1. A method of automatically finding one or more answers to a natural language question in a computer stored natural language text database, wherein said natural language text database has been analyzed with respect to syntactic functions of constituents, lexical meaning of word tokens, and clause boundaries, and wherein said natural language question comprises a question clause, comprising the steps of: analyzing a computer readable representation of said question clause with respect to syntactic functions of its constituents and the lexical meaning of its word tokens; defining, in response to the analysis step, a set of conditions for a clause in said natural language text database to constitute an answer to said question clause, said conditions comprising a condition stipulating that, for a clause in said natural language text database to constitute an answer to said questions clause, at least one of the constituents of said question clause should have a corresponding constituent in said clause having the same syntactic function and an equivalent lexical meaning; identifying clauses in said natural language text database that satisfy said conditions; and returning answers to said question clause by means of the identified clauses that match said conditions.