Language processing system using object networks

• US 5,682,542 A
• Filed: 07/26/1994
• Issued: 10/28/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Kamoshida, Minoru, Enomoto, Hajime
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayes, Gail O.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yount, Steven R.
• Application Number:
  US08/279,861
• Time in Patent Office: 1,190 Days
• Field of Search: 364/419.01, 364/419.08, 395/131, 395/133, 395/134, 395/135, 395/157, 395/759, 395/751, 395/752, 395/778
• US Class Current: 715/235
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/289 Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/24 Object-oriented

Abstract

A language processing system using object networks in a computer system which manages and processes as objects the data to be operated on and the functions operating on the data. The objects are classified roughly into noun objects and verb objects. An object network expressing the noun objects as nodes and the verb objects as branches is used as a reference model. In the reference model, when the content of a function of a verb object is made to act on a noun object existing at a certain node, a noun object in the direction of the branch corresponding to the name of the verb object, which is the object to be processed, is obtained, permitting a system for a specific field of application to be easily constructed.

Claims

1. A computer system using object networks comprising:

objects comprising at least a first object, data, and means for operating on the data;

a language processing system comprising object networks comprising the objects and classifying the objects into one of noun objects comprising at least a first noun object and a second noun object and corresponding to nodes comprising at least a first node and a second node and having relations comprising at least a first relation and a second relation, and verb objects corresponding to branches coupling the nodes and providing functions for specifying an operation to be executed by said noun objects, wherein

the noun objects comprise;

individual objects corresponding to proper nouns, each individual object having a specific constraint, and

integrated objects corresponding to common nouns and being an assembly of individual objects having a common specific constraint,

the verb objects comprise;

operation verbs operating on the data and placing constraints on the first object to define the first object as one of the noun objects to be processed,

relation added verbs acting on one of the integrated objects having the first relation and generating a second noun object having the second relation, and

limited operation verbs combining the specific constraint provided by one of the noun objects with a preposition defining the property of the constraint and performing an operation on the one of the noun objects to be processed to satisfy the specific constraint, and

one of the verb objects acts, in the direction of the branch corresponding to the name of the one of the verb objects, on the first noun object existing at the first node to obtain the second noun object to be processed; and

a noun object management facility identifying among each of the objects by one of a naming function and a reference indication function for each of the integrated objects and the individual objects;

said computer system comprising a screen comprising operation windows displaying in condensed form the object networks to show said noun objects interactively with a user to indicate a reference to the noun objects so that a present status in execution of each of the noun objects is autonomously determined by software executed by the computer system, the operation windows comprising a data window indicating data to be processed to be defined as requested by the user, the thus defined data being used as attribute data for the noun objects being processed, and control being advanced to noun objects to be processed next.

2. A computer system using object networks comprising:

objects comprising at least a first object, data, and means for operating on the data;

a language processing system comprising object networks comprising the objects and classifying the objects into one of noun objects comprising at least a first noun object and a second noun object and corresponding to nodes comprising at least a first node and a second node and having relations comprising at least a first relation and a second relation, and verb objects corresponding to branches coupling the nodes and providing functions for specifying an operation to be executed by said noun objects, wherein

the noun objects comprise;

individual objects corresponding to proper nouns, each individual object having a specific constraint, and

integrated objects corresponding to common nouns and being an assembly of individual objects having a common specific constraint,

the verb objects comprise;

operation verbs operating on the data and placing constraints on the first object to define the first object as one of the noun objects to be processed,

relation added verbs acting on one of the integrated objects having the first relation and generating a second noun object having the second relation, and

limited operation verbs combining the specific constraint provided by one of the noun objects with a preposition defining the property of the constraint and performing an operation on the one of the noun objects to be processed to satisfy the specific constraint, and

one of the verb objects acts, in the direction of the branch corresponding to the name of the one of the verb objects, on the first noun object existing at the first node to obtain the second noun object to be processed; and

a modification management facility adding the constraints to the noun objects as adjectives modifying the noun objects and managing them as objects,

the modification management facility comprising a means for judging if the nature of the noun object to which the specified individual object belongs and the constraint modifying the same are compatible with each other;

said computer system comprising a screen comprising operation windows displaying in condensed form the object networks to show said noun objects interactively with a user to indicate a reference to the noun objects so that a present status in execution of each of the noun objects is autonomously determined by software executed by the computer system, the operation windows comprising a data window indicating data to be processed to be defined as requested by the user, the thus defined data being used as attribute data for the noun objects being processed, and control being advanced to noun objects to be processed next.

3. A computer system using object networks, comprising:

objects comprising at least a first object, data, and means for operating on the data;

a language processing system comprising object networks comprising the objects and classifying the objects into one of noun objects comprising at least a first noun object and a second noun object and corresponding to nodes comprising at least a first node and a second node and having relations comprising at least a first relation and a second relation, and verb objects corresponding to branches coupling the nodes and providing functions for specifying an operation to be executed by said noun objects, wherein

the noun objects comprise;

individual objects corresponding to proper nouns, each individual object having a specific constraint, and

integrated objects corresponding to common nouns and being an assembly of individual objects having a common specific constraint,

the verb objects comprise;

operation verbs operating on the data and placing constraints on the first object to define the first object as one of the noun objects to be processed,

relation added verbs acting on one of the integrated objects having the first relation and generating a second noun object having the second relation, and

limited operation verbs combining the specific constraint provided by one of the noun objects with a preposition defining the property of the constraint and performing an operation on the one of the noun objects to be processed to satisfy the specific constraint,

actual functions which can actually perform processing for execution of the noun object to be processed,

generic functions which are transformed into actual functions by being given constraints, and

one of the verb objects acts, in the direction of the branch corresponding to the name of the one of the verb objects, on the first noun object existing at the first node to obtain the second noun object to be processed, and

a verb object control mechanism controlling the transformation from the generic functions to the actual functions,

said computer system further comprising a screen comprising operation windows displaying in condensed form the object networks to show said noun objects interactively with a user to indicate a reference to the noun objects so that a present status in execution of each of the noun objects is autonomously determined by software executed by the computer system, the operation windows comprising a data window indicating data to be processed to be defined as requested by the user, the thus defined data being used as attribute data for the noun objects being processed, and control being advanced to noun objects to be processed next.

4. A computer system using object networks as set forth in claim 3, wherein the verb object control mechanism imposes as a constraint on the verb object corresponding to a generic function the name of the noun object, as the status name, on which processing has finished being executed.

5. A computer system using object networks as set forth in claim 3, further comprising a function execution management facility, which comprises means for imposing constraints for the start, duration, and end of an operation when causing the verb object to act as a function and for defining the actual constraints for the generic functions with constraints given by generic conditions, therefore sequentially checking validity in the process of transforming generic functions to actual functions and generating transformation procedures for transformation.

6. A computer system using object networks comprising:

objects comprising at least a first object, data, and means for operating on the data;

a language processing system comprising object networks comprising the objects and classifying the objects into one of noun objects comprising at least a first noun object and a second noun object and corresponding to nodes comprising at least a first node and a second node and having relations comprising at least a first relation and a second relation, and verb objects corresponding to branches coupling the nodes and providing functions for specifying an operation to be executed by said noun objects, wherein

the noun objects comprise;

individual objects corresponding to proper nouns, each individual object having a specific constraint, and

integrated objects corresponding to common nouns and being an assembly of individual objects having a common specific constraint,

the verb objects comprise;

operation verbs operating on the data and placing constraints on the first object to define the first object as one of the noun objects to be processed,

relation added verbs acting on one of the integrated objects having the first relation and generating a second noun object having the second relation, and

limited operation verbs combining the specific constraint provided by one of the noun objects with a preposition defining the property of the constraint and performing an operation on the one of the noun objects to be processed to satisfy the specific constraint, and

one of the verb objects acts, in the direction of the branch corresponding to the name of the one of the verb objects, on the first noun object existing at the first node to obtain the second noun object to be processed;

a process construction management facility generating the individual objects by execution of specific actual functions from the state of integrated objects corresponding to the common nouns in the object network showing a structure as a reference model and constructs an element network comprising elements by expressing the relations among the elements, which element network performs actual processing by requests for execution of individual objects, thereby generating and managing the object networks;

said computer system comprising a screen comprising operation windows displaying in condensed form the object networks to show said noun objects interactively with a user to indicate a reference to the noun objects so that a present status in execution of each of the noun objects is autonomously determined by software executed by the computer system, the operation windows comprising a data window indicating data to be processed to be defined as requested by the user, the thus defined data being used as attribute data for the noun objects being processed, and control being advanced to noun objects to be processed next.

7. A computer system using object networks as set forth in claim 6, wherein the process construction management facility defines the constraints relating to a processing routine by the orientation of the verb objects in the object network formed and, at the same time, judges that the verb object with a possibility token indicating that the object is next executable can be processed concurrently, and receives a request for actuation for the verb object and performs control for concurrent processing so as to actually execute the same.

8. A computer system using object networks as set forth in claim 6, wherein the verb objects of the object network having the portion defining the construction are actuated, the corresponding element network is created, the data relating to the element object is added as a constraint, and the process is executed based on the requests from inside and outside the system for the verb objects and the limitations concerning the processing routine and based on the indication control of the process construction management facility.

9. A computer system using object networks as set forth in claim 6, wherein the process construction management facility further comprises control means for newly generating a structure network based on the structure network used as the reference model, modifying and revising the constraints of the object network used as the reference model in accordance with other system requests, defining constraints of the newly generated structure network, and preparing to receive from other systems the requests to element networks based on the processing routine to be performed by the structure network completed as a result, thereby assigning a right of control to the element network, receiving a fact of completion of the processing as a result, and erasing the structure network, which operation is designed so that the element network is simultaneously completed, the results of the processing being displayed in other systems.

10. A computer system using object networks as set forth in claim 6, further comprising a function execution management facility pairing requests and responses, such as one of a request for processing for generation of a structure network from the processing construction management facility and a resultant response and a request for processing for generation of the element network from the structure network and a response to the same, and performing services repeating a request to a lower layer network or a response to a higher layer network, and

the function execution management facility performs transformations from generic functions to actual functions and control of an indication for checking validity during execution, wherein if the checking result of the validity indicates incomplete, a new pair of a request and response is conversely issued to a higher layer network to complete the same, while if the checking result of the validity indicates complete, the transformation is executed and processing is performed for the response to the higher layer network.