System and method for cross-language knowledge searching

• US 20070094006A1
• Filed: 10/24/2005
• Published: 04/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allium US Holding LLC
• Original Assignee: Invention Machine Corporation (S&P Global Inc.)
• Inventors: Sovpel, Igor, Zhyhalko, Heorhi, Todhunter, James
• Granted Patent: US 7,672,831 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3329 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/247 Thesauruses; Synonyms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/58 Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation

Abstract

A system and method for cross-language knowledge searching. The system has a Semantic Analyzer, a natural language user request/document search pattern/semantic index Generator, a user request search pattern Translator and a Knowledge Base Searcher. The system also provides automatic semantic analysis and semantic indexing of natural language user requests/documents on knowledge recognition and cross-language relevant to user request knowledge extraction/searching. System functionality is ensured by Linguistic Knowledge Base as well as by a number of unique bilingual dictionaries of concepts/objects and actions.

Claims

1. A method for accessing knowledge in sources in multiple languages comprising:

providing an input expression in a first language;

performing a semantic analysis on the input expression;

generating a first language semantic index for the input expression based on the semantic analysis;

translating the first language semantic index to a second language semantic index, wherein the second language semantic index is based on a second language; and

performing a search of a knowledge base of sources in the second language based on the second language semantic index to access knowledge relevant to the input expression.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the knowledge base comprises at least sources in the first language and the second language and the method further comprises:

performing a search of the knowledge base of sources in the first language based on the first language semantic index to access knowledge relevant to the input expression.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein performing a semantic analysis comprises identifying expanded subject-action-object (eSAO) units in the input expression.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein generating a first language semantic index comprises identifying one or more eSAO components in each identified eSAO unit and the first semantic index comprises the one or more eSAO components.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein translating the first language semantic index to the second language semantic index comprises translating each eSAO component in the first semantic index from the first language to at least one corresponding eSAO component in the second language to provide the second language semantic index.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein translating each eSAO component from the first language comprises accessing one or more bilingual dictionaries of actions and/or concepts, wherein the bilingual dictionaries match an eSAO component in the first language to one or more eSAO components in the second language.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the bilingual dictionaries comprise bilingual dictionaries of actions and bilingual dictionaries of concepts/objects.

8. The method according to claim 6, further comprising building the one or more bilingual dictionaries, wherein building the one or more bilingual dictionaries comprises:

providing two parallel corpora, wherein one corpus comprises sources in the first language and the other corpus comprises sources in the second language;

performing semantic analysis on each corpus to generate eSAOs from each corpus; and

extracting parallel eSAO components from the eSAOs to provide parallel eSAO component pairs, wherein each parallel eSAO component pair represents a same semantic element.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein one corpus comprises sources comprising sentence-by-sentence translations in the first language of the sources of the other corpus in the second language.

10. The method according to claim 8, further comprising editing the parallel eSAO component pairs.

11. The method according to claim 2, further comprising building the knowledge base of sources in the first and the second language, wherein building the knowledge base comprises:

performing semantic analysis on a plurality of sources in the first and the second language; and

generating semantic indices for the plurality of sources based on the semantic analysis.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the input expression comprises a user request.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

translating the first language semantic index to a plurality of semantic indices for a plurality of languages different than the first language; and

performing a search of knowledge bases of sources in the plurality of all languages based on the plurality of semantic indices to access knowledge relevant to the expression.

14. The method according to claim 2, wherein to access knowledge relevant to the input expression comprises providing one or more documents in the first and the second language relevant to the input expression or providing one or more output expressions relevant to the input expression.

15. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the method according to claim 1.

16. A system for cross-language searching whereby the system receives an input expression in a first language and searches one or more knowledge bases of sources to find knowledge relevant to the input expression, the system comprising:

a linguistic knowledge base in the first language;

an expression semantic analyzer for identifying semantic components in the input expression, wherein the semantic components are in the first language and wherein the expression semantic analyzer is coupled to the linguistic knowledge base;

an expression indexer for arranging the semantic components into a first language expression semantic index;

a translator for translating the first language expression semantic index into one or more other language expression semantic indices in one or more other languages different than the first language, wherein the translator is coupled to the linguistic knowledge base; and

a searcher for extracting knowledge from the one or more knowledge bases of sources in the one or more other languages different than the first language based on the one or more other language expression semantic indices.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the searcher for extracting knowledge also extracts knowledge from one or more knowledge bases of sources in the first language based on the first language expression semantic index.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the system further comprises:

one or more source semantic analyzers for identifying semantic components in the sources in the first and in one or more of the other languages, wherein each source semantic analyzer corresponds to the first and to one of the one or more other languages; and

one or more source indexers for arranging the identified semantic components in the sources into source semantic indices in the first and in one or more of the other languages of the sources, wherein the one or more knowledge bases comprise the source semantic indices.

19. The system according to claim 18, wherein the one or more source semantic analyzers are coupled to the linguistic knowledge base.

20. The system according to claim 16, wherein the semantic components comprise expanded subject-action-object (eSAO) components.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein the linguistic knowledge base comprises a plurality of eSAO component pairs, wherein one part of the eSAO component pair comprises one or more eSAO components in one language and the other part of the eSAO component pair comprises one or more eSAO components in another language.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein the plurality of eSAO component pairs are organized into one or more bilingual dictionaries.

23. The system according to claim 21, wherein the translator locates each eSAO component in the first language expression semantic index in one part of an eSAO component pair and produces the other language expression semantic index based on the other part of the eSAO component pair.

24. The system according to claim 16, wherein the input expression comprises a user request.

25. The system according to claim 21, wherein the one or more bilingual dictionaries comprise bilingual dictionaries of actions and bilingual dictionaries of concepts/objects.

26. The system according to claim 22, wherein the one or more bilingual dictionaries are generated by:

providing two parallel corpora, wherein one corpus comprises sources in the first language and the other corpus comprises sources in a second language;

performing semantic analysis on each corpus to generate eSAOs from each corpus; and

extracting parallel eSAO components from the eSAOs to provide parallel eSAO component pairs, wherein each parallel eSAO component pair represents a same semantic element.

27. The system according to claim 26, wherein one corpus comprises sources comprising sentence-by-sentence translations in the first language of the sources of the other corpus in the second language.

28. The system according to claim 26, wherein the parallel eSAO component pairs are edited.