MACHINE TRANSLATION DEVICE, MACHINE TRANSLATION METHOD, AND PROGRAM

• US 20110046940A1
• Filed: 01/15/2009
• Published: 02/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
• Original Assignee: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
• Inventors: Murakami, Yohei, Tanaka, Rie, Ishida, Toru
• Application Number:
  US12/866,657
• Publication Number:
  US 20110046940A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/2
• 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 machine translation device includes: an accepting portion that accepts a first-language document; storage portion in which are stored one or more pieces of multilingual parallel translation information that are each a set of synonymous words in the first language through the Nth language (N is 3 or more integer); a selecting portion that selects the multilingual parallel translation information including a word included in an ith-language document (i is an integer of 1 to N-1) from the one or more pieces of multilingual parallel translation information; a machine translation portion that repeats processing of machine translating the ith-language document into an (i+1)th language document until machine translation into the Nth language has been performed, so as to use parallel-translation relation between two languages included in the selected multilingual parallel translation information; and an output portion that outputs the Nth-language document.

Claims

1. A machine translation device that performs translation from a first language through an Nth language (N is an integer of 3 or more) by repeating machine translation between two languages, the device comprising:

a translation object document accepting portion that accepts a translation object document that is a document in the first language that is to be translated;

a multilingual parallel translation information storage portion in which are stored one or more pieces of multilingual parallel translation information that are each a set of synonymous words in the first language through the Nth language;

a multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion that selects the multilingual parallel translation information including a word included in a translation object document in an ith language (i is an integer of 1 to N-1) from the one or more pieces of multilingual parallel translation information stored in the multilingual parallel translation information storage portion;

a machine translation portion that repeats processing of machine translating the translation object document in the ith language into an (i+1)th language until machine translation into the Nth language has been performed, so as to use parallel-translation relation between two languages included in the multilingual parallel translation information selected by the multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion, starting from the translation object document in the first language that has been accepted by the translation object document accepting portion; and

an output portion that outputs a document in the Nth language resulting from machine translation performed by the machine translation portion.

2. The machine translation device according to claim 1,

wherein the machine translation portion comprises:

a machine translation unit that repeats processing of machine translating the translation object document in the ith language into an (i+1)th language, starting from the translation object document in the first language that has been accepted by the translation object document accepting portion;

a translation result document accumulating unit that accumulates a translation result document that is a document resulting from machine translation performed by the machine translation unit;

a translation pair acquisition unit that acquires a translation pair that is a pair formed by a word included in a translation object document and a word included in a translation result document resulting from machine translating the translation object document by the machine translation unit and that have parallel-translation relation;

a replacement pair identification unit that identifies a replacement pair that is a pair formed by a replacement object word that is a word in a target language included in, among translation pairs acquired by the translation pair acquisition unit, a translation pair not included in the multilingual parallel translation information selected by the multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion, and a replacement result word that is a word in the target language included in multilingual parallel translation information that includes a word in a source language included in said translation pair and that has been selected by the multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion; and

a translation result document modification unit that generates a modified translation result document that is a document in which, among words included in the translation result document accumulated by the translation result document accumulating unit, the replacement object word included in the replacement pair identified by the replacement pair identification unit has been replaced by the replacement result word included in said replacement pair,

the machine translation unit performs machine translation by using the modified translation result document generated by the translation result document modification unit as the translation object document, and

the output portion outputs the modified translation result document in the Nth language that has been generated by the translation result document modification unit.

3. The machine translation device according to claim 2,

wherein the machine translation portion further comprises a bilingual dictionary storage unit in which is stored a bilingual dictionary that is information associating a word in the ith language with a word in the (i+1)th language, and

the translation pair acquisition unit acquires the translation pair by using the bilingual dictionary stored in the bilingual dictionary storage unit.

4. The machine translation device according to claim 2,

wherein the translation pair acquisition unit acquires the translation pair from the machine translation unit.

5. The machine translation device according to claim 2,

wherein the translation pair acquisition unit acquires the translation pair whose word in a source language is included in the multilingual parallel translation information selected by the multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion.

6. The machine translation device according to claim 1,

wherein the multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion selects multilingual parallel translation information from the multilingual parallel translation information resulting from the previous selection, each time machine translation between two languages is performed.

11. The machine translation device according claim 3,

wherein the translation pair acquisition unit acquires the translation pair whose word in a source language is included in the multilingual parallel translation information selected by the multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion.

12. The machine translation device according claim 4,

wherein the translation pair acquisition unit acquires the translation pair whose word in a source language is included in the multilingual parallel translation information selected by the multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion.

13. The machine translation device according to claim 11,

wherein the multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion selects multilingual parallel translation information from the multilingual parallel translation information resulting from the previous selection, each time machine translation between two languages is performed.

14. The machine translation device according to claim 12,

wherein the multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion selects multilingual parallel translation information from the multilingual parallel translation information resulting from the previous selection, each time machine translation between two languages is performed.

15. The machine translation device according to claim 2,

wherein the multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion selects multilingual parallel translation information from the multilingual parallel translation information resulting from the previous selection, each time machine translation between two languages is performed.

16. The machine translation device according to claim 3,

wherein the multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion selects multilingual parallel translation information from the multilingual parallel translation information resulting from the previous selection, each time machine translation between two languages is performed.

17. The machine translation device according to claim 4,

wherein the multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion selects multilingual parallel translation information from the multilingual parallel translation information resulting from the previous selection, each time machine translation between two languages is performed.

18. The machine translation device according to claim 5,

wherein the multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion selects multilingual parallel translation information from the multilingual parallel translation information resulting from the previous selection, each time machine translation between two languages is performed.

7. A machine translation method for performing translation from a first language through an Nth language (N is an integer of 3 or more) by repeating machine translation between two languages by using a translation object document accepting portion, a multilingual parallel translation information storage portion in which are stored one or more pieces of multilingual parallel translation information that are each a set of synonymous words in the first language through the Nth language, a multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion, a machine translation portion, and an output portion, the method comprising:

a translation object document accepting step of accepting, by the translation object document accepting portion, a translation object document that is a document in the first language that is to be translated;

a multilingual parallel translation information selecting step of selecting, by the multilingual parallel translation information selecting portion, the multilingual parallel translation information including a word included in the translation object document in an ith language (i is an integer of 1 to N-1) from the one or more pieces of multilingual parallel translation information stored in the multilingual parallel translation information storage portion;

a first machine translation step of repeating, by the machine translation portion, processing of machine translating the translation object document in the ith language into an (i+1)th language until machine translation into the Nth language has been performed, so as to use parallel-translation relation between two languages included in the multilingual parallel translation information selected in the multilingual parallel translation information selecting step, starting from the translation object document in the first language that has been accepted in the translation object document accepting step; and

an output step of outputting, by the output portion, a document in the Nth language resulting from machine translation performed in the first machine translation step.

8. The machine translation method according to claim 7,

wherein the machine translation portion comprises a machine translation unit, a translation result document accumulating unit, a translation pair acquisition unit, a replacement pair identification unit, and a translation result document modification unit,

the first machine translation step comprises:

a second machine translation step of repeating, by the machine translation unit, processing of machine translating the translation object document in the ith language into an (i+1)th language, starting from the translation object document in the first language that has been accepted in the translation object document accepting step;

a translation result document accumulating step of accumulating, by the translation result document accumulating unit, a translation result document that is a document resulting from machine translation performed in the second machine translation step;

a translation pair acquisition step of acquiring, by the translation pair acquisition unit, a translation pair that is a pair formed by a word included in a translation object document and a word included in a translation result document resulting from machine translating the translation object document in the second machine translation step and that have parallel-translation relation;

a replacement pair identification step of identifying, by the replacement pair identification unit, a replacement pair that is a pair formed by a replacement object word that is a word in a target language included in, among translation pairs acquired in the translation pair acquisition step, a translation pair not included in the multilingual parallel translation information selected in the multilingual parallel translation information selecting step and a replacement result word that is a word in the target language included in multilingual parallel translation information that includes a word in a source language included in said translation pair and that has been selected in the multilingual parallel translation information selecting step; and

a translation result document modification step of generating, by the translation result document modification unit, a modified translation result document that is a document in which, among words included in the translation result document accumulated in the translation result document accumulating step, the replacement object word included in the replacement pair identified in the replacement pair identification step has been replaced by the replacement result word included in said replacement pair,

in the second machine translation step, machine translation is performed by using the modified translation result document generated in the translation result document modification step as the translation object document, and,

in the output step, the modified translation result document in the Nth language that has been generated in the translation result document modification step is output.

9. A computer readable medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processor for performing a method for translation from a first language through an Nth language (N is an integer of 3 or more) by repeating machine translation between two languages, the method comprising:

a translation object document accepting step of accepting a translation object document that is a document in the first language that is to be translated;

a multilingual parallel translation information selecting step of selecting, from one or more pieces of multilingual parallel translation information stored in a multilingual parallel translation information storage portion in which are stored one or more pieces of multilingual parallel translation information that are each a set of synonymous words in the first language through the Nth language, the multilingual parallel translation information including a word included in a translation object document in an ith language (i is an integer of 1 to N-1);

a first machine translation step of repeating processing of machine translating the translation object document in the ith language into an (i+1)th language until machine translation into the Nth language has been performed, so as to use parallel-translation relation between two languages included in the multilingual parallel translation information selected in the multilingual parallel translation information selecting step, starting from the translation object document in the first language that has been accepted in the translation object document accepting step; and

an output step of outputting a document in the Nth language resulting from machine translation performed in the first machine translation step.

10. The computer readable medium according to claim 9,

wherein the first machine translation step comprises:

a second machine translation step of repeating processing of machine translating the translation object document in the ith language into an (i+1)th language, starting from the translation object document in the first language that has been accepted in the translation object document accepting step;

a translation result document accumulating step of accumulating a translation result document that is a document resulting from machine translation performed in the second machine translation step;

a translation pair acquisition step of acquiring a translation pair that is a pair formed by a word included in a translation object document and a word included in a translation result document resulting from machine translating the translation object document in the second machine translation step and that have parallel-translation relation;

a replacement pair identification step of identifying a replacement pair that is a pair formed by a replacement object word that is a word in a target language included in, among translation pairs acquired in the translation pair acquisition step, a translation pair not included in the multilingual parallel translation information selected in the multilingual parallel translation information selecting step, and a replacement result word that is a word in the target language included in multilingual parallel translation information that includes a word in a source language included in said translation pair and that has been selected in the multilingual parallel translation information selecting step; and

a translation result document modification step of generating a modified translation result document that is a document in which, among words included in the translation result document accumulated in the translation result document accumulating step, the replacement object word included in the replacement pair identified in the replacement pair identification step has been replaced by the replacement result word included in said replacement pair,

in the second machine translation step, machine translation is performed by using the modified translation result document generated in the translation result document modification step as the translation object document, and

in the output portion step, the modified translation result document in the Nth language that has been generated in the translation result document modification step is output.