A method and system are provided for text analysis. A computer is used to analyze, parse, and manipulate natural language text according to a series of specific steps. Text is decomposed into small, homogenous segments that can be readily correlated to one another, to quantitative data, or to a knowledge database. The segments generated at the completion of the text analysis can then be further processed, for example, by a computer to derive statistical information, to generate a report, or to build a knowledge database.