User interface and other enhancements for natural language information retrieval system and method

A method of operating a computerized information retrieval system where information is retrieved from a database containing documents in response to user queries, the method comprising:

• receiving a natural language query specifying information to be retrieved;
• processing the query to abstract the query to an alternative representation suitable for input to a database of documents, each document of which is abstracted to a corresponding alterative representation;
• displaying query information to the user indicating the result of said step of processing the query, the query information including a number of items characterizing the query including a subset of a finite set of subjects, the subset corresponding to subjects interpreted by the system to characterize the subject contents of the query;
• entering a mode that permits user modification of the items of query information;
• remaining in the mode pending user input that specifies exiting the mode, user input that specifies exiting the mode including a request to execute the query;
• while in the mode, receiving user modifications, if any, of the items of query information;
• and
• in response to a request to execute the query, executing the query, modified in accordance with any user modifications of the items of query information, against the database.

A method of operating a computerized information retrieval system where information is retrieved from a database containing documents in response to user queries, the method comprising:

• processing a natural language query specifying information to be retrieved to generate an alternative representation of the query, the alternative representation including generating a logical representation incorporating terms and phrases found in the query and assigning weighted Boolean scores to the query terms;
• matching the alternative representation of the query, against the database;
• for at least some documents in the database, generating a measure of relevance of the document to the query using a common alternative representation of the document and the alternative representation of the query;
• and
• displaying a list of documents whose measures of relevance are determined by the system to be sufficiently high;
• receiving user input specifying selection of at least a portion of at least some of the list of documents;
• using the alternative representations of the documents, or portions of documents, so selected, to generate a new query representation;
• and
• matching the new query representation against the database.

In a computerized information retrieval system where documents in a database are retrieved in response to user queries, with each document being processed to produce a respective alternative representation and each query being processed to provide a corresponding alternative representation, the alternative representation of the query including generating a logical representation incorporating terms and phrases found in the query and assigning weighted Boolean scores to the query terms, a method comprising:

• presenting the user with a list of documents, each document having a respective alternative representation;
• receiving user input specifying selection of at least a portion of at least some of the list of documents;
• using the alternative representations of the documents, or portions of documents, so selected, to generate a query representation;
• and
• matching the query representation against the database.

A method of operating a computerized information retrieval system where information is retrieved from a database containing documents in response to user queries, the method comprising:

• receiving a natural language query specifying information to be retrieved;
• extracting terms that appear in the query;
• detecting words that indicate negation of interest in certain information;
• if a word that indicates negation is detected, determining which of the terms belong to a negative portion of the query and which of the terms belong to a positive portion of the query;
• generating an alternative representation of the query that includes the terms in both the positive and negative portions of the query;
• matching the alternative representation of the query against the database by determining a measure of relevance for each document;
• providing a set of documents that satisfy a retrieval criterion;
• and
• within the set of documents, so provided, segregating those documents that satisfy only the positive portion of the query from those documents that satisfy both the positive and negative portions of the query.

A method of operating a computerized information retrieval system where information is retrieved from a database containing documents in response to user queries, the method comprising:

• receiving a natural language query specifying information to be retrieved;
• extracting terms that appear in the query;
• detecting words that indicate that a given term is required to be in a retrieved document;
• if a word that indicates a mandatory term is detected, determining which of the terms are indicated to be mandatory;
• generating an alternative representation of the query that includes both the terms that are indicated to be mandatory and the terms that are not indicated to be mandatory, the alternative representation including a logical representation wherein the mandatory terms are logically connected to the query terms using an AND fuzzy Boolean operator;
• matching the alternative representation of the query against the database by determining a measure of relevance for each document;
• providing a set of documents that satisfy a retrieval criterion;
• and
• within the set of documents, so provided, segregating those documents that satisfy the mandatory portion of the query from those documents that do not satisfy the mandatory portion of the query.

A method of operating a computerized information retrieval system where information is retrieved from a database containing documents in response to user queries, the method comprising:

• receiving a natural language query specifying information to be retrieved;
• detecting linguistic clues, such as function words and punctuation, signifying logical relations among terms in the query;
• generating a logical representation of the query, incorporating the terms, linked on the basis of the linguistic clues signifying logical relations among the terms;
• assigning a respective weighted Boolean score to each term in the logical representation, the weighted Boolean scores based on the logical relations among the query terms;
• comparing the logical representation of the query with a document to be scored;
• for each term in the logical representation, (a) if that term is found in the document, assigning a possible weight corresponding to the weighted Boolean score to that term, and (b) otherwise assigning a zero weight to that term;
• combining the weights, so assigned;
• and
• computing a score based on the weights, so combined.

A method of operating a computerized information retrieval system where information is retrieved from a database containing documents in response to user queries, the method comprising:

• receiving a natural language query specifying information to be retrieved;
• processing the query to generate an alternative representation of the query;
• processing the documents to generate respective alternative representations of the documents, the alternative representation of a given document including a conceptual level defined by subject areas interpreted by the system to characterize the subject contents of the document;
• matching the alternative representation of the query against the database by determining a measure of relevance for each document;
• providing of documents meeting a retrieval criterion;
• determining a set of subject areas that are present in the conceptual level representations of the documents, so provided;
• for at least some subject areas in the set, providing groups of documents having that subject area as part of their conceptual level representations.