Providing answers to questions using hypothesis pruning

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 an input query;
• conducting a search through one or more data sources to identify a plurality of candidate answers to the input query, wherein each of the candidate answers is found in an associated supporting passage having identified content;
• providing each of the candidate answers with a content independent preliminary score based on one or more defined criterion and independent of the content of the supporting passage in which said each candidate answer was found;
• filtering out any of the candidate answers with a content independent preliminary score that does not satisfy a defined condition, wherein the candidate answers having content independent preliminary scores that satisfy said defined condition form a subset of the candidate answers;
• for each of the candidate answers in said subset, processing said each of the candidate answers to produce a plurality of further scores for said each of the candidate answers, said further scores including a content dependent score based on the content of the supporting passage in which said each candidate answer was found;
• applying a candidate ranking function to said plurality of further scores to determine a ranking for said each of the candidate answers in said subset;
• and
• after the applying the candidate ranking function, selecting one or more of the candidate answers as one or more final answers to the input query;
• and wherein:
• the computer device includes a pre-filter context independent candidate answer processing module, and a hypothesis filtering module;
• the pre-filter context independent candidate answer processing module performs the providing each of the candidate answers with a content independent preliminary score;
• and
• the hypothesis filtering module receives the content independent preliminary scores from the pre-filter context independent candidate answer processing module and filters the candidate answers based on said content independent preliminary scores.