Interactive document retrieval using faceted terminological feedback

Presents a new interactive paradigm for iterative information retrieval based on the automatic construction of a faceted representation for a document subset. Facets are chosen heuristically based on lexical dispersion (a measure of the number of different terms with which a word co-occurs within noun phrases appearing in the document set). The phrases in which these terms occur serve to provide a set of attributes, specializations, related concepts, etc., for the so-identified "facet" terms. The resulting representation serves the dual purpose of providing a concise, structured summary of the contents of the result set, as well as presenting a set of terms for engaging in interactive query reformulation.