TRANSLATION SYSTEM, TRANSLATION PROGRAM, AND BILINGUAL DATA GENERATION METHOD

• US 20090326915A1
• Filed: 04/23/2008
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd. (Funai Electric Holdings Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Funai Electric Advanced Applied Technology Research Institute Inc. (Funai Electric Holdings Company Limited), Funai Electric Co., Ltd. (Funai Electric Holdings Company Limited)
• Inventors: ONO, Masatoshi, TAKANO, Rikuo, OSHIMA, Kazuyoshi, SHIRAI, Satoshi
• Granted Patent: US 8,108,203 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/247 Thesauruses; Synonyms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/45 Example-based machine translation; Alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/47 Machine-assisted translation, e.g. using translation memory

Abstract

A translation system including: a bilingual data storage section, a plurality of pieces of first language simple sentence data and a plurality of pieces of second language simple sentence data being stored in the bilingual data storage section while being associated with each other so that the first language simple sentences and the second language simple sentences respectively make pairs; and a target language simple sentence data output section which outputs target language simple sentence data corresponding to a target language simple sentence which is a translation of a given source language simple sentence based on source language simple sentence data corresponding to the source language simple sentence. The target language simple sentence data output section receives first-language-source-language simple sentence data, selects first language simple sentence data from the plurality of pieces of the first language simple sentence data stored in the bilingual data storage section based on the received first-language-source-language simple sentence data, and outputs the second language simple sentence data associated with the selected first language simple sentence data as the target language simple sentence data.

Claims

1. A translation system comprising:

a bilingual data storage section, a plurality of pieces of first language simple sentence data corresponding to a plurality of first language simple sentences in a first language and a plurality of pieces of second language simple sentence data corresponding to a plurality of second language simple sentences in a second language being stored in the bilingual data storage section while being associated with each other so that the first language simple sentences and the second language simple sentences respectively make pairs; and

a target language simple sentence data output section which outputs target language simple sentence data corresponding to a target language simple sentence which is a translation of a given source language simple sentence based on source language simple sentence data corresponding to the source language simple sentence,

the target language simple sentence data output section receiving first-language-source-language simple sentence data corresponding to a first-language-source-language simple sentence in the first language, and selecting first language simple sentence data from the plurality of pieces of the first language simple sentence data stored in the bilingual data storage section based on the received first-language-source-language simple sentence data; and

the target language simple sentence data output section outputting the second language simple sentence data associated with the selected first language simple sentence data as the target language simple sentence data.

2. The translation system as defined in claim 1,

wherein the target language simple sentence data output section determines whether or not first language simple sentence data which coincides with the first-language-source-language simple sentence data is stored in the bilingual data storage section referring to the bilingual data storage section;

and

wherein, when the target language simple sentence data output section has determined that first language simple sentence data which coincides with the first-language-source-language simple sentence data is stored in the bilingual data storage section, the target language simple sentence data output section selects the first language simple sentence data which coincides with the first-language-source-language simple sentence data.

3. The translation system as defined in claim 1,

wherein the target language simple sentence data output section determines whether or not first language simple sentence data corresponding to a first language simple sentence having a meaning similar to that of the first-language-source-language simple sentence is stored in the bilingual data storage section referring to the bilingual data storage section;

and

wherein, when the target language simple sentence data output section has determined that first language simple sentence data corresponding to a first language simple sentence having a meaning similar to that of the first-language-source-language simple sentence is stored in the bilingual data storage section, the target language simple sentence data output section selects the first language simple sentence data corresponding to the first language simple sentence having a meaning similar to that of the first-language-source-language simple sentence.

4. The translation system as defined in claim 3, further comprising:

a thesaurus data storage section which stores thesaurus data in the first language,

wherein the target language simple sentence data output section determines whether or not first language simple sentence data corresponding to a first language simple sentence having a meaning similar to that of the first-language-source-language simple sentence is stored in the bilingual data storage section based on the thesaurus data.

5. The translation system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a selection candidate data extraction section which extracts first language simple sentence data which satisfies a given selection candidate condition from the plurality of pieces of first language simple sentence data stored in the bilingual data storage section as selection candidate data,

the translation system causing a given output device to output a first language simple sentence corresponding to the first language simple sentence data extracted as the selection candidate data based on the selection candidate data extracted by the selection candidate data extraction section.

6. The translation system as defined in claim 5,

wherein the target language simple sentence data output section selects first language simple sentence data from the first language simple sentence data extracted as the selection candidate data based on selection information which selects first language simple sentence data from the first language simple sentence data extracted as the selection candidate data.

7. The translation system as defined in claim 1, her comprising:

a selected simple sentence output section which causes a given output device to output a first language simple sentence corresponding to the first language simple sentence data selected by the target language simple sentence data output section.

8. The translation system as defined in claim 1,

wherein the first language simple sentence data is stored in the bilingual data storage section while being classified into a plurality of groups;

and

wherein one piece of the first language simple sentence data classified into each of the groups is designated as representative data.

9. The translation system as defined in claim 8,

wherein the target language simple sentence data output section selects one piece of the first language simple sentence data designated as the representative data.

10. The translation system as defined in claim 1,

wherein the second language simple sentence data is stored in the bilingual data storage section while being classified into a plurality of groups;

and

wherein one piece of the second language simple sentence data classified into each of the groups is designated as representative data.

11. The translation system as defined in claim 10,

wherein the target language simple sentence data output section outputs one piece of the second language simple sentence data designated as the representative data as the target language simple sentence data.

12. The translation system as defined in claim 1,

wherein the target language simple sentence data output section receives second-language-source-language simple sentence data corresponding to a second-language-source-language simple sentence in the second language, and selects second language simple sentence data from the second language simple sentence data stored in the bilingual data storage section based on the received second-language-source-language simple sentence data;

and

wherein the target language simple sentence data output section outputs the first language simple sentence data associated with the selected second language simple sentence data as the target language simple sentence data.

13. The translation system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a target language simple sentence output section which causes a given output device to output the target language simple sentence based on the target language simple sentence data.

14. The translation system as defined in claim 13, further comprising:

an output unit determination section which determines an output unit of the target language simple sentence based on an external signal,

wherein the target language simple sentence output section causes a plurality of target language simple sentences corresponding to a plurality of pieces of target language simple sentence data to be successively output based on the output unit determined by the output unit determination section.

15. The translation system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a second bilingual data storage section, the plurality of pieces of second language simple sentence data and a plurality of pieces of third language simple sentence data corresponding to a plurality of third language simple sentences in a third language being stored in the second bilingual data storage section while being associated with each other so that the second language simple sentences and the third language simple sentences respectively make pairs; and

a second target language simple sentence data output section which receives the second language simple sentence data output from the target language simple sentence data output section as the target language simple sentence data, refers to the second bilingual data storage section, and outputs the third language simple sentence data associated with the received second language simple sentence data as second target language simple sentence data.

16. The translation system as defined in claim 15, further comprising:

a second target language simple sentence output section which causes a given output device to output a second target language simple sentence corresponding to the second target language simple sentence data based on the second target language simple sentence data.

17. The translation system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a source language simple sentence output section which causes a given output device to output the source language simple sentence based on the source language simple sentence data.

18. The translation system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a machine translation section which determines whether or not the source language simple sentence data satisfies a given machine translation condition, and performs a given machine translation process on the source language simple sentence data when the source language simple sentence data satisfies the machine translation condition.

19. The translation system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a source language simple sentence data output section which outputs the source language simple sentence data based on source language word data which is input externally and indicates source language words,

wherein the source language simple sentence data output section determines whether or not the source language words form a simple sentence, and outputs the source language word data as the source language simple sentence data when the source language words form a simple sentence;

wherein, when the source language words do not form a simple sentence, the source language simple sentence data output section analyzes the source language word data, generates data corresponding to a simple sentence having the same meaning as that of the source language words, and outputs the generated data as the source language simple sentence data; and

wherein the target language simple sentence data output section outputs the target language simple sentence data based on the source language simple sentence data output from the source language simple sentence data output section.

20. The translation system as defined in claim 19,

wherein the source language simple sentence data output section acquires the source language word data through a network.

21. The translation system as defined in claim 1,

wherein the target language simple sentence data output section acquires the source language simple sentence data through a network.

22. A translation program causing a computer to function as:

a bilingual data storage section, a plurality of pieces of first language simple sentence data corresponding to a plurality of first language simple sentences in a first language and a plurality of pieces of second language simple sentence data corresponding to a plurality of second language simple sentences in a second language being stored in the bilingual data storage section while being associated with each other so that the first language simple sentences and the second language simple sentences respectively make pairs; and

a target language simple sentence data output section which outputs target language simple sentence data corresponding to a target language simple sentence which is a translation of a given source language simple sentence based on source language simple sentence data corresponding to the source language simple sentence,

the target language simple sentence data output section receiving first-language-source-language simple sentence data corresponding to the first-language-source-language simple sentence in the first language, and selecting first language simple sentence data from the plurality of pieces of the first language simple sentence data stored in the bilingual data storage section based on the received first-language-source-language simple sentence data; and

the target language simple sentence data output section outputting the second language simple sentence data associated with the selected first language simple sentence data as the target language simple sentence data.

23. A bilingual data generation method comprising:

providing first-language-second-language bilingual data, the first-language-second-language bilingual data including a plurality of pieces of first language simple sentence data corresponding to a plurality of first language simple sentences in a first language and a plurality of pieces of second language simple sentence data corresponding to a plurality of second language simple sentences in a second language, the first language simple sentence data and the second language simple sentence data being associated with each other so that the first language simple sentences and the second language simple sentences respectively make pairs; and

performing a given machine translation process on the second language simple sentence data contained in the first-language-second-language bilingual data to generate a plurality of pieces of third language simple sentence data corresponding to a plurality of third language simple sentences in a third language, and associating the second language simple sentence data with the third language simple sentence data so that the second language simple sentences and the third language simple sentences respectively make pairs.