10. Apparatus for transforming a natural language request for modifying a set of subscriptions for a publish/subscribe topic string, the apparatus comprising: at least one processing device operable to (A) receive a natural language request for modifying a set of subscriptions for one or more topics in a publish/subscribe topic hierarchy, the natural language request comprising a topic in the hierarchy and a predetermined natural language element; (B) transform the natural language request into a publish/subscribe topic string, wherein the predetermined natural language element is transformed into a publish/subscribe symbol, the symbol identifying a hierarchical relationship between the topic in the natural language request and one or more other topics in the topic hierarchy; and (C) modify one or more subscriptions to include one or more topics having the identified hierarchical relationship to the topic in the natural language request based on the transformed topic string.
13. Apparatus according to claim 10 , where the at least one processing device is further operable such that an occurrence of any one of a predetermined set of natural language elements is transformed to a same publish/subscribe symbol.