JP2001034606A - Device and method for inputting chinese language - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a Chinese language input device which can retrieve the Chinese language from various Kana (Japanese syllabary) expressions which are similar to the pronunciations of the Chinese language and also can reduce the capacity of its dictionary storage part. SOLUTION: A pinyin conversion means 23 retrieves the pinyin stored in a Kana-pinyin table storage part 32 with an inputted Kana expression used as a key. A dictionary retrieval means 22 uses the retrieved pinyin as a key to retrieve a Kanji (Chinese character) stored in a dictionary storage part 31. Various Kana expressions are converted into the pinyin by the means 23 and the part 31 is retrieved by means of the converted pinyin. As a result, the Chinese words can be retrieved from various Kana expressions similar to the pronunciations of Chinese language and also the capacity of the part 31 can be reduced to improve the retrieving accuracy.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a Chinese input device and a Chinese input method for inputting Chinese pronunciation and outputting corresponding Chinese kanji or idioms. The present invention relates to a Chinese input device and a Chinese input method capable of performing a dictionary search from kana notation and outputting a corresponding Chinese kanji or idiom.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is well known that Pinyin input is generally used as a method of inputting Chinese at present. However, it is difficult to input freely without knowing exactly the Chinese pinyin you want to input.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 62-0 discloses an example of a Chinese input device capable of inputting a dictionary without knowing the pinyin accurately.
93744, JP-A-62-106567, JP-A-62-106567
135962. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-272 discloses an example of a Chinese input device capable of inputting an ambiguous portion of pinyin with a predetermined symbolic character instead of a pinyin character string and replacing it with a grammatically possible pinyin character string and then searching a dictionary.
780. However, these are also premised on having knowledge of Pinyin, and are difficult to use for Japanese who do not know Chinese pronunciation well.

As a means for solving the problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H02-125364 discloses an example of a Chinese input device capable of inputting using a kana, such as a kana-kanji conversion of Japanese input. In this conventional Chinese input device, Japanese reading is associated with Chinese and stored, and Chinese can be input from Japanese reading of kanji, and knowledge of Chinese pronunciation is obtained. No need at all. However, this conventional technique has no effect when the correspondence between Chinese and Japanese kanji is unknown or when it is desired to input Chinese characters by listening to Chinese pronunciation.

[0005] Therefore, there is a need for a method capable of inputting Chinese using kana notation corresponding to Chinese pronunciation. An example of a Chinese input device that makes this possible is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 07-61.
No. 63 is described. As shown in FIG. 8, this conventional Chinese input device includes an input device, a data processing device, a storage device having a dictionary storage unit, and an output device. In the dictionary storage unit, the corresponding Chinese kanji notation is stored in advance using the Chinese pronunciation of the Chinese kanji notation as a headword. In this Chinese input device, the dictionary search means 25 searches the dictionary storage unit 34 using the hiragana input from the input device 1 as a key, reads out the corresponding kanji notation, and outputs it to the output device 4.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 07-
The latest conventional technology described in Japanese Patent No. 6163 has the following problems.

[0007] The first problem is that all possible kanji notations, which are kanji or a combination of two or more kanji registered in the Chinese dictionary, must be stored in all possible kana notations. If you try to register various kana notations in the dictionary, you need a large storage device,
The search time is also slow.

[0008] As a result, if a large-capacity storage device cannot be prepared, it is possible to search using only a limited number of kana notations, although there are various kana notation methods corresponding to Chinese.

The second problem is that it is necessary to newly create a dictionary in which kana notation corresponding to kanji is registered in order to convert kana to kanji. Is that it cannot be used as is.

[0010] A third problem is that maintenance of the large-capacity Chinese dictionary described above is difficult.

The present invention provides a Chinese input device and a Chinese input method capable of inputting Chinese in various kana notations without increasing the storage capacity of a storage unit for storing Chinese kanji.

[0012]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, in a Chinese input device, pinyin conversion means for converting input kana notation into pinyin corresponding to the kana notation,
It is characterized by including dictionary search means for converting the converted pinyin into a kanji corresponding to the pinyin.

According to a second invention of the present application, the pinyin conversion means of the first invention searches for the pinyin stored in a prepared kana-to-pinyin table storage unit using the kana notation as a key. Features.

[0014] In a third aspect of the present invention, the dictionary search means of the first aspect searches the Chinese characters stored in a dictionary storage unit prepared in advance using the pinyin as a key.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, if the input kana notation is not stored in the kana-to-pinyin table storage unit, the input kana notation is prepared in advance. Kana notation conversion means for converting to another kana notation based on a conversion rule stored in a kana notation conversion rule storage unit, wherein the pinyin conversion means stores the kana to pinyin table using the another kana notation as a key And searching for the pinyin stored in the section.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the Chinese input method, the input kana notation is converted into a pinyin corresponding to the kana notation, and the converted pinyin is converted into a kanji corresponding to the pinyin. It is characterized by.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the Chinese input method, a pinyin stored in a kana-to-pinyin table storage unit prepared in advance is searched for using the input kana notation as a key, and It is characterized in that Chinese characters stored in a dictionary storage unit prepared in advance are searched using Pinyin as a key.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the sixth aspect, the input kana notation is prepared in advance when the input kana notation is not stored in the kana-to-pinyin table storage unit. Based on the conversion rule stored in the kana notation conversion rule storage unit, the kana notation is converted to another kana notation, and the pinyin stored in the kana-to-pinyin table storage unit is searched using the converted kana notation as a key. It is characterized by doing.

[Operation] Referring to FIG.
Stores in advance the notation of Chinese kanji or idioms corresponding to the romaji notation representing Chinese pronunciation, that is, Pinyin, as a headword. The kana versus pinyin table storage unit 32 stores in advance the corresponding pinyin with a kana notation assumed to be used for Chinese pronunciation as a headword. Pinyin conversion means 2
3 checks whether or not the pseudonym input in the pseudonym-to-pinyin table storage unit 32 is stored, and obtains the corresponding pinyin. The dictionary search unit 22 searches for and searches for Chinese kanji or idioms stored in the dictionary storage unit 31 using the Roman character string (pinyin) provided from the pinyin conversion unit 23 as a key.

[0020]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, one embodiment of the Chinese input device of the present invention is an input device 1 such as a keyboard, a data processing device 2 operated by program control, and a storage device 3 for storing information. And an output device 4 such as a display device or a printing device.

The storage device 3 has a dictionary storage unit 31 and a kana-to-pinyin table storage unit 32.

The dictionary storage unit 31 converts each character string consisting of Roman characters into Pinyin representing Chinese pronunciation as a headword.
Notation of corresponding Chinese kanji or idioms is stored in advance.

The kana-to-pinyin table storage section 32 stores in advance the corresponding pinyin with a kana notation assumed to be used for Chinese pronunciation as a headword.

As shown in FIG. 2, as an example of correspondence between kana notation and pinyin, "jiang, ra"
n, rang, reng, zhang, "and" bao, pao, pou "for" pao ".

The data processing device 2 includes an input mode determining means 21, a dictionary search means 22, and a pinyin conversion means 23.

Each of these means operates as follows.

The input mode determination means 21 determines the character type of the input character string, and if the input character string is a Roman character, passes the character string given from the input device 1 to the dictionary search means 22.
If the input character string is a kana, the character string provided from the input device 1 is passed to the Pinyin conversion means 23.

The dictionary search unit 22 searches for Chinese kanji or idioms stored in the dictionary storage unit 31 using the Roman character string (pinyin) given from the input mode determination unit 21 or the pinyin conversion unit 23 as a key. And search. At this time, if the Roman character string (Pinyin) is not stored in the dictionary storage unit 31, a measure such as displaying a message indicating that the search is not possible on the output device 4 is possible.

The pinyin conversion means 23 searches and searches for the pinyin stored in the kana-to-pinyin table storage unit 32 using the kana character string provided from the input mode determination means 21 as a key, and finds the obtained pinyin. Dictionary search means 22
Pass to. At this time, if the kana character string is not stored in the kana-to-pinyin table storage unit 32, a measure such as displaying a message indicating that pinyin conversion cannot be performed on the output device 4 may be considered.

Next, the overall operation of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 1 and the flowchart of FIG.

First, the input character string given from the input device 1 is supplied to the input mode determining means 21. The input mode determining means 21 determines whether the input character string is a kana or a Roman character (steps A1 and A2 in FIG. 3). If the input character string is not a kana but a Roman character, the character string is passed to the dictionary search means 22, and the dictionary search means 22 checks whether a pinyin matching the input character string is stored in the dictionary storage unit 31 (step A5). And A6). Dictionary storage unit 3
If a pinyin that matches the input character string is stored in No. 1, the corresponding Chinese kanji or idiom is read and output to the output device 4 (step A8). On the other hand, when the pinyin matching the input character string is not stored in the dictionary storage unit 31, the dictionary search unit 22 determines that the search is not possible,
A message indicating that search is impossible is output to the output device 4 (step A7).

In FIG. 3, if the input character string is determined to be a kana in step A2, the input character string is given to the Pinyin conversion means 23. The Pinyin conversion means 23 checks whether or not a kana notation matching the input character string is stored in the Kana-to-Pinyin table storage unit 32 (steps A3 and A4). Kana versus Pinyin table storage 32
If a kana notation that matches the input character string is stored in the dictionary search means 2
Give to 2. The dictionary search means 22 is a pinyin conversion means 23
It is determined whether or not a pinyin that matches one or a plurality of pinyins given from is stored in the dictionary storage unit 31 (steps A5 and A6). If at least one pinyin that matches the pinyin provided by the pinyin conversion means 23 is stored in the dictionary storage unit 31, the corresponding Chinese kanji or idiom is read and output to the output device 4 (step A8). .

In FIG. 3, if no kana notation that matches the input character string is not stored in the kana-to-pinyin table storage unit 32 in step A4, the pinyin conversion means 23 determines that the search cannot be performed, and the search cannot be performed. Is output to the output device 4 (step 7).

Next, a specific example will be described.

As shown in FIG. 4, it is assumed that an input character string "pao" is given from the input device 1, for example. The input mode determining means 21 determines that the input character string is a kana and passes the input character string to the Pinyin conversion means 23 (steps A1 and A2). Next, the pinyin conversion unit 23 checks whether or not the kana-to-pinyin table storage unit 32 has the same kana notation as the input character string (steps A3 and A4). Since “pao” is stored in the kana versus pinyin table storage unit 32, the corresponding pinyin “bao” “pao”
Get “pou”. Next, the dictionary search unit 22 checks whether a pinyin that matches the pinyin given from the pinyin conversion unit 23 is stored in the dictionary storage unit 31 (steps A5 and A6). The dictionary storage unit 31 stores "ba
o, “pao” and “pou” are stored, so “b”
Kanji characters such as "ho" and "treasure" corresponding to "ao", "gun" and "propulsion" corresponding to "pao", and "auto" corresponding to "pou" are obtained and output to the output device 4 ( Step A8).

(Other Embodiments of the Invention) Next, other embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 5, in this embodiment, the data processing device 5 has a kana notation conversion means 24 in addition to the configuration of the data processing device 2 in the embodiment shown in FIG. Further, in addition to the configuration of the storage device 3 in the embodiment shown in FIG.
Three.

Each of these means has the following functions.

The kana notation conversion means 24 converts the input kana character string according to the conversion rules stored in the kana notation conversion rule storage unit 33.

The kana notation conversion rule storage unit 33 stores rules for the kana notation conversion means 24 to convert an input kana character string into a similar kana notation.

Next, the overall operation of the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.

The operations of the input mode determining means 21, the pinyin converting means 23 and the dictionary searching means 22 in this embodiment, which are shown by steps A1-A3 and A5-A8 in FIG.
The operation is the same as that of each of the means 21, 23 and 22 in the embodiment shown in FIG.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, if the input kana character string is not stored in the kana-to-pinyin table storage unit 32, the search is disabled. In this embodiment, in such a case, the kana notation conversion means 24 converts the input kana character string into another similar kana notation based on the conversion rules stored in the kana notation conversion rule storage unit 33 (step B).
1 and B2). If a rule that can convert the input kana character string is stored in the kana notation conversion rule storage unit 33, the kana character string is converted and given to the Pinyin conversion unit 23. On the other hand, if the rule that can convert the input kana character string is not stored in the kana notation conversion rule storage unit 33, the kana notation conversion unit determines that the search is impossible, and outputs a message or the like indicating that the search is impossible to the output device 4. (Step A7).

Next, a specific example will be described.

As shown in FIG. 7, when a character string "Pao" is input, pinyin conversion fails (step A).
3). The kana spelling conversion means 24 converts the input character string "pao" to "pao" using the conversion rule stored in the kana spelling conversion rule storage unit 33, which is "delete if there is a prolonged symbol (-)". To pinyin conversion means 2
3 (steps B1 and B2). The subsequent operation is the same as the operation of the specific example described with reference to FIG.

In the present embodiment, when the conversion of the input kana character string to pinyin fails, the kana character string is converted to pinyin again using the kana character string converted according to a certain rule. For this reason, the kana versus pinyin table storage unit 3
Even if a kana character string that is not stored in 2 is input, the probability that a dictionary search becomes possible is increased, and it is possible to input Chinese in various kana notations without increasing the storage capacity of the storage unit. It has a new effect of being able to.

As can be seen from the above description, the provision of a kana-to-pinyin table storage unit for converting various kana expressions into pinyin by pinyin conversion means and a Chinese dictionary for converting this pinyin to kanji are provided. Compared to preparing a Chinese dictionary that can directly search Chinese from various kana notations, the increase in the total storage capacity can be suppressed much smaller.

[0050]

As can be seen from the above description, the present invention has the following effects.

First, after converting various kana notations into pinyin by the pinyin conversion means, the dictionary storage unit is searched using the converted pinyin, so that various kana notations similar to Chinese pronunciation are searched. In addition to this, there is an effect that the capacity of the dictionary storage unit can be reduced and the search accuracy can be improved.

Second, in the conventional technique, a dictionary in which kana notation corresponding to kanji is registered must be newly created in order to convert kana into kanji, whereas in the present invention, pinyin corresponding to kanji is registered. There is an effect that the existing Chinese dictionary can be used as it is.

Third, in comparison with the case of maintaining a kana-notation Chinese dictionary in the prior art, the present invention only requires maintenance of the kana-to-pinyin table, so that the amount of data is small and maintenance is facilitated. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a kana versus pinyin table storage unit of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of FIG.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the operation of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of FIG.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing the operation of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Input device 2, 5 Data processing device 3, 6 Storage device 4 Output device 21 Input mode determination means 22, 25 Dictionary search means 23 Pinyin conversion means 24 Kana notation conversion means 31, 34 Dictionary storage part 32 Kana to pinyin table storage part 33 Kana notation conversion rule storage

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A Chinese character input device, comprising: a pinyin conversion means for converting an input kana notation into a pinyin corresponding to the kana notation; and a dictionary search means for converting the converted kana notation into a kanji corresponding to the pinyin. A Chinese input device comprising: 2. The Chinese input system according to claim 1, wherein the pinyin conversion means searches for the pinyin stored in a kana-to-pinyin table storage prepared in advance using the kana notation as a key. apparatus. 3. The Chinese input device according to claim 1, wherein the dictionary search means searches the kanji stored in a dictionary storage unit prepared in advance using the pinyin as a key. 4. If the input kana notation is not stored in the kana-to-pinyin table storage unit, the input kana notation is converted into a conversion stored in a kana notation conversion rule storage unit prepared in advance. Kana notation conversion means for converting to another kana notation based on rules, wherein the pinyin conversion means searches for the pinyin stored in the kana-to-pinyin table storage unit using the another kana notation as a key. 3. The Chinese input device according to claim 2, wherein: 5. The Chinese input method according to claim 1, wherein the input kana notation is converted into a pinyin corresponding to the kana notation, and the converted pinyin is converted into a kanji corresponding to the pinyin. input method. 6. In the Chinese input method, a pinyin stored in a kana-to-pinyin table storage unit prepared in advance is searched using the input kana notation as a key, and the searched pinyin is used as a key in advance. A Chinese input method characterized by searching for kanji stored in a prepared dictionary storage unit. 7. If the input kana notation is not stored in the kana-to-pinyin table storage unit, the input kana notation is converted into a conversion stored in a previously prepared kana notation conversion rule storage unit. 7. The Chinese language according to claim 6, wherein the kana is converted into another kana notation based on a rule, and the pinyin stored in the kana-pinyin table storage unit is searched using the converted another kana notation as a key. Word input method.