Sentence analyzer

Claim 2

Apparatus for the analysis of digitally encoded natural language, comprising means for receiving encoded data representative of a body of natural language words such encoded data including for each word at least a provisionally-assigned syntactic tag of the word, noun group identifying means operative on the encoded data for identifying noun groups and producing noun data structures representative thereof which augment the encoded data, verb group identifying means operative on said encoded data augmented by the noun data structures for identifying verb groups and for producing predicate data structures representative thereof which further augment the encoded data, and clausal analysis means operative on said encoded data augmented by said noun data structures and said predicate data structures for identifying well formed clauses of said body of words.

Claim 3

Apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising concordance means for determining agreement among syntactic parts of a clause identified by the clausal analysis means.

Claim 4

Apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for identifying a syntax error, and means for displaying an error message indicative of the identified error.

Claim 5

Apparatus according to claim 3 wherein the noun group identifying means identifies the words of a noun phrase from the ordering of syntactic tags of words.

Claim 6

Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the noun group means comprises means for identifying noun phrase boundaries and a feature agreement property.

Claim 7

Apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the verb group identifying means comprises a finite state automaton operative on words not lying within the boundaries of a simplex noun phrase.

Claim 8

Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the clausal analysis means comprises means for identifying clause type.

Claim 9

Apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the means for identifying a syntax error further comprises concordance means for determining agreement among parts of a clause identified by the clausal analysis means.

Claim 10

Apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the means for identifying a syntax error further comprises means for displaying an error correction message keyed to a detected error type.

Claim 11

Apparatus for the grammatical analysis of digitally encoded natural language text, such apparatus comprising code annotation means for annotating each word of a text with data codes, such code annotation means including a stored dictionary of words together with associated data codes, wherein the data codes include tag codes representing possible grammatical or syntactic used of a word, and feature codes representing agreement properties of a word and such code annotation means also including means for looking up words of the text in the dictionary to identify said tag and feature codes for annotating the words, and noun phrase means operative on the identified tag codes of successive words for identifying noun phrases from the ordering of the tag codes.

Claim 12

Apparatus for the grammatical analysis of digitally encoded natural language text, such apparatus comprising code annotation means for annotating each word of a text with data codes, such code annotation means including a stored dictionary of words together with associated data codes, wherein the data codes include tag codes representing possible grammatical or syntactic used of a word, and feature codes representing agreement properties of a word and such code annotation means also including means for looking up words of the text in the dictionary to identify said tag and feature codes for annotating the words, and noun phrase means operative on the identified tag codes of successive words for identifying noun phrases from the ordering of the tag codes.

Claim 13

Apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising means for processing the feature codes of the annotated words of a noun phrase identified by the noun phrase means to determine feature agreement consistency.

Claim 14

Apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising complex phrase means for identifying complex noun phrases from the noun phrases identified by the noun phrase means.

Claim 15

Apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the complex phrase means include means for processing feature codes of constituent noun phrases to determine feature codes for a complex noun phrase.

Claim 16

Apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising predicate means for identifying verb groups of the text.

Claim 17

Apparatus according to claim 14, further comprising means for identifying feature agreement inconsistencies between verb groups and noun phrases.

Claim 18

Apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising means for determining an error message associated with a feature agreement inconsistency and for displaying the error message.

Claim 19

Apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising means for determining a correct replacement word for a word of text having feature agreement inconsistency, said means for determining and displaying an error message including means for receiving the correct replacement word so as to display the correct replacement word together with the error message associated with the feature agreement inconsistency.

Claim 20

Apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the means for processing the identified predicates and noun phrases comprises means for checking subject-verb concordance.

Claim 21

Apparatus according to claim 15 wherein the means for processing the identified predicates and noun phrases comprises means for checking subject-verb-object concordance.

Claim 22

Apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising predicate means, for identifying verb groups in the annotated text, and clausal analysis means for operating on identified verb groups to determine the structure of clauses in the annotated text.

Claim 23

Apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said clausal analysis means includes means for identifying types of clauses.

Claim 24

Apparatus according to claim 21, further comprising means for identifying clause-based errors of syntax.

Claim 27

A method according to claim 223, further comprising the step of displaying an error message when one of said steps of inspecting or processing detects probable errors.

Claim 28

A method according to claim 24, wherein the step of displaying an error message includes the step of displaying a message identifying a probable error together with a correction therefor.

Claim 29

An automated parser for processing digitally encoded natural language text, such parser comprising means for annotating words of text with possible grammatical tags, noun means operative on the annotated words of text for identifying noun phrases and for further annotating the text with noun phrase data, predicate means operative on said annotated words of text and noun phrase data for identifying verb groups and for further annotating the text with verb group data, and error detection means included in said means for annotating, said noun means and said predicate means, for identifying text errors during operation of the aforesaid three means and displaying an indication thereof, whereby errors in text are identified for correction during processing stages of ascending structural complexity thereby permitting in-process correction of errors and parsing of unedited text without breakdown of the processing operations or requiring excessive processing time.

Claim 30

An automated parser for processing digitally encoded natural language text, such parser comprising means for annotating words of text with possible grammatical tags, noun means operative on the annotated words of text for identifying noun phrases and for further annotating the text with noun phrase data, predicate means operative on said annotated words of text and noun phrase data for identifying verb groups and for further annotating the text with verb group data, and error detection means included in said means for annotating, said noun means and said predicate means, for identifying text errors during operation of the aforesaid three means and displaying an indication thereof, whereby errors in text are identified for correction during processing stages of ascending structural complexity thereby permitting in-process correction of errors and parsing of unedited text without breakdown of the processing operations or requiring excessive processing time.