Method and device for parsing natural language sentences and other sequential symbolic expressions

An apparatus operated by symbol sequences such as natural language sentences, comprising:

• a microprocessor;
• a memory addressable by said microprocessor;
• a lexicon, stored in said memory, including symbols and an entity-type corresponding to each symbol, the entity-type selected from the group consisting of a picture-like entity, a relation, and a picture-like entity accompanied by a relation;
• an input device for inputting the symbol sequence to said microprocessor;
• and
• a program, executing on said microprocessor, for determining the entity-type corresponding to each inputted symbol by searching said lexicon, for grouping the inputted symbols according to rules based on entity-type, and for generating an instruction for operating the apparatus in response to the symbol grouping.

A method for parsing symbol sequences such as natural language sentences into an organized symbol hierarchy, comprising the steps of:

• receiving a symbol sequence;
• extracting a symbol from the received symbol sequence;
• searching a lexicon with the extracted symbol and retrieving an entity-type corresponding to the symbol, the entity-type selected from the group consisting of a picture-like entity, a relation, and a picture-like entity accompanied by a relation;
• grouping the symbols according to the retrieved entity-types;
• repeating the extracting, searching, retrieving, and grouping steps for each symbol in the received symbol sequence;
• and
• outputting said symbol grouping.