A method of changing semantic information comprises changing a first bi-directional coupling between a surface region in a document and a first semantic object to a second bi-directional coupling between the surface region and a second semantic object. More particularly, the method may be comprised of identifying an occurrence of a surface region in a document, the surface region having a first link for coupling the surface region to a first semantic object, and the first semantic object having a first association for coupling the first semantic object with the surface region. The first link is replaced with a second link for coupling the surface region to a second semantic object. The first association is changed to a second association for coupling the second semantic object with the surface region. Another method for changing semantic information comprising selecting a semantic object stored in a data repository and changing the selected semantic object. A scope is then selected, either manually or automatically. A set of semantically anchored expressions associated with the semantic object is identified in response to the scope. A determination is made if the semantically anchored expressions are consistent with the changed semantic object and, if not, the semantically anchored expressions are updated so as to be consistent with the changed semantic object.