A method for identifying word patterns in text is conducted in real time
and is highly suitable for network and Internet use. The method involves
receiving a stream of text, breaking the stream of text into a plurality
of threads, tokenizing the words in each thread, and comparing the words
to identified words in the semantic network. Recognized, words are then
examined, together with surrounding words in the text to determine
whether the words are part of a word pattern. Word patterns are located
at nodes in the semantic network in a hierarchical structure, and certain
word patterns correspond to objects of the semantic network. When all
word patterns involving a word are located, links are followed to objects
corresponding to the word patterns. Several nodes may point to a single
object, but each object is represented only once in the semantic network.
Identified objects may thus be identified in real time, as the text
streams through the text analysis module.