Patent ID: 7389224

Claim:
A computer implemented data processing method for processing data to enhance the results of a search for data in the form of units of a natural language, the method comprising: receiving an input query in the form of units of the natural language and outputting a result in the form of output data; searching for and identifying any matches between the units of the input query and units of the data using reference data from said database so as to identify matched units, and any unmatched units syntactically linked to the matched units and including a head unit which does not modify another unit; parsing one or both of the input query and the output of the searching step to determine linguistic relationships between the units; generating, where there are unmatched units in the query, context data in the form of one or more unmatched units of the reference data, in accordance with one or more rules defining contextually important modification relationships between matched and unmatched units, each unmatched unit having a predefined syntactic relationship to one or more of the matched units; and forming said output data as a layered hierarchical structure formed from said head unit of the input query, with said context data for said head unit forming one or more sublayers of said hierarchical structure, any further matched units forming further sublayers of said sublayers, the order of selection of said further matched units being dependent on their modification relationship within the input query and any said context data for said further matched units forming yet further sublayers, said sets of data being identified by a final said sublayer in the hierarchical structure, and generating display data from said output data representing said hierarchical structure whereby a user of the search is presented with a plurality of choices comprising the best matches to the input query ordered in accordance with the context data.