Methods and apparatuses for clustered storage of information
To the standard operations of an inverted index database, a new “To” operator is added. The “To” operator treats the standard single-level linear collection of records as being organized into localized clusters. Techniques for hierarchical clusters are presented. During indexing, hierarchical clusters are serialized according to a uniform visitation procedure. Serialization produces bit maps, one for each hierarchical level, that preserve the hierarchical level of each record and its location in the serialization sequence. For non-hierarchical clusters, byte maps can be produced. The “To” operator accepts a list of records, each at a same hierarchical level in a cluster, and a specification of a hierarchical level that all the input records should be converted into. The “To” operator outputs a list of records, representing a conversion of the input records to the specified new level. Logical Forms, against which frame extraction rules match, can be stored in hierarchical clusters. A database query can be formulated, that matches against such Logical Forms, that provides the same or similar functionality to a frame extraction rule. Such queries extend the range of applications of a particular inverted index database and/or can aid in the development of new frame extraction rules.
1. A method of accessing a database, comprising:
accepting, performed at least in part with a configuration of computing hardware and programmable memory, a request from a user, for sentences that identify a logical form that contains, at least, a root node, an actor child, and an undergoer child;
accessing, performed at least in part with a configuration of computing hardware and programmable memory, an inverted index, in order to produce a first actor bit map, indicative of records of the database representative of an actor;
mapping, performed at least in part with a configuration of computing hardware and programmable memory, to a higher hierarchical level, on an intra-cluster basis, from the first actor bit map to a first parent bit map;
accessing, performed at least in part with a configuration of computing hardware and programmable memory, an inverted index, in order to produce a first undergoer bit map, indicative of records representative of undergoer;
mapping, performed at least in part with a configuration of computing hardware and programmable memory, to a higher hierarchical level, on an intra-cluster basis, from the first undergoer bit map to a second parent bit map;
producing from a Boolean AND, of the first and second parent bit maps, performed at least in part with a configuration of computing hardware and programmable memory, a third parent bit map;
mapping, performed at least in part with a configuration of computing hardware and programmable memory, on an intra-cluster basis, from the third parent bit map to a sentence-level bit map, where a bit of the sentence-level bit map represents, relative to each logical form indicated by the third parent bit map, a corresponding sentence; and
outputting to the user, performed at least in part with a configuration of computing hardware and programmable memory, at least some of the sentences identified by the sentence-level bit map.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accessing an inverted index, in order to produce a logical verb bit map, indicative of records of the database representative of a logical verb; and
limiting the third parent bit map, by use of the logical verb bit map and a Boolean AND.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accessing an inverted index, in order to produce a logical verb bit map, indicative of records of the database representative of a logical verb;
mapping to a lower hierarchical level, on an intra-cluster basis, from the logical verb bit map to a first child bit map;
using as the first actor bit map, a conjunction of the first actor bit map and the first child bit map; and
using as the first undergoer bit map, a conjunction of the first undergoer bit map and the first child bit map.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accepting a request from a user, for sentences that also contain a first type of instance;
accessing an inverted index, in order to produce an instance-level bit map, indicative of instances of the first type;
mapping from the instance-level bit map to, a second sentence-level bit map;
limiting the sentence-level bit map, by use of the second sentence-level bit map and a Boolean AND.