Abstract: An ontology-based parser incorporates both a system and method for converting natural-language text into predicate-argument format that can be easily used by a variety of applications, including search engines, summarization applications, categorization applications, and word processors. The ontology-based parser contains functional components for receiving documents in a plurality of formats, tokenizing them into instances of concepts from an ontology, and assembling the resulting concepts into predicates. The ontological parser has two major functional elements, a sentence lexer and a parser. The sentence lexer takes a sentence and converts it into a sequence of ontological entities that are tagged with part-of-speech information. The parser converts the sequence of ontological entities into predicate structures using a two-stage process that analyzes the grammatical structure of the sentence, and then applies rules to it that bind arguments into predicates.

Abstract: A concept-based indexing and search system indexes collections of documents with ontology-based predicate structures through automated and/or human-assisted methods. The system extracts the concepts behind user queries to return only those documents that match those concepts. The concept based search and retrieval system comprehends the intent behind a query from a user, and returns results matching that intent. The system can perform off-line searches for unanswered user queries and notify the user when a match is found.