Patent Document ID: 7644047
Application ID: 10573152

Base Claim:
1. A computerized method for determining the semantic similarity of words in a plurality of words selected from a set of one or more documents, for use in the retrieval of information in an information system, comprising the steps of: (i) for each word of said plurality of words: (a) identifying, in documents of said set of one or more documents, word sequences comprising the word and a predetermined number of other words; (b) calculating a relative frequency of occurrence for each distinct word sequence among word sequences containing the word; and (c) generating a fuzzy set comprising, for word sequences containing the word, corresponding fuzzy membership values calculated from the relative frequencies determined at step (b); and (ii) calculating and storing, for each pair of words of said plurality of words, using respective fuzzy sets generated at step (i), a probability that the first word of the pair is semantically suitable as a replacement for the second word of the pair.

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Claim 2:
2. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of: (iii) adding a new document to said set of one or more documents and, using a set of words selected from said new document, performing an incremental update to said stored probabilities by means of steps (i) and (ii) performed in respect of said selected words using word sequences identified in said new document.