JPH0844749A - Front end processor with machine translation function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable an optional application program to use the machine translation function by providing the machine translation function. CONSTITUTION:The Japanese characters of an original sentence are inputted through a character input means l. The inputted character string is sent to the front end processor 2 with the translation function. The inputted character string is received by a character processing part 21 in the front end processor 2 with the translation function. The character processing part 21 has a KANA (Japanese syllabary)-KANJI(Chinese character) converting function and converts the input into a KANA-KANJI mixed sentence when it is a Japanese HIRAGANA(cursive form of Japanese syllabary) character string. The character processing part 21 sends the Japanese sentence as the processing result to a translation part 22 in the front end processor 2 with the translating function. The translation part 22 translates the Japanese sentence received from the input processing part 21 into English. The translation result outputted by the translation part 22 is sent to a character display means 4 such as a display device and shown to the user.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a machine translation system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, machine translation systems for translating one language into another have been put into practical use. Early machine translation systems had their own sentence editors, and the translation process only worked on them. However, in the actual translation work, it is often desirable to create the original sentence and modify the translation result in another editor. Therefore, recently, a client / server machine translation system has been put into practical use. In this case, the user first creates the original text using the editor on the client side and sends the original text to the translation server. The translation server sends the translation result to the original editor. The user can modify the translation server results sent to the client-side editor to create the final translation.

[0003]

However, in order to realize the client / server type, it was necessary to modify the editor on the client side so that communication with the translation server could be exchanged. That is,
It was impossible to use the translation function from arbitrary application software without performing special processing one by one.

On the other hand, conventionally, an input means called a front end processor has been put into practical use. The front-end processor can be invoked by any application software and can enter data into that application. Although an arbitrary program can be assigned as the front-end processor, actually the widely used front-end processor is Kana-Kanji conversion software as a Japanese input means for an arbitrary application.

As a natural extension of kana-kanji conversion, a program for outputting a foreign word to a Japanese word input can be easily realized. You can enter Japanese foreign language pairs into the dictionary used for Kana-Kanji conversion. At first glance, it seems that the translation function is realized by the front end type.

However, it is impossible to eliminate the difference in the word order between Japanese and foreign languages by only expanding the dictionary for converting kana to kanji. That is, in the conventional method, the translation function cannot be used from any application program.

An object of the present invention is to provide a software environment in which the translation function can be used from any editor.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a front-end processor as means for starting data from arbitrary application software in a common procedure and inputting data to the application software. It is a front-end processor with a machine translation function characterized by having functions.

[0009]

Since the present invention is a front-end processor, it can be activated from any application program. It also has a machine translation function. That is, according to the present invention, the machine translation function can be used from any application program without modifying each application program.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a character input means such as a keyboard and 2 is a front end with a machine translation function of the present invention.
A processor, 3 is arbitrary application software such as an editor and a word processor, and 4 is a character display means such as a display device. Reference numeral 21 is a character processing unit inside the front-end processor 2 with a translation function, and 22 is a front-end processor 2 with a translation function.
This is the internal translation department.

Next, the operation of the present invention will be described using a specific example.

The machine translation function of the front-end processor of the present invention may process any language pair, but the case of translating Japanese into English will be described below as an example.

When the user wants to use the machine translation function on the application software, the front end processor 2 with the translation function is activated. The front-end processor with a translation function can be activated from any application software by pressing a common means, specifically, a certain common key.

Next, the original Japanese characters are input through the character input means 1. The input character string is transmitted to the front-end processor 2 with a translation function. The input character string is received by the character processing unit 21 inside the front-end processor 2 with a translation function. Character processing unit 21
Has a kana-kanji conversion function, and when the input is a Japanese hiragana character string, it is converted to a kana-kanji mixed sentence.
The character processing unit 21 transmits the Japanese sentence as a processing result to the translation unit 22 inside the front-end processor 2 with a translation function. The translation unit 22 translates the Japanese sentence received from the input processing unit 21 into English. The core translation unit of the existing machine translation system can be used as the translation unit 22. The translation result output from the translation unit 22 is transmitted to the character display means 4 such as a display device and presented to the user.

At this stage, when the user performs a finalizing operation for the front-end processor 2 with a translation function,
The translated text of the processing result is transmitted and input to the application software that is the activation source of the front-end processor.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the operation of the front-end processor 2 by way of example. FIG. 2A shows an example in which a Japanese hiragana character string is input from the character input means. The character processing unit 21 receives this hiragana character string and converts it into a kana-kanji mixed sentence as shown in FIG. This Japanese sentence mixed with Kana and Kanji is sent to the translation unit 22 and translated there to obtain the English sentence of FIG. 2 (c).

The example of the basic operation of the translation unit 22 of the present invention has been described with reference to FIG. 2. The function of the translation unit 22 is described in Japanese Patent Application No. 5-22396 "Word Processor with Translation Function". As described above, a method of presenting the intermediate result of the translation to the user and selecting and designating the translated word for each independent word of the input sentence may be added. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the operation in that case. The translation unit 22, which has received the Japanese sentence shown in FIG. 3A, morphologically analyzes this Japanese sentence,
An independent word may be certified, a translation dictionary may be drawn for the certified independent word portion, and the independent word portion of the original Japanese sentence may be replaced with the English word obtained as a result of the dictionary display. FIG. 3B is a display example in which the independent word portion of FIG. 4C is replaced with an English word. At this stage, the user can also select another translation candidate for each independent word. For example, for Japanese "university", "college""u"
When there are at least two candidate translations for “neverity”, the user can select an appropriate translation at this stage. FIG. 3D shows an example of the translation result of the translation unit 22. In this case, the translation result in which the translation designation for the independent word of the original sentence shown in FIG. 3C is reflected is obtained.

The character processing unit 21 inside the front-end processor 2 with a translation function may have a function of performing post-editing after translation. The user can then modify the translation results obtained. For example, when it is desired to correct the indefinite article "a" to the definite article "the" in the translation result of FIG. 3D, the character processing unit 21 receives the user's input from the character input unit 1 and outputs the character string "a". Should be deleted, and the character string "the" should be inserted in the place where it was.

Next, the difference between the technique of expanding the dictionary of the kana-kanji conversion software used in the conventional front-end processor to the Japanese foreign language dictionary and the difference between the present invention will be described using an example.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an operation example of a technique in which a dictionary of Kana-Kanji conversion software used in a conventional front-end processor is extended to a Japanese foreign language dictionary. FIG. 4A shows a Japanese kana character string input from the kana-kanji conversion software. If the dictionary is expanded to a Kana English dictionary, and ancillary words such as Japanese particles and auxiliary verbs are removed, an English word string as shown in FIG. 4B can be obtained. However, since the conventional front-end processor did not have the function of processing the difference in the word order between Japanese and foreign languages, it is not possible to correct Fig. 4 (b) on the front-end processor. There wasn't. The biggest difference between the present invention and a conventional kana-kanji conversion program is that the present invention is a program having a function of processing a difference in word order between Japanese and foreign languages.

[0022]

According to the present invention, the conventional client
The man-hours required to incorporate the machine translation function into the editor, which was necessary for the server-based translation mechanism, are unnecessary. The translation function can be activated and used by a common procedure from any editor, word processor, etc. that the user is familiar with, without modifying application software such as individual editors, word processors, etc.

Further, according to the present invention, unlike the case where the dictionary of the conventional Kana-Kanji conversion front-end processor is simply replaced by a Japanese foreign language dictionary to operate, word order conversion for processing a difference in word order between languages is performed. Because it has a function,
The conversion from one language to another can be done efficiently.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a stage immediately before a translation function operates and a translation result in the front-end processor with a machine translation function of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an intermediate stage display of a translation process of a front-end processor with a machine translation function of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an operation example of a technique in which a dictionary of conventional Kana-Kanji conversion software is extended to a Japanese foreign language dictionary.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 character input means 2 front-end processor with machine translation function 3 application software 4 character display means 21 character processing section inside front-end processor 2 with translation function 22 translation section inside front-end processor 2 with translation function

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An arbitrary application software is activated by a common procedure to execute the application
A front-end processor with a machine translation function, which is a front-end processor as a means for inputting data to software and has a machine translation function.