Providing answers to questions using logical synthesis of candidate answers

An article of manufacture, comprising:

• at least one tangible computer readable hardware device having computer readable program code logic tangibly embodied therein to generate answers to questions, the computer readable program code logic, when executing, performing the following:
• receiving an input query;
• formulating a plurality of different subqueries to answer the input query, wherein each of the subqueries has an associated answer to the each subquery, and the answers to the subqueries are used to determine an answer to the input query;
• conducting a search in one or more data sources to identify at least one candidate answers to each of the subqueries;
• for each of the candidate answers for each of the subqueries, applying a candidate ranking function to determine a ranking for said each of the candidate answers;
• for each of the subqueries, selecting one of the candidate answers to the subquery based on the ranking of said one of the candidate answers;
• and
• applying a logical synthesis component to synthesize a candidate answer for the input query from the selected ones of the candidate answers to the subqueries.

A system for generating answers to questions, comprising:

• a computer device comprising at least one distinct software module, each distinct software module being embodied on a tangible computer-readable medium;
• a memory;
• and at least one processor coupled to the memory and operative for:
• receiving a plurality of input queries;
• using a natural language processing to formulate a plurality of different subqueries to answer at least one of the input queries, wherein each of the subqueries has an associated answer to the at least one of the input queries, and the answers to the subqueries are used to determine an answer to the at least one of the inupt queries;
• conducting a search in one or more data sources to identify candidate answers for each of the input queries, including identifying candidate answers to each of the subqueries;
• for each of the candidate answers, applying a candidate ranking function to each of the candidate answers to determine a ranking for said each of the candidate answers;
• applying a logical synthesis component to synthesize a resultant candidate answer for said at least one of the input queries from at least one of the candidate answers to each of the subqueries;
• and
• applying the candidate ranking function to said resultant candidate answer to determine a ranking for said resultant candidate answer to said at least one of the input queries.