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 initial clause boundaries, and wherein said natural language question comprises a question clause, comprising the steps of: analyzing, in an analyzing means of a computer system, 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 a defining means of a computer system, in response to the analysis step, a set of conditions for an initial clause in said natural language text database to constitute an answer to said question clause, said conditions comprising a condition stipulating that, for an initial 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 initial clause having the same syntactic function and an equivalent lexical meaning; identifying, in an answer finding means of a computer system, initial clauses in said natural language text database that satisfy said conditions; and returning, in an answer finding means of a computer system, answers to said question clause by means of the identified initial clauses that match said conditions.
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 initial clause boundaries, and wherein said natural language question comprises a question clause, comprising the steps of: analyzing, in an analyzing means of a computer system, 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 a defining means of a computer system, in response to the analysis step, a set of conditions for an initial clause in said natural language text database to constitute an answer to said question clause, said conditions comprising a condition stipulating that, for an initial 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 initial clause having the same syntactic function and an equivalent lexical meaning; identifying, in an answer finding means of a computer system, initial clauses in said natural language text database that satisfy said conditions; and returning, in an answer finding means of a computer system, answers to said question clause by means of the identified initial clauses that match said conditions. 7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said set of conditions in the defining step comprises: a time adverb condition stipulating that a clause constitutes an answer to said question clause if a lexically headed constituent having the syntactic function of time adverb of said question clause has a corresponding lexically headed constituent in said clause having the syntactic function of time adverb and having an equivalent lexical meaning.