Table Look-up Procedures in Language Processing—Part I: The Raw Text
Gilbert W. King · IBM Journal of Research and Development · 1961
A method of addressing memories is described which is very powerful in the processing of natural languages, where the arithmetic or logical operations are either nonexistent or do not lend themselves to algorithmic description. The main feature is the guarantee of initiation of an exhaustive search for a linguistic word at a point just beyond the desired address. Sequential search backwards not only locates an address if it is there but also provides identification of a longest match first. The method is further extended to provide “conditional” addressing by prefixing subsequent addresses from information obtained in earlier searches.