Linguistic Transformations for Information Retrieval

This paper discusses the application to information retrieval of a particular relation in linguistic structure, called transformations.1 The method makes possible the reduction of a text, in particular scientific texts, to a sequence of kernel sentences and transformations, which is roughly equivalent in information to the original text. It seems possible to determine the division into kernels in such a way that each adjusted kernel will carry about as much information as is likely to be called for independently of the neighboring information in the article. A text may therefore be stored in this form (perhaps omitting, by means of formal criteria, any sections which are unnecessary for retrieval), and its individual kernels may be retrieved separately. Since the carrying out of transformations depends only on the positions of words in a sentence, and not on knowledge of meanings, it seems possible that at least part of this operation can be performed by machine; the more so since the method does not require any judgment about the subject matter, or any coding of the concepts of a particular science.