A system and method for obtaining information embedded in unstructured text is provided. The method comprising generating computer-readable annotations based on the unstructured text, at least one of the computer-readable annotations comprising an indication of a linguistic feature. A pair of the computer-readable annotations may be used to generate at least one computer-readable relation between the pair. The annotations and/or relations may be stored as characteristic data structures in a database. A query comprising at least one criterion may be received. In response to the query, an information result may be generated based on at least one of the characteristic data structures stored in the database.