Patent ID: 6918097

Claim:
A method for displaying information from a literary and linguistic information set on a display, the information set comprising one or more node link structures, each node link structure comprising a plurality of related nodes, each node representing a word, a phrase, or an attribute of a word/phrase, the relationships between nodes within each node link structure being based on established literary and linguistic practices, the method comprising the steps of: a) receiving a first request for literary and/or linguistic information about a word/phrase; b) selecting and retrieving a node link structure from the information set based on the first request; c) assigning a hierarchical address to each node in said node link structure based on the first request, the hierarchical addresses representing a layout of said node link structure in a tree structure; d) assigning a display address to each node in the tree structure based on a previously determined surface function, the display addresses representing a mapping of the tree structure about a surface shape corresponding to the surface function; and e) rendering the tree structure on the display according to the display addresses so that literary and/or linguistic information associated with the first request is displayed, wherein one or more nodes of the tree structure is perceived as closer to a viewer than other nodes in the rendered display based at least in part on the surface function and corresponding surface shape.