JPH08272801A - Method and device for supporting translation - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To present the translation word group of words and phrases in a document which a user desires to know and further to select a translation word used for machine translation from the translation word group by th intention of the user. CONSTITUTION: When the document to be the object of machine translation is inputted by an input part 1 and the optional word and phrase in the document are specified from the input part 1 corresponding to the operation of te user while it is displayed at an output part 2, a control part 5 retrieves a dictionary storage part 3 by the specified word and phrase, extracts the corresponding translation word group and displays it at the output part 2. In the state, when the optional translation word in the translation word group is selected and specified from the input part 1 corresponding to the operation of the user, the control part 5 receives the selection of the specification of an application range from the input part 1 corresponding to the operation of the user for the specified translation word, generates translation information composed of the word and phrase specified by the user, the translation word and the received application range and records it in a translation information storage part 4 and it is given priority to the translation words registered in the dictionary storage part 3 and used within the application range at the time of the machine translation.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a translation support method and apparatus for supporting machine translation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various systems (machine translation systems) for mechanically translating between different languages using computer systems have been developed. By using this type of system, when a character string in one language is input, a character string having the same meaning in another language can be obtained. When performing such machine translation, a dictionary that stores words, phrases, sentences, etc. in one language and translated words in another language corresponding thereto is used.

By the way, in this type of system, there is a problem in terms of accuracy in translating completely mechanically. For this reason,
Before being translated by human beings, pre-processing such as unifying the notation was performed in advance, or selection / correction was performed even after being translated.

[0004]

As described above, a system for mechanically translating between different languages has conventionally required human support. If human intervention is required, it is desirable to build a system that presupposes human intervention, but it is necessary for humans to give instructions to machines in advance, or to use human-based translation for machine translation. It was not considered so much in the past.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a translation support method and apparatus capable of presenting to a user a translation group of words and phrases in a document that the user wants to know. To do.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a translation support method and apparatus which allows a user to select a translation word to be used for machine translation from a translation word group presented to the user.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a translation support method and apparatus that not only allows a user to select a translation word to be used for machine translation from a translation word group presented to the user, but also specify an application range of the translation word. To provide.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, in a state where an arbitrary document is displayed, a word designating input from an inputting unit according to a user's input operation for designating an arbitrary phrase in the document is accepted. , When accepting this phrase specification input,
From the information stored as a set of a large number of phrases and the corresponding translations of another language, search for the translations of the accepted specified phrases, and then use the translations obtained by this search by the user. It is characterized by being presented to.

The present invention is also for indicating an arbitrary translated word in the translated word group or a new translated word that is not in the translated word group, while presenting the translated word group obtained by the search to the user. , Accepts translation word designation input from input means according to the user's input operation, and at the time of accepting this translation word designation input, generates information that combines the corresponding designated phrase and the accepted translation word, and uses it preferentially for machine translation. It is also characterized in that it is done.

Further, the present invention, when accepting a translation word designated by a user, also accepts an application range designating input from an input means in accordance with a user's input operation for designating an application range of the designated translation word. It is also characterized in that, when a range designation input is accepted, information is generated by combining a corresponding designated phrase, a designated translated word, and a received applicable range, and is used preferentially for machine translation within the range. .

[0010]

In the above structure, since the translation word group of the word or phrase (phrase) in the document designated by the user is presented to the user, the user can make a note in the document before subjecting the document to machine translation. The translation of the phrase can be automatically obtained.

In addition, the user can specify in advance the appropriate translated word to be used for translation from the presented translated word group, and if there is no appropriate translated word in the translated word group, , The user can input the translated words that he / she thinks appropriate, and since the translated words designated by the user are preferentially used in the machine translation, the accuracy of the machine translation and the efficiency of the translation work are substantially improved. Is possible.

Further, in the above configuration, the range of application of the translation word designated in advance by the user's intention (for example, only the phrase at the specified position in the document, only one sentence including the phrase at the specified position in the document, Since the user can also specify only the paragraph including the phrase at the specified position, the full text of the specified document, etc., it is possible to further improve the accuracy of the machine translation and the efficiency of the translation work.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The translation support device shown in FIG. 1 includes an input unit 1, an output unit 2, a dictionary storage unit 3, a translation information storage unit 4, and a control unit 5.

The input unit 1 converts the input into a signal and sends it to the control unit 4, and is, for example, a keyboard, a mouse or the like. Besides, the input unit 1 can also be realized by using a data receiving function via a communication line or another medium.

The output unit 2 is, for example, a CRT display or a flat panel display, which receives an output signal from the control unit 4 and outputs it on a screen display or the like.

The dictionary storage unit 3 stores a certain language (eg English).
This is for storing the dictionary in which the word (word or phrase) and the corresponding word group of another language (for example, Japanese) corresponding thereto are registered as a set. An example of the dictionary stored in the dictionary storage unit 3 is shown in FIG.

The translation information storage unit 4 is used to store, as translation information, a set of words and phrases designated by the user through the input unit 1, corresponding translation words, and an applicable range of the translation words. An example of the translation information stored in the translation information storage unit 4 is shown in FIG.

The control unit 5 receives an input from the input unit 1,
The processing according to it is performed, and the processing result is output from the output unit 2. For example, when a user designates a certain phrase through the input unit 1, the control unit 5 searches the dictionary storage unit 3, extracts a corresponding translated word group, and causes the output unit 2 to output it. Further, when the user selects and designates an arbitrary translated word from the translated word group output from the output unit 2 through the input unit 1, the control unit 5 and the selected translated word and the user The translation information including the applicable range of the translated word specified by is generated and registered in the translation information storage unit 4.

In addition to this, the control unit 5 performs machine translation on the input document using the information in the dictionary storage unit 3 and the translation information storage unit 4. At this time, the control unit 5 gives priority to the translation word registered in the translation information storage unit 4 over the translation word registered in the dictionary storage unit 3.

Various methods have been proposed for searching, but the searching method is not limited here. Similarly, various methods of machine translation have been proposed, but the method of translation is not limited here as long as it is a method that uses information in which words and translated words are associated with each other.

Next, the flow of the translation word search and translation word designation processing of the control unit 5 in the configuration of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, it is assumed that a document to be machine translated is input from the input unit 1 and displayed on the output unit 2 under the control of the control unit 5.

As a result of the user operating the input unit 1 in such a state, the control unit 5 confirms any input from the user (step S1), it is determined whether or not the input is an end command. Yes (step S2). If it is an end command, the control unit 5 ends the process.

On the other hand, when the command is not the end command, the control unit 5 determines whether or not the input is the designation of a word (word or phrase) (step S3). If the phrase is not designated, the control unit 5 performs step S1.
Then, the process waits for an input from the user through the input unit 1.

On the other hand, when the word is designated, the control unit 5 searches the dictionary storage unit 3 with the designated word and stores the dictionary for extracting the translated word group corresponding to the designated word. A copy search process is performed (step S4).

When the control unit 5 performs the dictionary storage unit search processing, whether or not the translation word group corresponding to the designated word / phrase exists in the dictionary storage unit 3 (that is, the translation word group corresponding to the designated word / phrase succeeds). It is determined whether or not) (step S5). If the translated word group corresponding to the specified word / phrase does not exist (that is, if the search fails), the control unit 5 reports that the target translated word group cannot be searched (search failure).
Is displayed (step S6) and the process returns to step S1.

On the other hand, when the translated word group corresponding to the specified word / phrase exists (that is, when the search is successful), the control unit 5 sets the translated word group to the user-specified word / phrase in the document. It is displayed on the output unit 2 as the dictionary storage unit search result (step S7). Then, the control unit 5 proceeds to step S8 to confirm the input from the user again.

When the control unit 5 confirms any input from the user, the control unit 5 determines whether the input is an end command (step S9). If it is an end command, the control unit 5 ends the process.

On the other hand, when the command is not the end command, the control unit 5 determines whether or not the input is selection designation of a translated word (from the translated word group being displayed) (step S10). ). If the translation is not selected,
The control unit 5 returns to step S1.

On the other hand, when the translation is selected and designated,
The control unit 5 accepts the selection of designation of the applicable range from the user (the input unit 1 according to the operation) for the designated translated word (step S11). Then, the control unit 5 records the user-specified phrase, its translation, and its applicable range (accepted in step S11) in the translation information storage unit 4 in the format shown in FIG. 3, and in step S1. Return.

The processing flow of the control unit 5 in the configuration of FIG. 1 has been described above. Next, a specific example of translation word search, translation word designation, and application range designation as preprocessing of machine translation using the configuration of FIG. 1 will be described in the case of translating an English document into Japanese.

First, when an English document to be machine translated is input by the input unit 1 or transferred from the outside through the input unit 1, the control unit 5 controls the document to be output to the output unit 2. To be done.

When the translation target document is displayed, the user selects the target phrase for the translation search in order to improve the accuracy of machine translation and the work efficiency of the document (English document) being displayed. Designation, selection of a translation from the translation of the retrieved specified phrase, and designation of the applicable range of the selected translation are sequentially performed.

Here, "me" in the displayed document is displayed.
It is assumed that the word "eting" is designated as a target phrase for a translation search by a user's operation using the input unit 1 (for example, a mouse).

The control unit 5 controls the word "meetin" in the document.
When it is detected that "g" is designated by the user as the target phrase for the translated word search (steps S1 to S3), the dictionary storage unit 3 is searched by the designated word "meeting" (step S4).

If the information as shown in FIG. 2 is registered in the dictionary storage unit 3, the control unit 5 reads the translation word group “meeting” “meeting” of the word “meeting” from the dictionary storage unit 3.
After obtaining a "meeting", a "convention" and a "meeting", the translated word group (translated word list) is displayed on the output unit 2 (steps S5 and S7).

The user selects the word "meetin" in the document designated by the user from the group of translated words displayed on the output unit 2.
The word that is judged to be the most appropriate translation of "g" is input section 1
Use (mouse) to select and specify. Here, it is assumed that “meeting” is selected and designated.

When the user selects and designates a translated word from the translated word group (search result) displayed on the output unit 2 (steps S8 to S10), the designated translated word (here, " The output unit 2 is caused to output a display (translated word application range selection operation guide) prompting the user to select and specify the application range of “meeting”).

In the present embodiment, the types of translation applicable range that can be selected are, for example, "specified position word only", "specified sentence only (one sentence including specified position word)", and "specified paragraph only (paragraph including specified position word. Only) ”,“ Full text of designated document ”, etc. From these, it is assumed that the user has selected one of the translated word application ranges, for example, “full text of designated document”.

Then, the control unit 5 accepts the selected application range "full text of specified document", and selects the user-specified word (here, word "meeting") and the translation word group of the specified word from the user. Generate translation information as shown in FIG. 3, which is composed of a translation word selected by the user (here, “meeting”) and an application range selected by the user himself (here, “full text of designated document”), It is registered in the translation information storage unit 4 (steps S11 and S12).

In this way, the translation word in the translation information registered in the translation information storage unit 4, that is, the translation word in which the user's intention is reflected, is stored in the dictionary storage unit 3 according to the applicable range of the translation word.
If the machine translation is performed with priority over the translated word obtained from, the translation result using the translated word desired by the user can be obtained.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above.
The invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. For example, in the embodiment, the case of translating English into Japanese has been described, but it is also applicable to the case of translating Japanese into English or supporting translation between other languages. At this time, a sentence in a language such as Japanese, which does not have word divisions, can be treated word by word by performing morphological analysis processing.

The translation word registered in the translation information storage unit 4 is selected from the translation word group stored in the dictionary storage unit 3 in advance, but the user can input a desired translation word by himself. You may do it. Similarly, the user may be allowed to input the translated word by himself / herself even when the information of the translated word does not exist in the dictionary storage unit 3. At that time, the translated word input by the user may be registered in the dictionary storage unit 3. .

Further, the applicable range of the translated word is not limited to the one given in the embodiment, and may be applied to other documents, for example, using a mouse or the like.
An arbitrary range may be designated. In addition, the present invention can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0044]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, since the translated word of the phrase in the document that the user wants to know can be automatically obtained, the efficiency of the translation work can be improved. Further, according to the present invention, when machine translation of an arbitrary document is performed, the user can preliminarily specify a desired translation word for a phrase whose translation word is desired to be specified. Substantial accuracy can be improved and translation work efficiency can be improved. Further, according to the present invention, since the application range of the translated word designated by the user can be designated, the substantial accuracy of machine translation and the translation work efficiency can be further improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a translation support device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a data structure of a dictionary storage unit 3 in the same embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a data structure of a translation information storage unit 4 in the same embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of processing of the control unit 5 in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Input part, 2 ... Output part, 3 ... Dictionary storage part, 4 ... Translation information storage part, 5 ... Control part (dictionary search means, translation information generation means, translation means).

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An arbitrary document is displayed, and a word designating input is input from an input means in accordance with a user's input operation for designating a word or phrase in the document. At the time of receiving the word designating input. , A search is performed for a group of words of a specified phrase that has been received from the information that is stored as a set of a number of words and phrases and the corresponding words of another language, and the group of words obtained by this search is used. A translation support method characterized by being presented to a person. 2. An input means used for inputting a character string or a document, designating an arbitrary position on a screen, etc., a display means used for displaying a character string, a document, an image, etc., and a word and another corresponding word. A dictionary storage unit for storing a dictionary in which a set of translated words of a language is stored, and when an arbitrary phrase in the document displayed on the display unit is designated by the input unit, the designated phrase A translation support device comprising: a dictionary search means for searching a translation word group from the dictionary and displaying it on the display means. 3. A word designation input from an input means according to a user's input operation for designating any word in the document in a state where an arbitrary document is displayed, and at the time of accepting this word designation input , Searches the translation group of the accepted specified phrase from the information stored as a combination of the phrase and translations of another language corresponding to many phrases, and displays the translation group obtained by this search However, a translation word designation input from the input means according to the user's input operation for designating an arbitrary translation word in the translation word group or a new translation word that is not in the translation word group is accepted. A translation support method, characterized in that information including a pair of the corresponding designated phrase and a received translation word is generated so as to be preferentially used for machine translation. 4. An input means used for inputting a character string or a document, designating an arbitrary position on a screen, etc., a display means used for displaying a character string, a document, an image, etc., and a word and another corresponding word. A dictionary storage unit for storing a dictionary in which a set of translation words of the language is stored; a translation information storage unit for storing translation information in which a phrase and a corresponding user-specified translation word are stored as a set; A dictionary search unit that, when an arbitrary phrase in the document displayed on the display unit is designated by the input unit, searches a translation word group for the designated phrase from the dictionary and displays it on the display unit; When any translated word in the searched translated word group displayed on the display means or a new translated word that is not in the translated word group is designated by the input means, the designated phrase corresponding to the translated word and its Pair with translation Translation information generating means for generating the translated information and registering it in the translation information storage means, and translation means for performing machine translation by preferentially using the translation information registered in the translation information storage means. A translation support device. 5. When an arbitrary document is displayed, a phrase designating input from an input means according to a user's input operation for designating a phrase in the document is accepted, and at the time of accepting the phrase designating input. , Searches the translation group of the accepted specified phrase from the information stored as a combination of the phrase and translations of another language corresponding to many phrases, and displays the translation group obtained by this search However, a translation word designation input from the input means according to the user's input operation for designating an arbitrary translation word in the translation word group or a new translation word that is not in the translation word group is accepted. , Accepting an applicable range specifying input from the input means according to the user's input operation for designating the applicable range of the specified translated word, and when accepting the applicable range specifying input, A translation support method, characterized in that information including a set of a specified phrase, a specified translation word, and a received applicable range is generated so as to be preferentially used for machine translation within the range. 6. An input means used for inputting a character string or a document, specifying an arbitrary position on a screen, a display means used for displaying a character string, a document, an image, etc., and a word and another corresponding word. A dictionary storage unit for storing a dictionary in which a set of translation words of the language is stored; a translation information storage unit for storing translation information in which a phrase and a corresponding user-specified translation word are stored as a set; A dictionary search unit that, when an arbitrary phrase in the document displayed on the display unit is designated by the input unit, searches a translation word group for the designated phrase from the dictionary and displays it on the display unit; If any translated word in the searched translation group displayed on the display means or a new translated word that is not in the translated word group and the applicable range of the translated word are designated by the input means, Corresponding finger A translation information generating unit that generates translation information in which a phrase, its translated word, and an application range are paired, and registers the translation information in the translation information storage unit, and the translation information registered in the translation information storage unit A translation support device comprising: a translation unit that preferentially uses the machine translation.