Identification of words in Japanese text by a computer system

In a computer system having a storage, a computer-readable storage medium holding instructions for performing a method of representing analyses of an input string of natural language characters useful to identify the individual words comprising the input string, comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

• processing the input string to identify the natural language characters in the string and morphemes in the string;
• and
• creating a structure in storage that holds a directed acyclical graph that holds spelling and morpheme transitions for morphological analyses of the input string, such that the created structure may be used to identify the individual words comprising the input string, the directed acyclic graph comprising connected nodes including a root and leaves, wherein each path in the directed acyclic graph from the root to a leaf represents an alternative analysis of the input string.

In a computer system, a computer-readable storage medium holding a directed acyclical graph that includes:

• nodes and transitions that specify identity and sequence of characters in an input string of Japanese characters;
• and
• nodes and transitions that specify morphemes in the input string of Japanese characters.

A computer memory encoded with a word-breaking data structure relating to an input string of characters useful to identify the individual words comprising the input string, the data structure comprising:

• a directed acyclic graph, the directed acyclic graph comprising connected nodes including a root and leaves, nodes of the directed acyclic graph representing spelling and morpheme transitions for morphological analyses of the input string, wherein each path in the directed acyclic graph from the root to a leaf represents an alternative morphological analysis of the input string,
• such that the created structure may be used to identify the individual words comprising the input string.

A computer generated data signal encoding a word-breaking data structure relating to an input string of characters useful to identify the individual words comprising the input string, the data structure comprising:

• a directed acyclic graph, the directed acyclic graph comprising connected nodes including a root and leaves, nodes of the directed acyclic graph representing spelling and morpheme transitions for morphological analyses of the input string, wherein each path in the directed acyclic graph from the root to a leaf represents an alternative morphological analysis of the input string,
• such that the created structure may be used to identify the individual words comprising the input string.