There is provided a computer implemented method for the automated analysis or use of data, to answer questions, comprising the steps of: (a) storing in a non-transitory storage medium a structured, machine-readable representation of data that conforms to a machine-readable language, in which the machine-readable language uses a shared syntax across factual statements, queries and reasoning, and uses nesting of nodes and passages, as an unambiguous syntax; where the data relates to parts of documents stored in a document store; (b) automatically processing the structured, machine-readable representation of data to answer questions, in which a user's query is automatically translated into the machine-readable language and a system responds to the user's query by utilising the machine-readable language translation of the query.