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Abstract

An information-retrieval system comprises a workstation having an input device and an output device. The workstation is connected to an intelligent interface which in turn is connected to a date base memory system. The interface comprises a lexical analyzer, a semantic associator, a query code generator and an output formatter. The user inputs a query as an ordered stream of characters in natural language (e.g., English or German). The lexical analyzer partitions the character stream into sections which are then compared with and matched against the contents of a look-up table held in a local memory and if a match is located, converted to a single token record for transmission to the Semantic Associator. Associator stores all the node/link records and those corresponding to the received tokens are identified to form the initial starting point of the conceptual graph which is operated on by a Steiner Marcher within Associator in order to identify the Steiner Tree which is then interpreted link by link by the code generator. The query in coded form is then delivered to the DBMS which delivers its consequential output to the formatter which formats the answer to the query for presentation to the user on the display device.

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First Claim