Language conversion system and text creating system using such

• US 5,652,896 A
• Filed: 05/26/1995
• Issued: 07/29/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Ito, Hideo, Ohguro, Yoshihisa, Yamauchi, Satoshi, Kameda, Masayuki, Katooka, Takashi, Narita, Masumi, Anwyl, Phyllis, Yamagata, Hiroko, Oono, Ayako, Honma, Sakiko, Hayashi, Taisen
• Primary Examiner(s): McElheny, Jr., Donald E.
• Application Number:
  US08/452,336
• Time in Patent Office: 795 Days
• Field of Search: 364/419.1, 364/419.08, 364/419.04, 364/419.13, 364/419.01, 364/419.02, 395/752, 395/754, 395/759
• US Class Current: 704/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/35 Discourse or dialogue representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/55 Rule-based translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/56 Natural language generation

Abstract

A language conversion system converts an original sentence in a source-language into a translated sentence in a target-language. The language conversion system includes a original analysis unit for analyzing the original sentence so as to obtain an intermediate structure of the original, an idea center extraction unit for extracting an idea center from the intermediate structure obtained by the original analysis unit, the idea center being a central expression of an idea to be described by a sentence, an identification unit for identifying a sentence pattern including the idea center extracted by the idea center extraction unit, an information extraction unit for extracting information required by the sentence pattern identified by the identification unit from the intermediate structure of the original sentence, a decision unit for deciding an intermediate structure of a translated sentence based on the sentence pattern and request information extracted by the information extraction unit, and a creation unit for creating a translated sentence in a surface level from the intermediate structure decided by the decision unit.

Claims

1. A text creating system comprising:

a text element database for storing text elements forming a text;

a text structure database for storing information of text structures each of which is a set of text elements;

a sentence pattern database for storing information used to creating a sentence corresponding to each of the text elements;

text element selecting means for selecting text elements from said text element database;

text structure retrieval means for searching said text structure database for a text structure based on the text elements selected by said text element selecting means;

text creating means for creating a target text based on the text structure obtained by said text structure retrieval means using the information stored in said sentence pattern database; and

editing means for editing the target text created by said text creating means.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said text element selecting means indicates text elements which can be selected from said text element database, text elements being selected from among the text elements indicated by said text element selecting means.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said text element selecting means accepts representations in a natural language and retrieves the text elements corresponding to keys input by using the natural language, so that the retrieved text elements are selected by said text element selecting means.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in a case where a plurality of text structures are searched for by said text structure retrieval means, said text element selecting means selects a text element again and said text structure retrieval means searches for a text structure based on the text element which has been previously selected by said text element selecting means and the text element selected again by said text element selecting means, and wherein operations of said text selecting means and said text structure retrieval means are repeated until said text structure retrieval means searches for a single text structure.

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

text element indicating means for indicating text elements which are not selected by said text selecting means from among the text elements included in the text structures searched for by said text structure retrieval means, wherein, in a case where a plurality of text structures are searched for by said text structure retrieval means, said text structure retrieval means searches for a text structure based on the text element which has been selected by said text selecting means an the text element selected from among the text structure indicated by said text element indicating means.

6. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein, said text element indicating means indicates only text elements each of which has a high discriminating power among the text elements which are not selected by said text selecting means from among the text elements included in the text structures searched for by said text structure retrieval means.