STRUCTURED DICTIONARY

• US 20160306789A1
• Filed: 12/08/2015
• Published: 10/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Unified Compliance Framework
• Original Assignee: Unified Compliance Framework
• Inventors: Zulch, Matthew, McEwen, Vicki, Rydell, Erwin, Granlund, Erik, Piliero, Steven, Cougias, Dorian J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,575,954 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/242 Dictionaries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/247 Thesauruses; Synonyms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/295 Named entity recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis

Abstract

A dictionary data structure is described. The data structure is made up of first, second, and third tables. The first table is comprised of entries each representing a natural language term, each entry of the first table containing a term ID identifying its term. The second table is comprised of entries each representing a definition, each entry of the second containing a definition ID identifying its definition. The third table is comprised of entries each representing correspondence between a terminate definition defining the term, each entry of the third table containing term ID identifying the defined term and a definition ID identifying the defining definition. The contents of the data structure are usable to identify any definitions corresponding to a term.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with a dictionary data structure, the data structure comprising:

a first table comprised of entries each representing a natural language term, each entry of the first table containing a term ID identifying its term;

a second table comprised of entries each representing a definition, each entry of the second table containing a definition ID identifying its definition; and

a third table comprised of entries each representing correspondence between a term and a definition defining the term, each entry of the third table containing a term ID identifying the defined term and a definition ID identifying the defining definition,

such that the contents of the data structure are usable to identify any definitions corresponding to a term.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein each entry of the first table further contains a textual representation of the entry'"'"'s term.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein each entry of the second table further contains a textual representation of the entry'"'"'s definition.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1,

the data structure further comprising a fourth table comprised of entries each representing a different part of speech, each entry of the fourth table containing a word type ID identifying its word type,

each entry of the second table further containing a word type ID identifying a word type to which its definition corresponds.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 wherein a distinguished entity of the fourth table contains a word type ID indicating a word type corresponding to a particular part of speech.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 wherein each entry of the fourth table further contains a textual representation of the entry'"'"'s word type.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1,

the data structure further comprising a fourth table comprised of entries each representing a word form, each entry of the fourth table containing a term ID identifying a term for which the entry'"'"'s word form is an alternate form.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein each entry of the fourth table further contains a textual representation of the entry'"'"'s word form.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, the data structure further comprising a fourth table comprised of entries each representing a correspondence between two terms, each entry of the fourth table containing two term IDs identifying the two terms and an indication either that the two terms are synonyms or that the two terms are antonyms.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, the data structure further comprising:

a fourth table comprised of entries each representing an acronym, each entry of the fourth table containing an acronym ID identifying its acronym; and

a fifth table comprised of entries each representing correspondence between an acronym and a term expanding the acronym, each entry of the fifth table containing an acronym ID identifying the acronym and a term ID identifying the term expanding the acronym.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein each entry of the fourth table further contains a textual representation of the entry'"'"'s acronym.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, the data structure further comprising a fourth table comprised of entries each representing a correspondence between two terms, each entry of the fourth table containing a first term ID identifying a child term, a second term ID identifying a parent term, and an indication of a relationship type that exists between n the identified child term and the identified parent term.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20 wherein a distinguished entry of the fourth table contains an indication that the identified child term is part of the identified parent term.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20 wherein a distinguished entry of the fourth table contains an indication that the identified child term is a type of the identified parent term.

23. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20 wherein a distinguished entry of the fourth table contains an indication that the identified child term is created by the identified parent term.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20 wherein a distinguished entry of the fourth table contains an indication that the identified child term is enforced by the identified parent term.

25. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20 wherein a distinguished entry of the fourth table contains an indication that the identified child term references the identified parent term.

26. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20 wherein a distinguished entry of the fourth table contains information indicating identifying a source from which the relationship represented by the distinguished entry of the fourth table was derived.

27. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein a sentence relates to a control derived from an authority document, and wherein a the data structure comprises a fourth table comprised of entries each representing a distinct portion of the sentence, each entry of the fourth table containing a definition ID identifying a definition defining a portion of the sentence represented by the entry of the fourth table.

28. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the first table comprises a first entry representing a first natural language term and a second entry representing a second natural language term,

the second natural language term being a non-standard form of the first natural language term, the first natural language term being preferred for usage over the second natural language term,

the second entry including a harmonized-to field specifying the term ID identifying the first natural language term.

29. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 28 wherein the first table further comprises a third entry representing a third natural language term, the third natural language term being a non-standard form of the first natural language term, the first natural language term being preferred for usage over the third natural language term,

the third entry including a harmonized-to field specifying the term ID identifying the first natural language term.

30. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, the data structure further comprising:

a fourth table indicating, for each of a least a portion of the definitions represented by entries of the second table, for each of one or more groups of one or more natural language corpuses, a number of occurrences in the group of one or more natural language corpuses of the term whose correspondence to the definition is represented by an entry of the third table that have been mapped to the definition.

31. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, the data structure further comprising:

a fourth table indicating, for each of a least a portion of the terms represented by entries of the first table, for each of one or more groups of one or more natural language corpuses, a number of occurrences in the group of one or more natural language corpuses of the term.

38. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4 wherein a distinguished entity of the fourth table contains a word type ID selected from among a word type ID indicating a named entity word type, a word type ID indicating a title word type, a word type ID indicating a proper name word type, a word type ID indicating a country word type, a word type ID indicating an organization word type, a word type ID indicating a record word type, a word type ID indicating a product name word type, and a word type ID indicating a service name word type.

6-13. -13. (canceled)

32. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with a computer program performing a method for identifying a plurality of alternate definitions for a distinguished natural language term, the method comprising:

identifying, among entries of a first table each representing a natural language term, an entry representing the distinguished natural language term;

accessing, in the identified entry of the first table, a term ID uniquely identifying the term to which the identified entry of the first table corresponds;

identifying, among entries of a second table each representing correspondence between a term and a definition defining the term, a plurality of entries each containing the accessed term ID;

accessing, in each of the identified entries of the second table, a definition ID uniquely identifying a definition;

for each of the accessed definition IDs, identifying, among entries of a third table each representing a definition, an entry containing the accessed definition ID, the third table being distinct from the second table;

for each of the identified entries of the third table, accessing in the identified entry of the third table a natural language representation of the definition represented by the entry of the third table; and

attributing the accessed definition natural language representations to the distinguished natural language term.

33. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 32, the method further comprising:

in a distinguished one of the identified entries of the third table, accessing a word type ID identifying a word type to which its definition corresponds;

identifying among entries of a fourth table each representing a word type, an entry containing the accessed word type ID; and

attributing of the identified entry of the fourth table to the definition natural language representation accessed in the distinguished entry of the third table.

34. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 32, the method further comprising:

identifying, among entries of the fourth table each representing a literal term form, and entry representing a literal term form in which the distinguished natural language term was encountered in a sentence; and

accessing, in the identified entry of the fourth table, a term ID identifying a term to which its literal term form corresponds,

and wherein the selected rows of the third table contain the term ID accessed in the identified entry of the fourth table.

35. A method in a computing system for determining a relationship between a first term and a second term, the method comprising:

identifying, among entries of a first table each representing a natural language term, a first entry representing the first term;

accessing, in the first entry of the first table, a first term ID uniquely identifying the term to which the first entry of the first table corresponds;

identifying, among entries of the first table, a second entry representing the second term;

accessing, in the second entry of the first table, a second term ID uniquely identifying the term to which the second entry of the first table corresponds;

identifying, among entries of a second table each representing a relationship between a pair of terms, an entry containing both the first term ID and the second term ID;

accessing, in the identified entry of the second table, an indication of a relationship type between the first and second terms; and

attributing the accessed indication of a relationship type to the first term and the second term.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein the attributed relationship type is directional as between the first term and the second term.

37. The method of claim 35 wherein the attributed relationship type is bidirectional as between the first term and the second term.