Translation machine having a function of deriving two or more syntaxes from one original sentence and giving precedence to a selected one of the syntaxes

• US 5,495,413 A
• Filed: 09/21/1993
• Issued: 02/27/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Suzuki, Hitoshi, Fukumochi, Yoji, Kutsumi, Takeshi, Sata, Ichiko, Hirai, Tokuyuki, Kugimiya, Shuzo
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayes, Gail O.
• Assistant Examiner(s): NOT, DEFINED
• Application Number:
  US08/124,989
• Time in Patent Office: 889 Days
• Field of Search: 364/419.02, 364/419.04, 364/419.05, 364/419.08
• US Class Current: 704/4
• 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

Abstract

A translation machine is arranged to derive two or more syntaxes from one original sentence, determine which of the syntaxes is the most approximate according to a syntax priority rule given by a user or a manufacturer and output a translated sentence based on the most approximate syntax. The translation machine includes a memory, a translating module and a main CPU as main components. The memory serves to store a partial structure of each syntax and a syntax priority rule containing a numerical value indicating a priority of the partial structure and an incidental condition of the syntax. The translating module serves to collide the syntax priority rule stored in the memory with the syntax of the original sentence and giving a proper evaluating value to the syntax of the original sentence. The main CPU serves to output the translated sentences on the syntaxes derived from the original sentence according to their larger evaluating values.

Claims

1. A translation machine for translating an original sentence of a source language into a translated sentence of a target language, comprising:

storing means for storing a syntax priority rule of said source language, including partial structures of said source language, numerical values each indicating a priority of one of said partial structures, and incidental conditions of each of said partial structures;

a translation module for translating said original sentence into a plurality of sentences of said target language having different syntactic structures, respectively, said translation module including

structure deriving means for deriving a plurality of syntactic structures of said original sentence based on said partial structures and said incidental condition, and

priority deriving means for deriving priority magnitudes of said plurality of syntactic structures respectively, based on said numerical values; and

control means for performing a control to output one of said plurality of sentences of said target language as said translated sentence, in accordance with said priority magnitudes.

2. A translation machine according to claim 1, wherein said translation module further includes first analyzing means for analyzing said original sentence morphologically by means of a dictionary.

3. A translation machine according to claim 2, wherein said translation module further includes second analyzing means for analyzing said original sentence syntactically and selecting a plurality of parsing trees of said original sentence each corresponding to one of said syntactic structures by means of said dictionary and grammatical rules based on a result of said first analyzing means.

4. A translation machine according to claim 3, wherein said translation module further includes converting means for converting each of said parsing trees of said original sentence into equivalent parsing trees of said target language, respectively, by means of a tree structure conversion rules.

5. A translation machine according to claim 4, wherein said translation module further includes sentence generating means for generating each of said plurality of sentences of said target language by adding a proper particle or a proper auxiliary verb to a result of said converting means, respectively.

6. A translation machine for translating an original sentence of a source language into a translated sentence of a target language, comprising:

morphological analyzing unit for dividing an inputted sentence into morphemes by means of a dictionary and obtaining parts of speech of said morphemes;

syntactic analyzing unit for analyzing the syntax of said morphemes divided by said morphological analyzing unit and for outputting a corresponding syntactic structure of said inputted sentence by means of said dictionary and grammatical rules;

converting unit for converting said syntactic structure of said inputted sentence into a syntactic structure of said target language; and

translated sentence generating unit for generating said translated sentence based on said syntactic structure of said target language obtained by said converting unit,

wherein said translation machine further comprises;

obtaining means for obtaining a plurality of syntactic structures of said inputted sentence, when said syntactic analyzing unit analyses said inputted sentence corresponding to a plurality of syntactic structures;

syntax storing means for storing said syntactic structures obtained by said obtaining means, selecting means for selecting one of said syntactic structures stored in said syntax storing means through input means operated by a user;

priority rule generating means for generating a priority rule of syntactic structures of said source language of one sentence or a part thereof based on results of said selecting means;

priority storing means for storing said priority rule generated by said priority rule generating means and an index indicating a selection data of said selecting means;

evaluating means for assigning an evaluating value to each of said syntactic structures based on said priority rule stored in said priority storing means; and

control means for controlling said evaluating means, said converting unit and said translated sentence generating unit to output a translated sentence corresponding to one of said syntactic structures of said inputted sentence, based on said evaluating value.

7. A translation machine according to claim 6, wherein said syntax priority rules are based on a priority of a plurality of partial parsing trees.

8. A translation machine according to claim 7, wherein said priority storing means stores rejection data of each of said parsing trees, and said syntax priority rules are based on a priority of said parsing trees and said rejection data.

9. A translation machine according to claim 7, wherein said storing means stores rejection/selection data of each of said parsing trees, and said syntax priority rules are based on a priority of said parsing trees and said rejection/selection data.