1. A method comprising: parsing, by a language parser, a query and a passage to detect noun-centric phrases and verb-centric phrases in the query and the passage; identifying entities, for both of the query and the passage, based on the noun-centric phrases detected from the parsing, the entities from each of the query and the passage including at least one untyped entity that includes a noun and at least one modifier; identifying relations, for both of the query and the passage, based on the verb-centric phrases detected from the parsing; creating one or more entity pairs that each include an entity identified in the query and an entity identified in the passage, each entity pair satisfying a matching criteria with respect to entities of the entity pair and at least one entity pair including an untyped entity identified in the query and an untyped entity identified in the passage, the matching criteria with respect to entities of the entity pair including a degree of statistical similarity between the entities of the entity pair; creating one or more relation pairs that each include a relation identified in the query and a relation identified in the passage, each relation pair satisfying a matching criteria with respect to relations of the relation pair; calculating, by a question answering computer system, for each of the entity pairs, an entity match confidence score that indicates a level of confidence that the entities of the entity pair match; and determining, by the question answering computer system, a passage score for the passage that indicates a likelihood that an answer to the query is contained in the passage, the determining based on the one or more entity pairs, the matching criteria satisfied by each entity pair, the one or more relation pairs, the matching criteria satisfied by each relation pair, and the one or more of the entity match confidence scores, wherein the passage score is accessible to a computer system for determining a relevance of the passage to the query, the query received from an agent external to the computer system.
1. A method comprising: parsing, by a language parser, a query and a passage to detect noun-centric phrases and verb-centric phrases in the query and the passage; identifying entities, for both of the query and the passage, based on the noun-centric phrases detected from the parsing, the entities from each of the query and the passage including at least one untyped entity that includes a noun and at least one modifier; identifying relations, for both of the query and the passage, based on the verb-centric phrases detected from the parsing; creating one or more entity pairs that each include an entity identified in the query and an entity identified in the passage, each entity pair satisfying a matching criteria with respect to entities of the entity pair and at least one entity pair including an untyped entity identified in the query and an untyped entity identified in the passage, the matching criteria with respect to entities of the entity pair including a degree of statistical similarity between the entities of the entity pair; creating one or more relation pairs that each include a relation identified in the query and a relation identified in the passage, each relation pair satisfying a matching criteria with respect to relations of the relation pair; calculating, by a question answering computer system, for each of the entity pairs, an entity match confidence score that indicates a level of confidence that the entities of the entity pair match; and determining, by the question answering computer system, a passage score for the passage that indicates a likelihood that an answer to the query is contained in the passage, the determining based on the one or more entity pairs, the matching criteria satisfied by each entity pair, the one or more relation pairs, the matching criteria satisfied by each relation pair, and the one or more of the entity match confidence scores, wherein the passage score is accessible to a computer system for determining a relevance of the passage to the query, the query received from an agent external to the computer system. 4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the language parser includes a part-of-speech parser and a dependency parser.