Translation

• US 6,463,404 B1
• Filed: 11/02/1998
• Issued: 10/08/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Appleby, Stephen C
• Primary Examiner(s): EDOUARD, PATRICK NESTOR
• Application Number:
  US09/180,182
• Time in Patent Office: 1,436 Days
• Field of Search: 704/1-10
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/55 Rule-based translation

Abstract

Apparatus for use within a system for translating a document from a source language to at least one target language, comprising means for parsing said document using grammar rules specific to said source language, to derive a source language semantic structure; means for processing said source language semantic structure, to detect the presence therein of semantic elements which are specific to said source language, and to replace said semantic elements with replacement elements which are generic to a plurality of possible said target languages, to generate a generic semantic representation of said document.

Claims

1. A method of language processing for use within a process for machine-translating a document from a source language to at least one target language, comprising the steps:

(1) parsing said document using grammar rules specific to said source language to derive a source language-specific semantic graph;

(2) applying to a semantic graph, initially said source language-specific semantic graph derived by step (1), a plurality of abstraction rules in sequence until a source language-specific subgraph thereof is detected which meets the requirements of a said abstraction rule;

(3) in response to that detection of such a subgraph, modifying the semantic graph in which that subgraph was detected by replacing that subgraph by an abstracted subgraph specified by the said abstraction rule;

(4) performing step (2) in respect of the modified semantic graph produced by step (3); and

(5) cyclically repeating steps (2), (3) and (4) in respect of respective modified semantic graphs until step (2) fails to detect a said source language-specific subgraph, and thereupon deeming the current semantic graph to be language independent.

2. Apparatus for use within a system for translating a document from a source language to at least one target language, comprising:

means for parsing said document using grammar rules specific to said source language to derive a source language-specific semantic graph;

means for receiving a semantic graph, initially said source language-specific semantic graph derived by said parsing means, and applying thereto a plurality of abstraction rules in sequence until a source language-specific subgraph thereof is detected which meets the requirement of a said abstraction rule;

means responsive to the detection of such a subgraph to modify the semantic graph in which that subgraph was detected by replacing that subgraph by an abstracted subgraph specified by the said abstraction rule, and to supply said received semantic graph so modified to said rule applying means; and

means for detecting when said rule applying means has applied all of said plurality of abstraction rules in sequence to a received semantic graph without any detection of a said source language-specific subgraph therein, the current semantic graph being deemed to be language-independent.

3. A method of language processing for use within a process for machine translating a document from a source language to at least one target language, comprising the steps:

(1) applying to a semantic graph, initially a language-independent semantic graph, a plurality of abstraction rules in sequence until a language-independent subgraph thereof is detected which meets the requirements of a said abstraction rule;

(2) in response to that detection of such a subgraph, modifying the semantic graph in which that subgraph was detected by replacing that subgraph by an abstracted subgraph specified by the said abstraction rule;

(3) performing step (1) in respect of the modified semantic graph produced by step (2); and

(4) cyclically repeating steps (1), (2) and (3) in respect of respective modified semantic graphs until step (1) fails to detect a said language-independent subgraph, and thereupon deeming the current semantic graph to be target language-specific.

4. Apparatus for use within a system for translating a document from a source language to at least one target language, comprising:

target language-specific means for receiving a semantic graph and applying thereto a plurality of abstraction rules in sequence until a language-independent subgraph thereof is detected which meets the requirement of a said abstraction rule;

means responsive to the detection of such a subgraph to modify the semantic graph in which that subgraph was detected by replacing that subgraph by an abstracted subgraph specified by the said abstraction rule, and to supply said received semantic graph so modified to said rule applying means; and

means for detecting when said rule applying means has applied all of said plurality of abstraction rules in sequence to a received semantic graph without any detection of a said language-independent subgraph therein, the current semantic graph being deemed to be target language-specific.