Method and apparatus for evaluating machine translation quality
First Claim
1. A method for computing machine translation performance, comprising:
- receiving a sequence of natural language data in a first language;
translating the sequence of natural language data to a second language to define a machine translation of the sequence of natural language data;
receiving a reference translation of the sequence of natural language data in the second language;
computing a sequence kernel that provides a similarity measure between the machine translation and the reference translation;
outputting a signal indicating the similarity measure;
wherein the similarity measure accounts for non-contiguous occurrences of subsequences shared between the machine translation and the reference translation.
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Abstract
Quality of machine translation of natural language is determined by computing a sequence kernel that provides a measure of similarity between a first sequence of symbols representing a machine translation in a target natural language and a second sequence of symbols representing a reference translation in the target natural language. The measure of similarity takes into account the existence of non-contiguous subsequences shared by the first sequence of symbols and the second sequence of symbols. When the similarity measure does not meet an acceptable threshold level, the translation model of the machine translator may be adjusted to improve subsequent translations performed by the machine translator.
107 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method for computing machine translation performance, comprising:
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receiving a sequence of natural language data in a first language;
translating the sequence of natural language data to a second language to define a machine translation of the sequence of natural language data;
receiving a reference translation of the sequence of natural language data in the second language;
computing a sequence kernel that provides a similarity measure between the machine translation and the reference translation;
outputting a signal indicating the similarity measure;
wherein the similarity measure accounts for non-contiguous occurrences of subsequences shared between the machine translation and the reference translation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A system for computing machine translation performance, comprising:
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means for receiving a sequence of natural language data in a first language;
means for translating the sequence of natural language data to a second language to define a machine translation of the sequence of natural language data;
means for receiving a reference translation of the sequence of natural language data in the second language;
means for computing a sequence kernel that provides a similarity measure between the machine translation and the reference translation;
means for outputting a signal indicating the similarity measure;
wherein the similarity measure computed by said computing means accounts for non-contiguous occurrences of subsequences shared between the machine translation and the reference translation.
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22. An article of manufacture for use in a machine comprising:
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a) a memory;
b) instructions stored in the memory for a method of computing machine translation performance, the method comprising;
receiving a sequence of natural language data in a first language;
translating the sequence of natural language data to a second language to define a machine translation of the sequence of natural language data;
receiving a reference translation of the sequence of natural language data in the second language;
computing a sequence kernel that provides a similarity measure between the machine translation and the reference translation;
outputting a signal indicating the similarity measure;
wherein the similarity measure accounts for non-contiguous occurrences of subsequences shared between the machine translation and the reference translation.
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Specification