Patent Document ID: 7984032
Application ID: 12201047

Base Claim:
1. At least one computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform a method comprising: receiving at least one natural language input query; defining at least one term occurrence-level constraint applicable to the input query; identifying at least one fact requested in the input query; instantiating at least one iterator to traverse at least one fact index to identify at least one candidate fact that is responsive to the input query; traversing the iterator through at least a portion of the fact index; receiving at least one candidate fact from the iterator, wherein the candidate fact includes at least one term occurrence; applying the term occurrence-level constraint to the term occurrence; and selecting the candidate fact for inclusion in search results for the input query, based at least in part on applying the term occurrence-level constraint to the term occurrence.

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Claim 10:
10. The storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions for instantiating at least a further iterator to perform at least one fact-level operation on the candidate fact and at least a second candidate fact, wherein the further iterator is for communicating with the iterator.