Using semantic feature structures for document comparisons

摘要

Document comparisons can be performed at a semantic level by utilizing a rules base (40) in which groups of rules are applied sequentially. In one implementation, (1) syntactic rules (46) are applied to a document to form a tagged sequence in which individual words are tagged with their syntactic categories, (2) ambiguity rules (52) are applied to the tagged sequence to resolve ambiguities, thereby providing a resolved tag sequence, (3) grammar rules (54) are applied to the resolved tagged sequence to determine semantic roles of individual tagged words, thereby providing a role-specific resolved tagged sequence, and (4) property rules (56) are applied to match properties (e.g., adjectives) with the words they modify, thereby providing a semantic feature structure. The semantic feature structure is then compared to at least one other structure.