Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

A method of reformatting logically complex clauses, in particular for enabling detection and correction of potential ambiguity in legal documents, is disclosed. The method comprises four distinct stages. Firstly, a passage of text is analysed into its constituent parts of speech. Next, groups of words that belong together in large phrases are concentrated into larger units using linguistic rules. Thirdly, further linguistic patterns take account of the grouping of these concatenated phrases and pick out occurrences of logically important words or phrases that represent conjunctions. The disclosed method uses rules to determine whether the identified conjunctions are top level, i.e. logically significant, or whether they are subordinate, i.e. link smaller phrases in the text. In the final stage, the annotated grammatical and logical formation is used to display the original text in such a way that the logical structure is revealed. The method is suitably computer-implemented through a software routine operable upon text in a word processing package.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim