Statistical machine translation

• US 20040024581A1
• Filed: 03/28/2003
• Published: 02/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: University of Southern California
• Original Assignee: University of Southern California
• Inventors: Koehn, Philipp, Knight, Kevin
• Granted Patent: US 7,624,005 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/289 Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/44 Statistical methods, e.g. probability models
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/45 Example-based machine translation; Alignment

Abstract

A method includes detecting a syntactic chunk in a source string in a first language, assigning a syntactic label to the detected syntactic chunk in the source string, mapping the detected syntactic chunk in the source string to a syntactic chunk in a target string in a second language, said mapping based on the assigned syntactic label, and translating the source string into a possible translation in the second language.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting a syntactic chunk in a source string in a first language;

assigning a syntactic label to the detected syntactic chunk in the source string;

mapping the detected syntactic chunk in the source string to a syntactic chunk in a target string in a second language, said mapping based on the assigned syntactic label; and

translating the source string into a possible translation in the second language.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning the syntactic label comprises assigning based on a part of speech identifier tagged to a word in the source string.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprises defining connections between the detected syntactic chunk in the source string to a chunk in the target string.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein defining connections comprises determining connections based on a chunk mapping table, the chunk mapping table using predefined connections based on syntactic chunk labels.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein defining connections comprises defining a connection between the detected chunk from the source string to at least two nonadjacent chunks in the target string.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein defining connections comprises defining a connection of at least two detected chunks from the source string to a single chunk in the target string.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein translating comprises including at least two words in the target string that corresponds to a single word in the source string.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein translating comprises translating phrases.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprises:

applying a language model to the source string, the language model based upon the language of the target string

10. The method of claim 1, further comprises:

determining a probability of said mapping.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein translating comprises inserting at least one NULL word in the target string.

17. The article of claim 3, wherein instructions operative to cause a machine to define connections comprises instructions operative to cause a machine to define a connection of at least two detected chunks from the source string to a single chunk in the target string.

12. An article comprising a machine readable medium including machine-executable instructions, the instructions operative to cause a machine to:

detect a syntactic chunk in a source string in a first language;

assign a syntactic label to the detected syntactic chunk in the source string;

align the detected syntactic chunk in the source string to a syntactic chunk in a second language string, said mapping based on the assigned syntactic label; and

translate each word from the source string into a second word corresponding to a possible translation in the second language.

13. The article of claim 12, wherein instructions operative to cause a machine to assign the syntactic label comprises instructions operative to cause a machine to assign the syntactic label based on a part of speech identifier tagged to a word in the source string.

14. The article of claim 12, further comprises instructions operative to cause a machine to define connections between the detected syntactic chunk in the source string to a chunk in the target string.

15. The article of claim 14, wherein instructions operative to cause a machine to define connections comprises instructions operative to cause a machine to determine connections based on a chunk mapping table, the chunk mapping table using pre-defined connections based on syntactic chunk labels.

16. The article of claim 14, wherein instructions operative to cause a machine to define connections comprises instructions operative to cause a machine to define a connection between the detected chunk from the source string to at least two non-adjacent chunks in the target string.

18. The article of claim 12, wherein instructions operative to cause a machine to translate comprises instructions operative to cause a machine to include at least two words in the target string that corresponds to a single word in the source string.

19. The article of claim 12, wherein instructions operative to cause a machine to translate comprises instructions operative to cause a machine to translate phrases.

20. The article of claim 12, further comprises instructions operative to cause a machine to:

apply a language model to the source string, the language model based upon the language of the target string

21. The article of claim 12, further comprises instructions operative to cause a machine to determine a probability of said mapping.

22. The article of claim 12, wherein instructions operative to cause a machine to translate comprises instructions operative to cause a machine to insert at least one NULL word in the target string.