System of simultaneous translation into a plurality of languages with sentence forming capabilities

• US 4,654,798 A
• Filed: 08/14/1984
• Issued: 03/31/1987
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/1983
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Taki, Hirokazu, Morino, Yoshikazu, Kobayashi, Toyohiro, Naito, Akihiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith, Jerry
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAYES, GAIL O
• Application Number:
  US06/640,575
• Time in Patent Office: 959 Days
• Field of Search: 364/419, 434/156, 434/157
• US Class Current: 704/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/55 Rule-based translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/56 Natural language generation

Abstract

A sentence forming apparatus forms a plurality of semantically equivalent sentences simultaneously in a plurality of languages by a conversational system. The apparatus includes a semantic dictionary memory which stores a plurality of indexes in a first language, a plurality of words in the first language semantically in coordination respectively with the indexes and grammatical information relating to the respective words, and first language syntax dictionary memory and second language syntax dictionary memory which store information concerning grammatical syntax and word in the corresponding language. A selection menu is formed based on the contents of the semantic dictionary. The apparatus further includes first language sentence assembler and second language sentence assembler which assemble, respectively, the first language sentence and the second language sentence utilizing the information concerning the grammatical syntax and word in the respective languages, in accordance with the selection menu.

Claims

1. A sentence forming apparatus comprising:

first storage means for storing in a correlated manner with each other a plurality of indexes in a first language, a plurality of words in the first language semantically in coordination respectively with said indexes and grammatical information relating to said respective words, the grammatical information being semantically restricted;

selection menu forming means for forming a selection menu in the first language by utilizing the contents of said first storage means;

input means for inputting selective information required for forming a sentence in response to said selection menu;

second storage means for storing said inputted selective information;

third storage means for storing syntax information relating to grammatical syntax of the first language and word information relating to words in the first language;

first sentence assembly means for assembling a sentence in the first language utilizing said selective information and said syntax information and said word information in the first language;

fourth storage means for storing syntax information relating to grammatical syntax of at least one second language and word information relating to words in the at least one second language;

second sentence assembly means for assembling a sentence in the at least one second language semantically equivalent to said sentence in the first language utilizing said selective information and said syntax information and said word information in the at least one second language; and

output means for outputting said selection menu, said sentence assembled by said first sentence assembly means and said sentence assembled by said second assembly means.

2. A sentence forming apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein

said at least one second language includes a plurality of different languages.

3. A sentence forming apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein

said output means include:

first output means for outputting said selection menu;

second output means for outputting said sentence assembled by said first sentence assembly means; and

third output means for outputting said sentence assembled by said second sentence assembly means.