Language conversion system and text creating system using such

• US 5,845,143 A
• Filed: 05/26/1995
• Issued: 12/01/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Yamauchi, Satoshi, Kameda, Masayuki, Katooka, Takashi, Narita, Masumi, Anwyl, Phyllis, Yamagata, Hiroko, Oono, Ayako, Honma, Sakiko, Hayashi, Taisen, Ito, Hideo, Ohguro, Yoshihisa
• Primary Examiner(s): Hofsass, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): WONG, ALBERT KANG
• Application Number:
  US08/451,553
• Time in Patent Office: 1,285 Days
• Field of Search: 364/419.02, 364/419.04, 364/419.07, 364/419.08, 364/419.16, 364/419.14, 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 language converting system for converting an original sentence in a source-language into a sentence in a target-language by use of a computer, said system comprising:

a database for storing representation patterns in the target language each of the representation patterns having corresponding judging information;

evaluation means connected to the database for evaluating an adaptivity factor of each representation pattern to the original sentence, said selected representation pattern missing certain specific information;

selecting means connected to the evaluation means for selecting at least one representation pattern in the target-language which is adaptable to the original sentence based on the adaptivity factor obtained by said evaluation means;

retrieval identification means connected to the evaluation means for searching for the identifying the certain predetermined information in said one representation pattern to complete the sentence in the target-language;

interactive means connected to the retrieval identification means for obtaining the certain predetermined information through an interaction with a user so as to generate the sentence in the target-language;

output means connected to the interactive means for outputting the sentence in the target-language created based on the information obtained by said retrieval identification means and said interactive means,

wherein, in a case where there are a plurality of representation patterns for representing the original sentence, the judging information selecting one of the representation patterns, the judging information being displayed along with the plurality of representation patterns.

2. A text creating system comprising:

text input means for inputting a text in a source-language;

a first structural element database for storing a plurality of predetermined structural elements forming texts in the source-language;

original text analyzing means having access to the first structural element database for detecting at least one of the structural elements in the text in the source-language and for analyzing a structure of the text in the source language;

a first typical text database for storing a plurality of typical text structures in a target-language;

first electing means having access to the first typical text database and connected to the original text analyzing means for evaluating an adaptivity factor of each of the typical text structures to the structure of the text in the source-language obtained by said original text analyzing means and for selecting a typical text structure having the highest adaptivity factor;

text creating means connected to the first selecting means for creating a target-language text based on the typical text structure selected by the first selecting means; and

editing means connected to the text creating means for editing the target-language text created by the text creating means.

3. The system as claimed in claim 2, further comprising:

a second structural element database for storing a plurality of structural elements in the target-language corresponding to the structural elements in the source-language stored in said first structural element database;

target-language element retrieval means connected to the original text analyzing means for searching in the second structural element database the structural elements in the target-language corresponding to the structural elements obtained by the original text analyzing means;

gathering means connected to the target-language element retrieval means for gathering the structural elements in the target-language obtained by said target-language element retrieval means;

second selecting means having access to the first typical text database and connected to the gathering means for evaluating the adaptivity factor for each of the typical text structures in the first typical text database associated with a set of the structural elements in the target-language gathered by the gathering means and for selecting a typical text structure having the highest adaptivity factor.

4. The system as claimed in claim 3, further comprising:

a second typical text database associated with the first typical text database for providing each of the plurality of the target-language text structures with a set of the structural elements in the target-language stored in said second structural element database; and

third selecting means for evaluating a degree of similarity between each set of the structural elements in the target-language stored in said second typical text data base and a set of the structural elements in the target-language gathered by said gathering means and for selecting a target-language text structure associated with a set of structural elements in the target-language having a highest degree of the similarity.

5. The system as claimed in claim 2, further comprising:

extracting means for extracting predetermined information on the text structure selected by said first selecting means from the original text.