A method includes performing, with at least one processing device, natural language understanding using both (i) a semantic word and clause representation generated from syntactically-labeled context and (ii) a syntax generated from common semantic relations between sequential words and clauses. The semantic word and clause representation and the syntax could be generated iteratively. The method could include generating the semantic word and clause representation, where a significance of particular items of context is modified by a presence of words or clauses from a given lexicon of amplifiers along a syntax tree. The method could also include generating the syntax, where multiple semantic relations are considered to be equivalent if the multiple semantic relations have identical representations in an auto-associative memory. The semantic word and clause representation could include content semantics constructed from closest nodes in a syntax tree to a clause.