Patent Document ID: 9472115
Application ID: 14547352

Base Claim:
1. A method, in a data processing system comprising a processor and a memory, the memory comprising instructions executed by the processor to cause the processor to be specifically configured to implement a hypothetical ontological link identification and evaluation engine, for evaluating a link between information concept entities, comprising: receiving, by the hypothetical ontological link identification and evaluation engine implemented by the data processing system, an ontology data structure based on a set of evidential data specifying a plurality of information concept entities and valid links representing known relationships between the information concept entities that are directly identified by direct evidence in the set of evidential data; generating, by the hypothetical ontological link identification and evaluation engine, a hypothetical ontological link between at least two information concept entities in the ontology data structure, wherein the hypothetical link is a link that does not have direct evidence in the evidential data directly identifying a direct link between the at least two information concept entities; evaluating, by the hypothetical ontological link identification and evaluation engine, the set of evidential data with regard to whether or not indirect evidence in the set of evidential data supports or refutes existence of the hypothetical ontological link, wherein the evaluation of the set of evidential data comprises analyzing language of natural language statements in the set of evidential data to identify certainty terms within the natural language statements; calculating, by the hypothetical ontological link identification and evaluation engine, a confidence value for the hypothetical ontological link based on results of the evaluation of the set of evidential data; and modifying, by the hypothetical ontological link identification and evaluation engine, the ontology data structure to include the hypothetical ontological link as a new valid link in the ontology data structure in response to the knowledge output indicating the hypothetical ontological link to be a valid link between the at least two information concept objects in the ontology data structure.

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Claim 3:
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the certainty terms comprise hedging terms or phrases indicative of a lack of certainty in the facts or conclusion specified in the evidential data, and wherein calculating the confidence value for the hypothetical ontological link based on results of the evaluation of the set of evidential data comprises decreasing a confidence value for the hypothetical ontological link in response to detecting hedging terms or phrases in the evidential data.