;
• classifying the partial hierarchical tree of nodes according to the selected attribute so as to extract nodes associated with the selected attribute;
• and
• displaying the classified partial hierarchical tree.