Sentence generating system

• US 5,369,574 A
• Filed: 07/30/1991
• Issued: 11/29/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Canon Anelva Corporation (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Shibata, Shogo, Fujita, Minoru, Masegi, Koichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Envall, Jr., Roy N.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHUNG TRANS, XUONG MY
• Application Number:
  US07/738,118
• Time in Patent Office: 1,218 Days
• Field of Search: 364/419, 364/419.01, 364/419.02, 364/419.04, 364/419.05, 364/419.08
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/35 Discourse or dialogue representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/56 Natural language generation

Abstract

A system and method for generating a sentence from an inputted semantic representation includes a memory for storing a limitation which a generated sentence should satisfy generator, a generating sentence from the inputted semantic representation based upon the stored limitation, an evaluator for evaluation the generated results, and an altering device for altering the stored limitation based upon the evaluation. A cycle composed of sentence generation, evaluation of the generated sentence and alteration of the limitation is repeated until the evaluation satisfies a predetermined criterion.

Claims

1. A sentence generating system for generating a sentence from an inputted semantic representation, comprising:

condition storing means for storing a condition which a generated sentence should satisfy;

sentence generating means for generating a sentence from the inputted semantic representation based upon the condition stored in said condition storing means;

evaluating means for evaluating the entire sentence generated by said sentence generating means;

altering means for altering the condition, which has been stored in said condition storing means, based upon the result of an evaluation obtained by said evaluating means; and

re-execution control means for performing control of the system in such a manner that generation of the sentence by said sentence generating means is re-executed based upon the altered condition.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said sentence generating means has a plurality of partial sentence generating means each of which executes part of the process of generating a sentence, and said evaluating means evaluates results generated by each of said plurality of partial sentence generating means.

3. The system according to claim 1, further comprising sentence storing means for storing the sentence generated by said sentence generating means, wherein said evaluating means evaluates the sentence stored in said sentence storing means and delivers the evaluation results of said evaluating means to said altering means.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein said evaluating means evaluates the sentence based upon the length of the sentence.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein said altering means has rules for shortening the length of the generated sentence, these rules describing values for shortening the sentence with regard to said condition.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein said rules regulate word length of words contained in the generated sentence.

7. The system according to claim 5, wherein said rules regulate the number of clauses contained in the generated sentence.

8. The system according to claim 1, further comprising counting means for counting the number of times sentence generation is executed by said sentence generating means;

wherein when sentence generation is re-executed based upon the condition altered by said altering means, said re-execution control means controls re-execution in dependence upon a count recorded by said counting means.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein said sentence generating means has a plurality of partial sentence generating means each of which executes part of the process of generating a sentence, and said evaluating means evaluates results generated by each of said plurality of partial sentence generating means.

10. The system according to claim 8, wherein said re-execution control means limits the number of re-executions.

11. The system according to claim 8, wherein said re-execution control means alters a value of a criterion for evaluation executed by said evaluating means.

12. A sentence generating system for generating a sentence from an inputted semantic representation, comprising:

condition storing means for storing a condition which a generated sentence should satisfy;

sentence generating means for generating a sentence from the inputted semantic representation based upon a condition stored in said condition storing means;

evaluation-criterion storing means for storing a value of a criterion for evaluating the entire sentence generated by said sentence generating means;

criterion altering means for altering the value of a criterion stored in said evaluation-criterion storing means;

evaluating means for evaluating the entire sentence, which has been generated by said sentence generating means, in accordance with the value of a criterion stored in said evaluation-criterion storing means;

condition altering means for alternating the condition, which has been stored in said condition storing means, based upon the result of evaluation obtained by said evaluation means; and

re-execution control means for performing control of the system in such a manner that generation of the sentence by said sentence generating means is re-executed based upon the condition altered by said condition altering means.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein said criterion altering means has random-number generating means for generating a random number, the value of a criterion being altered based upon the random number generated by said random-number generating means.

14. The system according to claim 12, further comprising sentence storing means for storing the sentence generated by said sentence generating means, wherein said evaluating means evaluates the sentence stored in said sentence storing means in accordance with the value of a criterion stored in said evaluation-criterion storing means.

15. A machine translating system for translating an inputted sentence in a first language into a sentence in a second language and outputting the sentence in the second language, comprising:

input means for inputting the sentence in the first language;

analyzing means for outputting a semantic representation upon analyzing the sentence in the first language inputted by said input means;

condition storing means for storing a condition which a sentence generated in the second language should satisfy;

sentence generating means for generating the sentence in the second language from the semantic representation based upon the condition stored in said condition storing means;

output means for outputting the sentence generated in the second language by said sentence generating means;

evaluating means for evaluating the entire sentence generated by said sentence generating means; and

re-execution control means having altering means for altering the condition, which has been stored in said condition storing means, based upon the result of an evaluation made by said evaluating means, said re-execution control means performing control of the system in such a manner that generation of the sentence in the second language by said sentence generating means is re-executed based upon the altered condition.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein said sentence generating means has a plurality of partial sentence generating means each of which executes part of the process of generating a sentence, and said evaluating means evaluates results generated by each of said plurality of partial sentence generating means.

17. The system according to claim 15, further comprising sentence storing means for storing the sentence generated by said sentence generating means, wherein said evaluating means evaluates the sentence stored in said sentence storing means in accordance with the value of a criterion stored in said evaluating means.

18. The system according to claim 15, wherein said re-execution control means halts re-execution in a case where said evaluating means has determined that a predetermined criterion has been satisfied.

19. A sentence generating method of generating a sentence from an inputted semantic representation, comprising the steps of:

a. storing a condition which a generated sentence should satisfy;

b. generating a sentence from the inputted semantic representation based upon the condition that has been stored;

c. evaluating the sentence generated in step b;

d. altering the condition that has been stored based upon the evaluation result of step c; and

e. repeating steps b through d until the evaluation of step c satisfies a predetermined criterion.

20. The method according to claim 19, further comprising the steps of:

f. counting the number of times sentence generation is executed in step b; and

g. controlling re-execution in dependence upon the counting in step f, when sentence generation is re-executed based upon the condition altered in step d.

21. A machine translating method of translating an inputted sentence in a first language into a sentence in a second language and outputting the sentence in the second language, comprising the steps of:

a. inputting the sentence in the first language and outputting a semantic representation upon analyzing the inputted sentence in the first language;

b. generating the sentence in the second language from the semantic representation based upon conditions which are previously stored and which a sentence generated in the second language should satisfy;

c. outputting the sentence generated in the second language;

d. evaluating the sentence generated in step b;

e. altering the conditions based upon an evaluation made in step d; and

f. performing re-execution of step b in such a manner that generation of the sentence in the second language in step b is re-executed based upon the condition altered in step e.