1. A computer-implemented method for processing textual data, comprising: receiving, using one or more data processors, an input stream of textual data, wherein the input stream includes a plurality of characters arranged in an order; receiving, using the one or more data processors, an initial state for a plurality of context variables; accessing, using the one or more data processors, a plurality of parsing rules including a regular expression rule and a dictionary list rule, wherein a parsing rule includes a search portion identifying search criteria for satisfying the parsing rule, a segmenting portion including a procedure for segmenting a portion of the input stream when the parsing rule is satisfied, and a context portion identifying adjustments to the context variables when the parsing rule is satisfied; positioning, using the one or more data processors, a pointer at a position in the input stream; evaluating, using the one or more data processors, the parsing rules using one or more characters at positions in the input stream after the pointer; determining, using the one or more data processors, that a parsing rule is satisfied, wherein a regular expression rule is satisfied when the one or more characters match a symbolically defined string and the plurality of context variables meet a regular expression context criteria, and wherein the dictionary list rule is satisfied when the one or more characters match a literal string included in a dictionary list and the context variables meet a dictionary list context criteria; segmenting, using the one or more data processors, the one or more characters according to the segmenting portion of the satisfied parsing rule; generating, using the one or more data processors, textual data elements using the segmented characters; adjusting, using the one or more data processors, the state of the plurality of context variables according to the context portion of the satisfied parsing rule; and outputting, using the one or more data processors, the textual data elements to a morphological parser.