Abstract: A method for information retrieval that matches occurrences of concepts in natural language text documents against descriptions of concepts in user queries. Said method, implemented in a computer system, includes a preferred version of the method that comprises (1) annotating natural language text in documents and other text-forms with linguistic information and Concepts and Concept Rules expressed in a Concept Specification Language (CSL) for a particular domain, (2) pruning and optimizing synonyms for a particular domain, (3) defining and learning said CSL Concepts and Concept Rules, (4) checking user-defined descriptions of Concepts represented in CSL (including user queries), and (5) retrieval by matching said user-defined descriptions (and queries) against said annotated text. CSL is a language for expressing linguistically-based patterns. Said patterns can represent the linguistic manifestations of concepts in text.

Abstract: A method and system for processing synonyms that adapts a general-purpose synonym resource to a specific domain. The method selects out a domain-specific subset of synonyms from the set of general-purpose synonyms. The synonym processing method in turn comprises two methods that can be used either together or on their own. A method of synonym pruning eliminates those synonyms that are inappropriate in a specific domain. A method of synonym optimization eliminates those synonyms that are unlikely to be used in a specific domain. The method has many applications including, but not limited to, information retrieval and domain-specific thesauri as a writer's aid.