JPH09146959A - Machine translation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a foreign language to be converted into a proper Japanese expression by putting simile expression parts together in one and determining a corresponding translation when an 'as'-pair sentence structure is in simile expression. SOLUTION: A morpheme analysis part 2 performs a process for dividing an English sentence read in by an input part 1 into words and giving information on parts of speech, usage, equivalents, etc., of the divided words by using a morpheme analytic dictionary 3. A simile process part 4 performs a process for determining the usage and equivalents of the simile expression of the as ...as sentence structure on the basis of the morpheme analytic dictionary 3 by using a simile reference table 5. A conversion part 8 converts the English sentence into a Japanese sentence by using a conversion dictionary 9. A generation part 10 performs a process for determining words of Japanese to be generated, conjugation styles, and word order by using a generation dictionary 11. Further, a morpheme generation part 12 shapes the words into a natural Japanese sentence by using a morpheme generation dictionary 13. An output part 14 outputs the sentence.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a machine translation system for automatically translating an input English sentence into an appropriate Japanese sentence and outputting it.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Machine translation systems for automatically translating a large amount of documents by an information processing device are used in various fields. In such a machine translation system, a translation method that takes into account the peculiar usage of the language to be translated is adopted. For example, in English sentences, so-called comparative structure sentences using as ... as are often used. The following technologies have been introduced in order to efficiently translate this part (reference name)
"Examination of English-Japanese machine translation processing using characteristics of comparative structure
Pp. 31-38 "). Here, the characteristic of the common term sandwiched between the as pairs of the as ... as syntax is extracted. Furthermore, the left side range and the right side range of the as ... as syntax are determined, and the base structure of the right side structure is restored by making use of the characteristics of the comparison structure of the as ... as syntax.
In this way, the meaning is grasped by structural analysis depending on the syntactic structure of the as ... as syntax.

[0003]

The conventional machine translation system as described above has the following problems to be solved. In English sentences, the synonymous expression "like a ~" is often used by using as pairs in the same form as the as ... as syntax. However, in the conventional system, for example,
In the case of "Heis as busy as bee.", It becomes "He is busy as the bees are busy." Correctly, it is preferably translated as "He is busy like a bee."

On the other hand, in addition to this, there is a so-called idiomatic expression that is idiomatically used in the expression of as ... as syntax.
The conventional system cannot always sufficiently cope with an expression having a usage similar to the idiomatic expression. For example, when the English sentence “They have as much fun as usual.” Is given, a translation such as “They have as much fun as usual.” Is output. It should be something like "They enjoy themselves as they always do."

[0005]

The present invention employs the following structure to solve the above problems. <Structure 1> In a system that analyzes an input English sentence and automatically translates it into a Japanese sentence and outputs it, a morphological analyzer that analyzes the syntax of the input English sentence and an as pair used for the English sentence are used. Among the syntaxes, the ones that correspond to the simile expression are the common phrase between the as pair, the right side phrase immediately after the as pair, and the part of speech and usage when the metaphor expression part is seen as a unit. A metaphorical reference table that associates additional information including translations, detects the as-pair syntax in the input English sentence, and the common phrase between the as-pair and the right-hand phrase immediately after the as-pair. Refer to the simile reference table using
When the as-pair syntax is a metaphorical expression, the metaphorical expression part is integrated and a metaphorical processing part for determining a corresponding translation is provided.

<Explanation> An as pair is a part of an English sentence that uses the as ... as syntax. What is sandwiched between as pairs?
Refers to the phrase that is sandwiched between the first and the subsequent as. The morphological analysis unit has at least a function of dividing words and adding vocabulary information. The metaphorical expression is an expression that should be translated as "as in ~", unlike the general usage of as pairs. The parts of speech and translations when looking at the metaphorical expression part as a group are made into a table, and the table is referred to. It is better to handle the metaphorical expression part collectively and translate it like one word. Moreover, it is effective.

<Structure 2> In a system that analyzes an input English sentence and automatically translates it into a Japanese sentence and outputs it, a morphological analyzer that analyzes the syntax of the input English sentence and an as pair used for the English sentence. Among the syntaxes using, the idiomatic expressions are the left-hand phrase immediately before the as-pair, the common clause phrase between the as-pair, and the right-hand phrase immediately after the as-pair, and their idiomatic expressions. An expression table that associates a range of words and phrases that function in the sentence of an expression with a part of speech when the idiomatic expression part is viewed as a unit, and additional information including usage and translation, and as in the input English sentence. The pair syntax is detected, and the phrase on the left side immediately before the as pair, the common phrase between the as pair and the phrase on the right side immediately after the as pair are used as key items to refer to the idiomatic expression table. , If the as-pair syntax is an idiom, collect the idiom part To, and a conventional expression process unit that determines a translation corresponding.

<Explanation> An idiomatic expression is an expression part that is completely different from an expression using a general as pair even if an as pair is used, by accommodating a specific phrase. This idiom also includes expressions with usages similar to the idiom. For the translation of such expressions, using an idiomatic expression table, we detect what appears with a specific phrase together with an as pair, using the specific phrase appearing at a specific position of the as pair as a clue, The expression was treated like a single word and translated.

<Structure 3> The as-pair syntax in the input English sentence is detected, and the left-side phrase immediately before the as-pair, the common-term phrase between the as-pair, and the right-side immediately after the as-pair are detected. Is used as a key item to refer to the metaphorical reference table and the idiom table, and if the as-pair syntax is a metaphorical expression, the metaphorical expression part is grouped and the as-pair syntax is In this case, the as-idiomatic expression processing unit that determines the corresponding translation by grouping the idiomatic expressions is provided.

<Explanation> In the configurations 1 and 2, both the simile expression and the idiomatic expression are processed in association with the detection of the as-paired expression. Therefore,
The as-conventional expression processing unit, which has the functions of configurations 1 and 2 at the same time, is provided to enable simultaneous processing.

<Structure 4> In an apparatus that analyzes an input English sentence, automatically translates it into another language, and outputs it, a morphological analysis unit that analyzes the syntax of the input English sentence and a correlation used for the English sentence. When the syntax using a conjunction is viewed as a set of adjacent words and phrases identified for each correlated connective, the range of words and phrases that function within the sentence that includes the correlated connective, and the expression part that includes the correlated connective. A correlation conjunction expression table in which the part of speech, the usage, and the additional information including the translation are associated with each other,
Detects the syntax using the correlation conjunction in the input English sentence, refers to the correlation conjunction expression table using the adjacent words specified for each correlation conjunction as key items, and in the case of the syntax using the correlation conjunction, , And a correlation conjunction processing unit that determines the corresponding translation by grouping the portions together.

<Explanation> Not only as pairs, but in English sentences, so
A as B, more A than B, less A than B, such A th
There are some idiomatic expressions that use correlation connectives, such as an B, rather than A, B, not only A but B .... In such a syntax, in any case, a certain translation is determined in relation to a certain phrase close to the correlation conjunction.
Therefore, we applied the same method to the correlative connective as the syntax including the as pair. In addition, translation from English to Japanese as well as other languages can be handled in the same way. Therefore, this structure is adapted to be translated into other languages than English.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to specific examples. <First Embodiment> FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the system according to the present invention.
It is a block diagram regarding. The system shown in FIG.
A morpheme analysis unit 2, a morpheme analysis dictionary 3, a metaphor processing unit 4, a metaphor reference table 5, an analysis unit 6, an analysis dictionary 7, a conversion unit 8, a conversion dictionary 9, and a generation unit 10. , The generation dictionary 11, the morpheme generation unit 12, and the morpheme generation dictionary 13
And an output unit 14.

The input unit 1 reads an English sentence to be translated.
The morphological analysis unit 2 divides the read English sentence using the morphological analysis dictionary 3 and the part of speech of the divided word,
Performs processing to add information such as usage and translation. Metaphor processing unit 4
Performs the process of determining the usage and translation of the metaphorical expression in the as ... as syntax using the metaphorical reference table 5 based on the morphological analysis result. The metaphorical expression of the as… as syntax is expressed by the relationship between the common phrase between the as pair and the right-hand phrase behind the as pair. Therefore, using these two phrases as a clue, we automatically select the expression that represents the metaphor from the as ... as syntax, and convert only the metaphor expression part into a group so that it can be easily handled in the subsequent processing process. . Metaphor processing unit 4
Does the processing. In addition, this simile reference table 5
Stores in the key item the phrase of the common term between the as pair and the phrase on the right side behind the as pair of the as ... as syntax used as a simile expression, and associates it with this key item, Additional information such as a part of speech, a usage, and a translation, which is added when the simulative expression part is handled as a unit, is stored in the additional information item.

The analysis unit 6 analyzes the syntax using the analysis dictionary 7 based on the morpheme analysis result and the simile processing result.
The conversion unit 8 converts an English sentence into a Japanese sentence using the conversion dictionary 9 based on the analysis result. The generation unit 10 performs a process of determining a Japanese word to be generated, a usage form, and its word order using the generation dictionary 11 based on the conversion result. Morphological generator 1
2 uses the morpheme generation dictionary 13 to prepare the shape as a natural sentence in Japanese based on the generation result. The output unit 14 outputs the prepared sentence.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of the above-mentioned metaphor reference table 5. The metaphor reference table 5 is a key item 51 that stores information that is a key when searching.
And the additional information item 52 that stores the information that is associated with the key item and is assigned when the key item matches the key item. The key item 51 stores a common term 53 that stores a key term of a common term sandwiched between as pairs in the as ... as syntax and a key term of a right side behind the as pair. It is composed of the right side 54. The additional information item 52 is information to be added when the phrase matched with the key item and stored in the key item is matched, and stores the part of speech, usage, and translation information.
It is composed of a usage field 56 and a translation field 57. For example, “busy” exists in the column of the common item 53 of the key item 51 and “bee” exists in the column of the right side 54, and the corresponding information item 52 has “adjective” in the column of the part of speech 55 and usage. In the column of 56, "description" is described, and in the column of translation 57, "busy like a bee" is described.

<Operation of Concrete Example 1> FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the system of Concrete Example 1. The operation of the metaphor processing unit 4 which processes the metaphor expression of the as ... as syntax will be described with reference to this figure. Step S1: When the input English sentence includes as ... as, the phrase of the common term between this English sentence and the as pair, and
Extract the word on the right side after the as pair. For example, when the input English sentence is "He is as busy as bee.", "Busy" is extracted as the common phrase and "bee" is extracted as the right phrase. Step S2: The metaphor reference table 5 is searched by using the common phrase and the right phrase, which are the data extracted in step S1, as keys. For example, the metaphor reference table 5 is searched using the common phrase "busy" and the right phrase "bee" extracted in the English sentence as keys.

Step S3: By searching the metaphor reference table 5, it is determined whether or not there is an additional information item. If there is no additional information item as a result of this determination, the simile expression process ends. If the additional information item exists, the additional information is obtained from the corresponding additional information item. For example, part of speech "adjective",
You will get the additional information that the usage is "description" and the translation is "busy like a bee". Step S4: The as-pair of the result of the morphological analysis, the common phrase between the as-pair, and the phrase on the right side after the as-pair are collectively converted into one node. For example, in the English sentence “He isas busy as bee.”, The structure of “He is [as_busy_as_bee].” Is obtained by collectively converting the as pair, the common phrase, and the right-side phrase into one node. To do.

Step S5: The additional information extracted in step S3 is added to the nodes collected in step S4. For example, in the node "[as_busy_as_bee]" that was collected in step 4 above, the added information that the part of speech "adjective", usage "description", and translation "busy like a bee" obtained in step S3 Is given. With this, the processing by the metaphor processing unit 4 is completed, the metaphor expression parts are treated as a group, and then the analysis unit 6, the conversion unit 8, the generation unit 10, and the morpheme generation unit 12 proceed, and finally the English sentence “ He is as
The Japanese sentence for "busy as bee.""He is busy like a bee." In the above example, the metaphor processing unit 4 and the metaphor reference table 5 serve as a mechanism for processing the metaphor expression.
As described above, by adding or deleting the metaphor data to the metaphor reference table 5, it is possible to process the metaphor expression desired by the user.

<Effects of Concrete Example 1> The machine translation system according to Concrete Example 1 has a common term that is sandwiched between as pairs, which is a metaphorical expression, in particular for a metaphorical expression in the as ... as syntax of English sentences. The phrase on the right side behind the phrase and the as pair is stored as a key item, and the part-of-speech, usage, and translation addition information that is added when the metaphor expression part is grouped together by associating with this key item Using the stored metaphor reference table, a metaphor processing unit that automatically selects an expression that represents a metaphor from the as… as syntax and converts only the metaphor expression part into a group is provided. There is. Moreover, since only the metaphorical expression part is converted into a group, the metaphorical expression can be easily handled like general adjectives and adverbs in the subsequent processing.

By providing this metaphor processing unit, an expression representing a metaphor is automatically selected from the as ... as syntax and only the metaphor expression part is converted into a group. The effect of being able to reliably convert the Japanese metaphor expression "similar to ...", which is expressed as a form similar to the as ... as syntax, can be obtained.

<Second Embodiment> FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the system according to the present invention. This system includes a metaphor processing unit 4 and a metaphor reference table 5 shown in FIG.
Are replaced by an idiomatic expression processing unit 19 and an idiomatic expression reference table 20, respectively. The input unit 1 reads an English sentence to be translated. The morpheme analysis unit 2 performs a process of dividing a word into a read English sentence using the morpheme analysis dictionary 3 and adding information such as part of speech, usage, and translation of the divided word. The idiomatic expression processing unit 19 uses the idiomatic expression reference table 20 based on the morphological analysis result to perform the process of determining the usage and translation of the idiomatic expression of the as ... as syntax or the expression having the usage similar to the idiomatic expression.

An idiom of the as ... as construct or an expression having a usage similar to an idiom appears with an as pair with a particular phrase at a specific position, and a plurality of related phrases are conveniently used in a sentence. Is functioning as. Therefore, by using a specific word or phrase that appears at a specific position in an as pair as a clue, an idiomatic expression of the as… as syntax or an expression having a usage similar to the idiomatic expression is automatically selected, and the related parts are grouped together. Convert it so that it can be easily handled in the later processing steps. The idiomatic expression processing unit 19 performs the processing. The idiomatic expression reference table 5 is used for the expression of the idiomatic expression of the as ... as syntax or an expression having a usage similar to the idiomatic expression, the phrase on the left side immediately before the as pair, the phrase of the common term between the as pair, and as. The right-hand side phrase immediately after the pair is stored in the key item, and further associated with this key item, the range of functioning in the sentence of the idiom of the as… as syntax or the expression having the usage similar to idiom The additional information items, such as the functional range and the usage and translation of the aggregated parts that are added when the parts that function in the sentence are treated as one group, are stored in the additional information item.

The analysis unit 6 analyzes the syntax using the analysis dictionary 7 based on the morphological analysis result and the common expression processing result. The conversion unit 8 converts an English sentence into a Japanese sentence using the conversion dictionary 9 based on the analysis result. The generation unit 10 performs a process of determining a Japanese word to be generated, a usage form, and a word order thereof using the generation dictionary 11 based on the conversion result. The morpheme generation unit 12 uses the morpheme generation dictionary 1 based on the generation result.
Use 3 to arrange the shape as a natural sentence in Japanese. The output unit 14 outputs the prepared sentence.

FIG. 5 shows the conventional expression reference table 2 described above.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of a zero. The idiomatic expression reference table 20 is provided with a key item 21 that stores information that is a key for a search, and information that is associated with the key item and that is provided when the key item matches. It is composed of information items 22. The key item 21 is composed of a left-side phrase 23, a common-term phrase 24, and a right-side phrase 25. The left-side phrase 23 stores the key phrase on the left-hand side immediately before the as pair in the as ... as syntax. The common term phrase 24 stores a key phrase of the common item sandwiched between the as pairs in the as ... as syntax. The right-side phrase 25 stores the key phrase on the right side immediately after the as pair in the as ... as syntax. When the constituent words of the left-hand side phrase 23 and the right-hand side phrase 25 are nouns, verbs, auxiliary verbs, etc., changes in the words or endings due to plural nouns, the subject of the verb becomes the third person,
"()" For a phrase that changes its form by utilizing the changes in the words or endings due to the past or completion of the tense, or the changes in the words or phrases due to the past tense of the auxiliary verb Is added to indicate that the key item can be collated even if the form changes.

If no particular word is specified in the word field, leave it blank. The additional information item 22 is
Information associated with the key item 21 and stored when the condition stored in the key item 21 is met is stored, and is composed of a functional range 26, a usage 27, and a translation 28. The functional range 26 corresponds to the left-side phrase, common-term phrase, and right-side phrase of the key item, which corresponds to the range of functions in the sentence of the idiomatic expression of the as ... as syntax or the expression having the usage similar to the idiomatic expression, and only the left side If it works on the left, it works on the common side only, it works on the right side only, it works on the right side only, if it works on the left side and the common field it works on the left + co, on the common side and the right side In the case, it is described by the abbreviations “co + right”, and when it functions on the left side and the common item and the right side, they are described and stored as abbreviations “left + co + right”. The usage 27 stores the function in the sentence when the parts described in the function range are treated as a group. The translation 28 stores the translation when the portions described in the functional range are handled as a group.

For example, in the information of the "as ... as usual" idiomatic expression reference table, the left side word / phrase 23 column of the key item 21 is blank, the common term word / phrase 24 column is blank, and the right side word / phrase 25 column is "usual". Is stored in each of the corresponding additional information items 22, and the corresponding right information item 22 has “right” in the column of the functional range 26 and the usage 2
"Adverb" is stored in column 7 and "as usual" is stored in column 28 for translation. Also, for example, "as soon
In the information of the idiom reference table of "as possible", the left-side phrase 23 of the key item 21 is blank, the common-term phrase 24 is "soon", and the right-side phrase 25 is "possible". In the additional information item 22 corresponding to this, “co + right” is stored in the function range 26 column, “adverb” in the usage 27 column, and “as soon as possible” in the translation 28 column.

Further, for example, in the information of the idiomatic expression reference table of "as soon as", the column of the left side phrase 23 of the key item 21 is blank, the column of the common term phrase 24 is "soon", the right side phrase 25.
In the column of "No.", a blank is stored.
“Subordinate conjunction” is stored in the column 7 and “togoku” is stored in the translation 28 column. Also, for example, “as… as can be
In the information of the idiomatic expression reference table of ", the column of the left-side phrase 23 of the key item 21 is blank, the column of the common-term phrase 24 is blank,
In the right-hand side phrase 25, "(can) (be)" is stored, and the corresponding additional information item 22 has a function range 2
“Right” is stored in the column of 6, “adverb” is stored in the column of the usage 27, and “nothing is better” in the column of the translation 28. Here, in the description of “(can) (be)” in the right-hand side phrase 25, “()”
Regarding the words with "", it is used to respond to the case where the word is used because the third person has come to the subject of the word and it is attached, or when the tense is past or completed, and it changes. In this example, “(can)” can be changed to “could”, and “(be)” can be changed to “is”, “are”, and “am”.

<Operation of Concrete Example 2> FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart of the system of Concrete Example 2. The operation of the idiomatic expression processing unit 19 which processes idiomatic expressions of the as ... as syntax or expressions having a usage similar to the idiomatic expressions will be described with reference to this figure. Step S1: When the input English sentence includes as ... as, the phrase on the left side to the left of the as pair from this sentence, the phrase of the common item between the as pair, and the phrase on the right side to the right of the as pair To extract.

Step S2: The left side, the common term, and the right side extracted in step S1 are used as keys to collate with the conventional expression reference table 20. At this time, the words on the left side and the words on the right side may be deformed by using the words. Therefore, in this case, the words on the left side and the words on the right side are converted to (original form) and collated. Step S3: The presence or absence of data in the idiomatic expression reference table 20 is determined by the collation in step S2. According to this determination, if the retrieved data does not exist, the idiomatic expression processing ends. If the data exists, the additional information is obtained from the corresponding additional information item 22.

Step S4: In the additional information obtained from the additional information item 22, the information of the functional range 26 is checked, and the structure is summarized in this functional range. Step S5: The information of the usage 27 and the translation 28 of the additional information item 22 is added to the functional unit summarized in step S4.
With this, the processing of the idiomatic expression processing unit 19 is finished, and in the idiomatic expression of the as ... as syntax or an expression having a usage similar to the idiomatic expression, the parts that specially function as the idiomatic expression are collectively handled as a group. Is possible. After that, the analysis unit 6, the conversion unit 8, the generation unit 10, and the morpheme generation unit 12 proceed to generate a Japanese sentence.

<Processing of Example Sentence> Hereinafter, an example of the operation of the idiomatic expression processing unit will be described with reference to an example sentence. For example, “as… as usu” has a usage similar to the idiomatic expression of the input English sentence.
“They have as much fun as usual.” including the expression “al”
In this case, in step S1 of FIG. 6, “have” is extracted as the left-side phrase, “much fun” is extracted as the common-term phrase, and “usual” is extracted as the right-side phrase. Next, step S2
Idiomatic expression reference table 20 using the words and phrases extracted in
To match. Key left-side phrases, common clause phrases, and right-side phrases are “have”, “much fun”, and “usual”. By this collation, the idiomatic expression reference table 20 in which the left-side phrase, common-term phrase, and right-side phrase are “”, “”, and “usual”
Data is retrieved by collation.

Next, in step S3, it is determined whether or not there is data in the conventional expression reference table 20. In this case, since the searched data exists, the additional information item corresponding to the additional information item 22 is “right” from the functional range 26 of the additional information item 22, the usage 27 is “adverb”, and the translation 28 is “same as usual”. So that each is extracted. Next, step S
The information of the functional range 26 of the additional information item 22 extracted in 4 is checked, and the structure is summarized in this functional range. In this example, the information on the functional range 26 of the additional information item 22 is “right”.
Therefore, the input English sentence of “They have as much fun as usual.” Is “they have as much fun [as as usual].”
Becomes

Next, in step S5, the information of the translation 28 is added to the function unit grouped into the function range by the usage of the additional information item 22. In this example, [as as us] obtained in step S4
The information "adverb" of the usage 27 and the information "same as usual" of the translation 28 of the additional information item 22 obtained in step S3 are added to the functional unit "ualual". This completes the idiomatic expression processing part, and in the "as as usual" expression that has a usage similar to the idiomatic expression of the as ... as syntax, the parts that specially function as idiomatic expressions can be easily handled as a group. After that, the analysis unit 6, the conversion unit 8, and the generation unit 1 will become available.
0, the process proceeds to the morpheme generator 12, and finally the English sentence "Th
You can get the Japanese sentence "They enjoy as much fun as usual."

Further, for example, "He came as including the expression" as soon as possible "in which the input English sentence is an idiomatic expression
If "as soon as possible.", in step S1, the word on the left side is "came", the word on the common item is "soon",
"Possible" is extracted as the phrase on the right side. Next, the idiomatic expression reference table 20 is collated with the phrase extracted in step S2 as a key. The word on the left side is converted to the original form and becomes “(come)”, and the key word on the left side, common term,
The right-hand side words are "(come)", "soon", and "possible". By this collation, the left-side phrase, common-term phrase, and right-side phrase are searched by collating the data in the idiom reference table of "", "soon", and "possible". Next, step S
In 3, it is determined whether or not there is data in the idiomatic expression reference table.

In this case, since the retrieved data exists, the corresponding additional information item is added information as “additional + right” from the functional range 26 of the additional information item 22 and usage 27.
To "adverb" and translation 28 to "as soon as possible". Next, the information of the functional range 26 of the additional information item 22 extracted in step S4 is checked, and the structure is put together in this functional range. In this example, the information of the functional range 26 of the additional information item 22 is “Co + Right”, so “He c
The input English sentence of "ame as soon as possible." is "Hecame [a
s soon as possible]. ”Next, step S
Information of usage 27 and translation 28 of the additional information item 22 is added to the function unit summarized in the function range in 5.

In this example, [as soo] obtained in step S4
information “adverb” of the usage 27 of the additional information item 22 obtained in step S3 and a translation 2
The information “8 as soon as possible” is given. This ends the idiomatic expression processing part, and in the idiomatic expression of the as ... as syntax,
The parts that function specially as an idiomatic expression can be easily handled as a single unit.
The process proceeds to the generation unit and the morpheme generation unit, and finally the English sentence "He
Japanese sentence for "came as soon as possible."
Came as soon as possible Is obtained.

In addition, "He went out as soon as he including the expression" as soon as "in which the input English sentence is an idiomatic expression
In the case of “saw me.”, in step S1, “out” is extracted as the left-side phrase, “soon” is extracted as the common phrase, and “he” is extracted as the right-side phrase. Next, the phrase extracted in step S2. Is used as a key to collate the idiomatic expression reference table 20. The left-side phrases, common-term phrases, and right-side phrases that are keys are "out", "soon", and "he". , The right-hand side word is “”, “soo
Data in the idiomatic expression reference table of "n" and "" are retrieved by collation.Next, in step S3, it is determined whether or not there is data in the idiomatic expression reference table.

In this case, since the retrieved data exists, the corresponding additional information item is added information as "additional information" from the functional range 26 of the additional information item 22, usage 27 to "subordinate conjunction", translation 28. Extract "as soon as" respectively. Next, the additional information item 2 extracted in step S4
The information of the function range 26 of 2 is checked, and the structure is put together in this function range. In this example, the information of the functional range 26 of the additional information item 22 is “shared”, so “He went out”
"as soon as he saw me."
[As soon as] he saw me. ”Next, in step S5, the additional information items 22 are added to the functional units summarized in the functional range.
The information of usage 27 and translation 28 is added.

In this example, [as soo] obtained in step S4
The information “subordinate conjunction” of the usage 27 of the additional information item 22 obtained in step S3 and the information “immediately” of the translation 28 are added to the functional unit “n as”. With this, the idiomatic expression processing unit is terminated, and in the idiomatic expression of the as ... as syntax, the parts that specially function as the idiomatic expression can be easily handled as a single unit. , The morpheme generator, and finally the English sentence “He went out
You will get the Japanese sentence "as soon as he saw me.""He immediately went out when he saw me."

In addition, "I am as tired as can b" includes the expression "as as can be" which is an idiomatic expression in the input English sentence.
In the case of "e.", in step S1, the word on the left side is "a.
"m", "tired" as a common phrase, and "can" as a right phrase are extracted. Next, the conventional expression reference table is checked using the phrase extracted in step S2 as a key.
The word on the left side is converted to the original form and becomes “(be)”, and the key words on the left side, common terms, and right side are “(be)” and “tire”.
d ”,“ can ”. By this collation, the data of the idiomatic expression reference table in which the left-side phrase, common-term phrase, and right-side phrase are“ ”,“ ”, and“ (can) (be) ”are extracted as collation data. However, since there is no "(be)" in the right-side phrase, the phrase after "can" in the right-side phrase of the original sentence is extracted again and the matching process is performed.

In this case, "(be)" is added after "can".
Therefore, matching is performed, and the data in the idiom reference table of “”, “”, and “(can) (be)” is searched for as the matching data. Next, in step 3, it is determined whether or not there is data in the idiomatic expression reference table. In this case, since the searched data exists, the functional range 2 of the additional information item 22 from the corresponding additional information item as additional information.
6 is extracted as "right", usage 27 is extracted as "adverb", and translation 28 is extracted as "nothing". Next, the information of the functional range 26 of the additional information item 22 extracted in step S4 is checked, and the structure is put together in this functional range. In this example,
Since the information of the functional range 26 of the additional information item 22 is “right”, the input English sentence of “I am as tired as can be.” Is “I am tired [as as (can) (be)].” Become.

Next, in step S5, the usage 27 and translation 28 information of the additional information item 22 is added to the functional units that are summarized in the functional range. In this example, [as as
(can) (be)], the information "adverb" of the usage 27 of the additional information item 22 obtained in step S3, and the information "adequate" of the translation 28 are added. With this, the idiomatic expression processing unit is terminated, and in the idiomatic expression of the as ... as syntax or an expression having a usage similar to the idiomatic expression, the parts that specially function as the idiomatic expression can be easily handled as a unit. After that, the analysis section, the conversion section, the generation section, and the morpheme generation section proceed, and finally the English sentence “I am as tired as can b
You can get the Japanese sentence "e."

As a result, it is possible to flexibly manage the operation of an idiomatic expression of the as ... as syntax or an expression having a usage similar to the idiomatic expression. In the above example, the idiomatic expression processing unit and the idiomatic expression reference table are used as the mechanism for processing the idiomatic expression of the as ... as syntax or the expression having the usage similar to the idiomatic expression. By adding, deleting, and editing data, it is possible to process the idiom of the as ... as syntax desired by the user or an expression having a usage similar to the idiom.

<Effects of Concrete Example 2> The machine translation system according to the concrete example 2 described above is particularly effective for the expression having an idiomatic expression of the as ... as syntax or an expression having a usage similar to the idiomatic expression.
The key item is the left-hand side phrase to the left of the as-pair, the common phrase between the as-pair, and the right-hand side phrase to the right of the as-pair for the idiomatic expression of the as syntax or an expression having a usage similar to the idiomatic expression. Stored in the, and further associated with this key item, the functional range indicating the range of functioning in the sentence and the part of functioning in the sentence of the idiom of as ... as syntax or the expression having usage similar to idiom Using the idiomatic expression table that stores the additional information such as usage and translation of the aggregated parts that are added when handled as a unit, use the idiomatic expression of as ... as syntax or a usage similar to idiomatic expression. The expression to be possessed is automatically selected, the related parts are converted into a group, and usage information and translation addition information of this group of parts are added. Also, since the related parts of the idiom or the expression having a usage similar to the idiom of the as ... as syntax are converted into a group, the result can be easily handled in the subsequent processing. And by providing an idiomatic expression processing unit, as ...
Maintenance of an expression having a usage similar to the idiomatic expression of the as syntax on a machine translation system is also simplified, and flexible operation becomes possible.

<Embodiment 3> FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of Embodiment 3 of the system according to the present invention. The system of this figure is provided with an as ... as conventional expression processing unit 30 in which the simile processing unit 4 and the conventional expression processing unit 19 of the first and second specific examples are integrated. The other configurations are the same as those in the first and second specific examples, and a duplicate description will be omitted.

FIG. 8 shows the as ... as generalized expression processing unit 3
0 shows a block diagram. That is, here, the simile expression processing unit 31, the simulant expression reference table 32, and the conventional expression processing unit 3
3. An idiomatic expression reference table 34 is integrally provided. That is, as in this specific example,
A translation system that can flexibly deal with various expressions can be configured by additionally having a functional block for performing processing relating to as ... as pairs. The operations of the simile expression processing unit 31 and the idiomatic expression processing unit 33 are exactly the same as those explained in the concrete example 1 or the concrete example 2, and the metaphorical expression reference table 32 and the conventional expression reference table 34 are the same as those explained so far. It can be exactly the same.

The present invention is widely applicable not only to the syntax using the as pair as described above, but also to the correlative connective conventionally used in English. For example, so A as B, more
A than B, less A than B, such A than B, rather
Correlative connectives such as A than B, not only A but B, etc. are also 1
Make up the meaning of cohesion. Therefore, it is possible to perform high-quality translation by the same method as in the specific example 2. Also, it is possible to replace Japanese with other languages such as French and Chinese, which enables a wide range of high-quality translations.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a specific example 1 of a system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration example of a metaphor reference table.

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the system of the first specific example.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a specific example 2 of the system according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration example of an idiomatic expression reference table.

FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart of the system of the second specific example.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a specific example 3 of the system according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an as ... as idiomatic expression processing unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 input part 2 morpheme analysis part 3 morpheme analysis dictionary 4 metaphor processing part 5 metaphor reference table 6 analysis part 7 analysis dictionary 8 conversion part 9 conversion dictionary 10 generation part 11 generation dictionary 12 morpheme generation part 13 morpheme generation dictionary 14 output part

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A morphological analysis unit that analyzes the syntax of an input English sentence and uses an as pair that is used for the English sentence, in a system that automatically translates the input English sentence and outputs it after being translated into a Japanese sentence. The syntactic expression that corresponds to the synonymous expression is the common phrase between the as pair and the as
A metaphor reference table that associates the right-hand side phrase immediately after the pair, the part of speech when the metaphorical expression part is viewed as a group, and the additional information including the usage and translation, and the as pair syntax in the input English sentence Is detected, and the common phrase between the as pair and the phrase on the right side immediately after the as pair are used as key items to refer to the simile reference table, and the as
A machine translation system comprising a metaphor processing unit that determines a corresponding translation by grouping the metaphor expressions when the pair syntax is a metaphor expression. 2. A morphological analyzer that analyzes the syntax of an input English sentence and uses an as pair that is used for the English sentence in a sentence that automatically translates the input sentence into Japanese and outputs it. Of the syntax that corresponds to the idiomatic expression, the leftmost phrase immediately before the as pair and the as
The common phrase between the pairs, the right-hand phrase immediately after the as pair, and the range of phrases that work within the sentence of its idiom,
The idiom expression table that associates parts of speech, usages, and additional information including translations when looking at the idiom as a unit, and the as-pair syntax in the input English sentence is detected, and immediately before the as-pair. A phrase on the left side and a phrase of the common clause between as pairs,
The phrase on the right side immediately after the as pair is used as a key item to refer to the idiom table, and if the as pair syntax is an idiom, the idiom parts are grouped together and the corresponding translation is determined. A machine translation system, comprising: 3. The as-pair syntax in the input English sentence is detected, the left-side phrase immediately before the as-pair, the common-term phrase between the as-pair, and the right-side phrase immediately after the as-pair are detected. If and are used as key items, the simile reference table and idiomatic expression table are referenced, and if the as-pair syntax is a metaphor expression, the metaphor expression parts are grouped together and the as-pair syntax is idiomatic expression. 3. The machine translation system according to claim 1, further comprising: an as-idiomatic expression processing unit that determines a corresponding translation by grouping the idiomatic expressions. 4. A morphological analysis unit that analyzes the syntax of an input English sentence and a correlation connective used in the English sentence, in a system that analyzes the input English sentence and automatically translates it into another language and outputs it. Part of speech when the syntax used is viewed as a set of adjacent words and phrases that are identified for each correlation connective, the range of words and phrases that function within the sentence that includes the correlation connective, and the expression part that includes the correlation connective. And the correlation conjunction expression table that associates additional information including usage and translation, and the syntax that uses the correlation conjunction in the input English sentence is detected, and the adjacent words and phrases identified for each correlation conjunction are used as key items. The correlation connective expression table, and in the case of a syntax that uses a correlative connective, a correlation connective processing unit that determines the corresponding translation by grouping the parts together is provided. Machine translation system.