JPH10187732A - Multilingual communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a multilingual communication system that can provide a proper substitute document even in the case in which a document in a language that a client device requests can not be provided. SOLUTION: Document data are stored in a server device as intermediate- format document data obtained by analyzing the document data described in a natural language in terms of grammar and meaning. When the client device requests document data, it is decided whether or not translation to a requested language is possible (S603), and when it is decided that the translation is possible, document data described in the requested language are generated from the said intermediate-format document data (S605) and when not, a substitute document in a language different from the requested language is created (S606).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multilingual communication system capable of providing document data in a desired language by having a translation function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a system for searching and browsing document data via a communication network, such as the Internet, has become widespread. Such a system,
It comprises one or more server devices for storing various types of document data, one or more client devices capable of displaying document data, and a communication network connecting them. The communication network includes a public line network, a dedicated line network, or a combination thereof. The server device includes a storage device capable of storing various types of document data, and a connection device to a communication network.The client device includes a display device capable of displaying document data, and an input device capable of inputting instruction information of a document to be viewed. And a connection device to a communication network.

[0003] For example, on the Internet, a great number of devices are connected to both server devices and client devices, and their locations are spread all over the world. The system is capable of searching and browsing various information in various parts of the world via a communication network connecting them.

In the Internet, as shown in FIG. 14, each server device 1202 stores document data described in various languages such as English, Japanese, and Chinese. The client device 1203 connected to the server device via the communication network 1201 can display document data described in these various languages in the respective languages. There is also a client device having a built-in language translation program, and it is possible to display the document data by translating it into a desired language as needed.

[0005]

In the case of the above-mentioned system, particularly a system for browsing various document data through a network spread all over the world such as the Internet, a provider of the document data and a browsing of the document data Often the native language is different from the native language. However, writing and understanding in languages other than the native language is often difficult. To solve this, the following two methods are known. One is to store a document having the same content as a plurality of document data described in a plurality of languages in a server device, and select document data in a desired language from a client device to thereby obtain a document described in a desired language. This is a method that allows data to be browsed. Another method is to mount a language translation program on a client device and use the language translation program to translate document data transmitted from a server into document data in a desired language. With these methods, document data described in a language other than the native language can also be browsed in the native language. However, even in that case, the following problems remain.

First, in a method of storing a document having the same content as a plurality of document data described in a plurality of languages in a server device, even if a document has a single content, a plurality of documents having the same content described in various languages are used. There is a problem that it needs to be created as data and requires a lot of cost and labor.

In the method in which a language translation program is installed in a client device, in order to translate and display all sentences in various languages provided by each server,
It is necessary to mount a large number of language translation programs capable of translating each language into a desired language on the client device. This increases the cost of the client device. Further, in a language translation program currently in practical use, there is a problem that a desired translation result cannot be obtained due to the ambiguity originally included in the original document to be translated.

In order to solve this problem, the document data stored in the server device is not a document data described in a natural language but a grammatically and semantically analyzed document data described in a natural language. The obtained intermediate format document data is stored. When there is a request for document data from the client device, the intermediate format document data corresponding to the document data is read from the storage device, and from the read intermediate format document data, the document data described in the natural language requested by the client device is converted. The generated document data is transmitted to the client device. As described above, a multilingual communication system that does not require a special language translation program in the client device and that can easily provide document data described in many languages can be considered.

However, such a communication system still has the following problems.

For example, a program (hereinafter, referred to as a target language document generation program) for generating document data described in a desired natural language (hereinafter, referred to as a target language) from intermediate format document data, Various dictionary data used by the generation program are required according to each target language. However, there are many types of languages currently used, and storing target language document generation programs and various dictionary data for all languages in each server device requires a lot of storage devices and a large amount of cost. Becomes

When the server device stores the target language document generation program and various dictionary data for only some languages, the client device cannot generate the document data depending on the desired language, and the client device generates the document data. Cannot browse. In this case, if the viewer changes the desired language, the document data can be viewed. However, it is necessary to change the requested language information of the client device each time, which is complicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and is intended to solve the above-mentioned problems. If the server device cannot provide the document data in the language
An object of the present invention is to provide a multilingual communication system that can be used more easily by transmitting an appropriate substitute document to a client device.

[0013]

In order to achieve this object, a multilingual communication system according to the first aspect of the present invention comprises a client device capable of receiving desired document data and a client device capable of receiving desired document data. And a server device for transmitting document data according to the request to the client device. In the client device, request information transmitting means transmits document identification information capable of specifying desired document data and request language information for specifying a description language of the document data to the server device, and the reception output means Receiving document data from the server device and performing output processing such as display output, print output, and voice output. In the server device, request information receiving means receives the document identification information and the request language information from the client device. The intermediate format document storage means stores at least intermediate format document data described in an intermediate format expression obtained as a result of grammatically and semantically analyzing a document described in a natural language.
One of them is stored, and the document reading unit reads out the intermediate format document data corresponding to the document identification information from the intermediate format document storage unit. A determining unit that determines, from the intermediate format document data read by the document reading unit, whether it is possible to generate document data described in a language corresponding to the request language information, and when the determining unit determines that the document data can be generated; The target language document generating means generates target language document data described in a language corresponding to the requested language information from the intermediate format document data read by the document reading means, and determines that the determining means cannot generate the target language document data. If you do
Alternative document creation means creates alternative document data. The document transmission unit transmits the target language document data generated by the target language document generation unit or the alternative document data generated by the alternative document generation unit to the client device.

As described above, a desired description language can be specified from a client, and document data described in a natural language can be generated from document data stored in the form of intermediate format document data in accordance with the desired description language, and the client device can output the document data. This makes it possible to browse document data written in a desired language without storing document data described in a number of languages in a server device or installing a language translation program in a client device. Further, even when document data described in a desired language cannot be provided, simpler operations can be performed by generating appropriate document data as substitute document data and transmitting it to the client device.

Further, in the multilingual communication system according to the second aspect, the server device inputs document data described in a predetermined language (hereinafter referred to as original document data) by an original document input means. The document storage means stores the document data input by the original document input means. Then, the original document data input by the original document analysis unit is analyzed, and intermediate format document data is generated from the analysis result of the original document data, and the generated intermediate format document data is converted by the intermediate format storage unit. The original document data is stored in association with the original document data stored by the original document storage means.

As described above, since the intermediate format document data is generated from the document data described in the natural language, the intermediate format document data can be easily generated, and the original document data is also associated with the generated intermediate format document data. To save
It is possible to select original document data as substitute document data.

Further, in the multilingual communication system according to the third aspect, the substitute document creating means is a first substitute document creating unit, wherein the document is selected from the original document data stored in the original document storage means. Original document data associated with the intermediate format document data read by the reading means is created as substitute document data.

As described above, since the original document data is used as the substitute document data, the substitute document data can be browsed most reliably.

Further, in the multilingual communication system according to the fourth aspect, the substitute document creating means includes a second substitute document creating section for converting the intermediate language document data read by the reading means into the requested language information and Create alternative document data described in a different predetermined alternative language.

As described above, for example, by using English, which is the language most frequently used in the world, as the predetermined language, the possibility that the viewer cannot understand the alternative document data is minimized. Can be

Further, in the multilingual communication system according to the fifth aspect, the alternative language determination information storage means preliminarily stores determination information capable of determining at least one alternative language corresponding to each required language on the server device. An alternative language determining unit configured to determine, based on the alternative language determination information storage unit, a language that is an alternative to the language specified by the request language information, the alternative document creating unit includes a third alternative document creating unit In the method, substitute document data described in the substitute language determined by the substitute language determining unit is created from the intermediate format document data read by the reading unit.

By providing the alternative language determining means as described above, for example, it is possible to determine the language which is most likely to be understood by the viewer whose native language is the request language, and to set that language as the alternative language. This makes it possible to minimize the possibility that the viewer cannot understand the substitute document data.

In the multilingual communication system according to the sixth aspect, the request information transmitting means includes: document identification information capable of specifying the document data; and request language information specifying a description language of the document data. Plus at least one more
The alternative document creating unit is configured to transmit, in a fourth document creating unit, the intermediate format document data read by the document reading unit by the request information sending unit. Create substitute document data described in a substitute language transmitted from the client device.

Thus, a viewer of the document data can specify an alternative language using the client device, and can use an alternative language most suitable for the viewer.

Further, in the multilingual communication system according to claim 7, the client device transmits selection information for selecting a process of the alternative document creating means to the server device by selection information transmitting means, and The document creation unit creates alternative document data from the intermediate format document data read by the document reading unit based on the selection information transmitted by the selection information transmission unit by the selected processing.

Thus, the viewer can control the selection of the alternative language, and can select the alternative language created by the processing method desired by the viewer.

[0027]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a conceptual diagram of a multilingual communication system according to the present embodiment. The server device 102 stores the document data as intermediate format document data not described in a specific natural language (details will be described later). Also, a target language document generation program for generating document data described in a target language (hereinafter, referred to as a target language) from the intermediate format document data is stored. The client device 103
Via the communication network 101, request information including the instruction information of the document data and the instruction information of the description language of the document data is transmitted to the desired server device 102. The server device 102 generates document data in the specified natural language from the specified intermediate format document data based on the request information transmitted from the client device 103, and transmits the generated document data to the client via the communication network 101. Transmit to the device 103. Then, the client device receives the document data and performs output such as display output, print output, and audio output.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a server device to which the present invention is suitably applied.

The server device 102 includes a ROM 202, a RAM 203, a CPU
204, a display control unit 205, an input unit 206, a communication control unit 207, and a bus 209 connecting them. The CPU 204 executes various controls based on various stored programs, and forms the main body of the operation of the server device 102. The display control unit 205 accumulates display data and controls a display monitor, and outputs a display to the monitor 208. As the monitor 208, various display devices such as a CRT display and an LCD display can be used. The input unit 206
It is a keyboard device for inputting stored document data and inputting instructions to the server device 102. The communication control unit 207 is connected to the communication network 210. Communication network
Reference numeral 210 denotes a line network of a public line or a dedicated line, which is a component of the communication network 101. The communication control unit 207 controls data communication between the communication network 210 and the server device 102, and transmits and receives data. The communication control unit 207 is a modem device for connecting to a public line or a dedicated line.

The input unit 206 has a structure other than the above-described structure.
A pointing device such as a mouse device, various input devices such as a voice input device and a touch panel device, or a combination thereof may be used. In addition, the communication control unit 207 includes a transmitting / receiving device for connecting to a wireless public line or a dedicated line, or a LAN (Lo
cal Area Network), an Ethernet connection device, a token ring connection device, or an ATM (Asynchrono
Various connection devices such as a device for connection to a us Transfer Mode) network may be used.

The ROM 202 stores various programs, translation dictionary data, and the like.

Various storage units are further formed in the ROM 202. The communication control program storage unit 202a controls various types of communication via the communication control unit 207 and the client device 103
A communication control program for receiving a document data request from the client device, transmitting the generated document data to the client device 103, and the like is stored. The communication control program and the communication control unit 207 form the subject of the request information receiving unit and the document transmitting unit of the present invention.

The target language document generation program storage unit 202b
Stores a target language document generation program for generating various target language document data from the intermediate format document data. Note that the target language document generation program forms the subject of the target language document generation means of the present invention. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the target language document generation program is different depending on the type of the target language of the document to be generated, and the target language document generation program storage unit 202b stores at least the target language according to the target language of the document to be generated. Store one target language document generator.

Intermediate format document data creation program storage unit
Reference numeral 202c stores an intermediate format document data creation program that generates intermediate format document data based on original document data that is document data described in a predetermined natural language. It should be noted that the intermediate format document data creation program forms the main part of the original document analysis means of the present invention.

The document management program storage section 202d stores a document management program. The document management program stores, reads, or searches the intermediate format document data in the intermediate format document data storage unit 203c, and determines whether the target language document data requested by the client device can be generated. Then, substitute document data is generated as necessary. Note that the document management program is the main component of the document reading unit, the determination unit, and the alternative document creation unit of the present invention.

The translation dictionary storage unit 202e stores various data required when the target language document generation program performs processing, such as generation rule data corresponding to the target language and a morpheme generation dictionary. Further, the translation dictionary storage unit 202e
Various data such as a morphological analysis dictionary, syntax rule data, a syntax analysis dictionary, and dependency rule data required when the intermediate format document data creation program performs processing is also stored.

The alternative language determination information storage unit 202f stores information for determining an alternative language for each requested language that cannot be processed by the server device. Details of the alternative language determination information storage unit 202f will be described later. Note that the alternative language determination information storage unit 202f is a main component of the alternative language determination information storage unit of the present invention.

The ROM 202 is not limited to a ROM, and may be a storage device such as a magnetic disk device, a magneto-optical disk device, or a CD-ROM storage device.

The RAM 203 is used to store data such as intermediate format document data and to store various temporary data, and has the following storage units formed therein.

The work memory 203a provides a temporary storage area required by each program during operation. The transmission document memory 203b stores the target language document data generated by the target language document generation program stored in the target language document generation program storage unit 202b based on the intermediate format document data stored in the intermediate format document data storage unit 203c. Remember temporarily.

The intermediate format document data storage unit 203c stores at least one intermediate format document data. The intermediate format document data storage unit 203c forms the main body of the intermediate format document storage unit of the present invention.

The original document storage unit 203d stores original document data, which is input data for an intermediate language creation program. Original document data is input via the input unit 206 and the communication control unit 207. The input unit 206 and the communication control unit 207 constitute an original document input unit of the present invention, and the original document storage unit 203d constitutes an original document storage unit.

The alternative language information memory 203e temporarily stores the alternative language information transmitted from the client device by the request information transmitting means in the embodiment embodying the multilingual communication system according to claim 6.

The alternative method memory 203f temporarily stores the selection information transmitted by the selection information transmitting means of the client device in the embodiment embodying the multilingual communication system according to claim 7.

The RAM 203 is not limited to the RAM, and may be a storage device such as a magnetic disk device or a magneto-optical disk device. Further, when the intermediate format document data is not generated, the intermediate format document data storage unit 203c stores
02 may be formed.

In this embodiment, the intermediate format document data creation program is stored in the server device 102, and the intermediate format document data is generated from the original document in the server device 102. The intermediate format document data creation program may not be stored therein, and the intermediate format document data generated by another device may be input to the server device and stored.

Next, FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a client device to which the present invention is suitably applied.

The client device 103 includes a ROM 302, a RAM 30
3, CPU 304, display control unit 305, input unit 306, communication control unit 307
And a bus 309 connecting them. CPU304
Executes various controls based on various stored programs, and forms the subject of the operation of the client apparatus 103. The display control unit 305 accumulates display data and controls a display monitor, and outputs a display to the monitor 308. The monitor 308 can use various display devices such as a CRT display and an LCD display. Input unit 306
Is a keyboard device for inputting document identification information of document data, required language information, and the like, and for inputting various instructions to the client device 103. The communication control unit 307 is connected to the communication network 210, controls data communication between the communication network 210 and the client device 103, and transmits and receives data. The communication control unit 307 is a modem device for connecting to a public line or a dedicated line.

It should be noted that the input unit 306 has, in addition to the above configuration,
A pointing device such as a mouse device, various input devices such as a voice input device and a touch panel device, or a combination thereof may be used. Further, the communication control unit 307 includes a transmission / reception device for connecting to a wireless public line or a dedicated line, an Ethernet connection device for connecting to a LAN, a token ring connection device, a connection device for an ATM line network, and the like. Various connection devices may be used. Further, in addition to using the display control unit 305 and the monitor 308, a configuration may be adopted in which a print output device or an audio output device is used, and the document data is output in a print or audio output.

The ROM 302 stores various programs.

Various storage units are further formed in the ROM 302. The communication control program storage unit 302a stores a communication control program that controls various types of communication via the communication control unit 307, performs data transmission / reception to the server device 102, and the like. The communication control program and the communication control unit 307 form the subject of the request information transmitting unit of the present invention. The display program storage unit 302b stores a display program for displaying the document data received from the server device 102 using the display control unit 305. The display program, the display control unit 305, the communication control program, and the communication control unit 307 form the subject of the reception output unit of the present invention. Request information input program storage unit 302c, the user uses the input unit 306,
A request information input program for controlling a process of inputting document identification information of desired document data and request language information is stored. In the client device according to the embodiment which embodies the multilingual communication system according to claim 6, the request information input program also performs an input process of alternative language information.

Alternative system designation program storage section 302d
Stores an alternative system designating program for inputting selection information described in the embodiment embodying the multilingual communication system according to claim 7 from the input unit 306, and transmitting the input selection information to the server device 102. I do. It should be noted that the alternative system designating program is the main component of the selection information transmitting means of the present invention.

The ROM 302 is not limited to the ROM, and may be a storage device such as a magnetic disk device, a magneto-optical disk device, or a CD-ROM storage device.

The RAM 303 is used to store various temporary data, and has the following storage units formed therein. The work memory 303a provides a temporary storage area required by each program during operation. Received document memory 30
3b temporarily stores the document data received from the server device 102. The RAM 303 is not limited to the RAM, but may be a storage device such as a magnetic disk device or a magneto-optical disk device.

Next, a basic processing flow between the server device 102 and the client device 103 will be described with reference to FIG. First, the client device 103 performs an input process of request information, which is an instruction of desired document data (S401, S indicate steps, the same applies hereinafter). Next, the address of the server device, which is information for uniquely determining the server device where the document data is located on the communication network, is obtained from the input request information (S402). In the present embodiment, TCP / IP (TransmissionControl
Although a host name or an IP address specified by Protocol / Internet Protocol is used, any other information that can determine an address on a communication network may be used. Next, from the request information of the desired document data, the document identification information which is the instruction information of the document data in the server device is determined, and further, a request language for specifying in which language the desired document data is described Is determined (S403).

Next, alternative language information for designating an alternative language when the document data cannot be described in a desired language, and which alternative document generating means can be selected when a plurality of alternative document generating means can be selected in the server device 102. The selection information for specifying whether to make a selection is determined as necessary (S404).
Note that, in the embodiment in which the multilingual communication system according to claims 1 to 5 is embodied, the processing of S404 may not be performed.

Next, the information determined in S403 and S404 is
Send to the server device of the address determined in S402 (S
405). In the present embodiment, the transmission method to the server device is HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) over TCP / IP.
Is used.

Specifically, the client device is configured as shown in FIG.
The data in the format shown in (a) is transmitted to the server device. "GE
"T" means a data request, and <document identification information> specifies the document identification information determined in S403. <Version information>
Specify HTTP version information, and <CRLF> indicates a carriage return / line feed character. For <various header information>, specify the header information specified by HTTP as necessary. "Accept-Language:"
Is a character string indicating that the requested language information follows.
For <request language>, a predetermined character string for identifying the request language is specified. "X-Substitute-Lang:" is a character string indicating that the alternative language information follows, and a predetermined character string for identifying the alternative language is specified in <substitute language>.

FIG. 5B shows "/ pub / sam" as the document identification information.
ple.html ", HTTP version 1.0, Japanese language required,
This is an example when English is used as an alternative language. Note that the above
Since TCP / IP and HTTP are known technologies that have already been widely put into practical use, description thereof will be omitted.

In the server device, from the client device
Receiving the information transmitted in S405 (S408), based on the received information, in order to generate any of the desired document data in a desired natural language, alternative document data, or error information, a transmission data generation process Execute (S409). Details of S409 will be described later. Next, the data generated in S409 is transmitted to the client (S410). The client receives the document data or error information from the server (S406) and displays it on the display device (S407).

Next, the details of the transmission data creation processing (S409) will be described with reference to FIG. First, the presence or absence of the document data specified by the document identification information is determined (S601). If the corresponding document data does not exist in the server device (S601).
(601: No), the process proceeds to S607 as an error, and if there is an error (S601: Yes), the process proceeds to S602. In S602, the document management program searches the intermediate format document data storage unit 203c for the intermediate format document data specified by the document identification information transmitted from the client, and reads the data into the work memory 203a. In the present embodiment, the intermediate format document data stored in the intermediate format document data storage unit 203c is such that each intermediate format document data corresponds to one file, and as the document identification information for specifying the document data, The file name storing the intermediate format document data is used. In this case, the determination in S601 is made based on whether or not a file having the file name indicated by the document identification information exists. In S602, the document management program reads the data of the file into the work memory 203a. In addition,
In addition to using the file name as the document identification information, a database management program can be used as the document management program, the storage area of the database can be associated as the intermediate format document data storage unit 203c, and the document data in the database can be specified as the document identification information Instruction information may be used.

Next, it is determined whether the read intermediate language format document data can be translated into a target language based on the request information received in S408 (S603). When translatable (S603:
(YES) proceeds to S604, and if translation is not possible (S603: NO), S60
Proceed to 6. Note that, in the present embodiment, as described above, the target language document generation program corresponding to the request information received in S408 is configured to have the individual target language document generation program for each target language. The determination in S603 is performed based on whether or not the generated program is stored in the generated program storage unit 202b.

In S604, target language document generation processing for generating target language document data from the read intermediate format document data is executed. Details of S604 will be described later. In S605, S6
The target language document data generated in 04 is temporarily stored in the transmission document memory 203b for transmission. In S606, substitute document data that substitutes for the requested document data is created. Details of the processing in S606 will be described later. In S607, upon receiving the determination in S601, error notification information is stored in the transmission document memory 203b in order to notify the client device of the error.

Next, details of the processing of the intermediate format document data creation program which is the main body of the original document analysis means of the present invention will be described.
This will be described with reference to FIGS. 7, 8, and 9.

First, document data described in a predetermined natural language is input from the input unit 206 (S701).

The input document data is stored in the original document storage unit 20.
It is stored in 3d (S702). This document data is processed as original document data. The original document data is first subjected to morphological analysis processing (S703). In S703, the original document is divided into morphemes, converted into a morpheme string, and the part of speech of each morpheme is determined with reference to the morphological analysis dictionary stored in the translation dictionary storage unit 202e. As an example of generating intermediate format document data from Japanese, if the original document is as shown in FIG. 8A, a morphological analysis result including a morphological sequence as shown in FIG.

Next, a syntax analysis process is performed (S704). In S704, to the morpheme string including the part of speech information analyzed in S703, the syntax rule data stored in the translation dictionary storage unit 202e, and apply the information of the syntax analysis dictionary, and analyze the modification relationship between each morpheme, Determine the semantic role of the case and form a parse tree. For example, a morphological analysis result as shown in FIG. 8B obtains a parsing result composed of the parse tree shown in FIG. 8C. Where "S" is a sentence, "NP" is a noun phrase,
“ADV” represents an adverb, and “VP” represents a verb phrase. Next, a dependency structure analysis process is performed (S705). In S705, a dependency structure is formed based on the parse tree that is the analysis result of S704. When the dependency structure analysis process is performed on the syntax analysis result of FIG. 8C, a dependency structure as shown in FIG. 9A is obtained. Where "PRED" is a predicate, "NOM" is a dependent structure noun phrase,
"ADV" represents an adverb.

Next, the data of the dependent structure obtained in S705 is used as intermediate format document data, and is stored in the intermediate format document data storage unit 203c in association with the original document data stored in the original document storage unit 203d in S702. Yes (S706).

In this embodiment, the expression of the dependency structure of a sentence is used as an intermediate form expression, and data representing the semantic content of the sentence expressed by the dependency structure, which is obtained as a result of analyzing the sentence as described above, It is used as formal document data. Specifically, it is stored as a set of structural elements 1005 as shown in FIG. Each structural element 1005 has four items of a structure type 1001, case information 1002, a dictionary pointer 1003, and a dependent structure number 1004. The structure type 1001 stores a type such as a predicate or a noun phrase as a flag. Case information
Reference numeral 1002 stores case type information such as a nominative case, a purpose case, or a form as a flag as necessary. The dictionary pointer 1003 stores a pointer to dictionary data containing information on a word corresponding to the structural element. The dependent structure number 1004 stores how many structural elements directly depend on the structural element. Note that the dependent structure number 1004 does not include the number of elements that are further dependent on the structural elements that are dependent on the structural element, that is, nested indirectly.

For example, when the dependency structure shown in FIG. 9A is stored, the data becomes as shown in FIG. 10B. Here, “K1” represents the nominative case, “K2” represents the purpose case, and “K3” represents the form case. The dictionary pointer indicates the number 1006 of the dictionary data illustrated in FIG. The dictionary data stores words 1007 in the language used in the original document, their parts of speech 1008, corresponding words 1009 in other languages, and various grammatical information. In addition, in addition to the above method, the intermediate format document data uses an artificially defined readable language (hereinafter referred to as a common language) as an intermediate format expression, and the document data described in that language is converted to the intermediate format. It may be used as document data.

Next, the details of the target language document generation processing in S604 will be described using FIG. 11 and FIG. The target language document generation process is a process performed by a target language document generation program which is a subject of a target language document generation unit of the present invention.

First, syntax generation processing is performed on the intermediate format document data read into the work memory 203a in S602.
(S1101). In the syntax generation processing, a syntax tree of the target language is generated based on the dependency structure described in the intermediate format document data while referring to the generation rule data, and the word order is determined.

Next, morpheme generation processing is performed (S1102), and the ending of the word is changed as necessary, thereby completing generation of the generated document data. To give an example in which the target language is English, when a sentence having a dependency structure shown in FIG. 9A is subjected to a syntax generation process and a morpheme generation process, a sentence as shown in FIG. 9B is obtained. The target language document generation result is obtained. Where "PRON" is a pronoun, "V" is a verb, "ART"
Indicates an article and "N" indicates a noun.

Next, the details of the substitute document creation processing in S606 will be described with reference to FIG.

First, the process branches based on the selection information transmitted from the client device 103 and included in the request information received by the server device 102 in S408 (S120).
1). In the present embodiment, a case where original document data is used, a case where document data created in a predetermined language is used, and a case where a document created in an alternative language Four cases can be selected: a case where data is used, and a case where an error occurs without creating a substitute document.

First, in the case where original document data is used, S1203
Processing proceeds to In S1203, original document data associated with the intermediate format document data read in S602 is read from the original document storage unit 203d. Then, the read original document data is used as the substitute document data in the transmission document memory.
It is stored in 203b (S1204). Note that S1203 to S1204 function as the first alternative document creation unit of the present invention.

When the document data generated in a predetermined language is used as the substitute document generation means, steps S1201 to S12
Proceed to 05. In S1205, the target language is set to a predetermined language. This predetermined language is set in the client device 103 by S
The alternative language information determined in 404, transmitted in S405, and received by the server device in S408, or may be a specific language such as English preset in the server device 102. Then, based on the target language changed in S1205 or S1209 described later, target language document generation processing is performed (S1206). This target language document generation processing S1206 is executed in S604.
This is the same processing as. Then, the generated document data is stored in the transmission document memory 203b as substitute document data (S12
07). Note that S1205 to S1207 correspond to the second or fourth of the present invention.
Function as an alternative document creation unit.

When using the document data created in the alternative language corresponding to the request language as the selectable alternative document creating means, the process proceeds from S1201 to S1208. In S1208,
The alternative language corresponding to the requested language is determined based on the alternative language determination information stored in the alternative language determination information storage unit 202f. FIG. 13 shows an example of the alternative language determination information. FIG.
(a) is a list of alternative languages 1302 for each required language 1301
This is an example of storing an allowable value 1303 for each combination of each required language and each alternative language. In this case, the alternative language given in 1302 to the specified request language 1301 and having the highest tolerance value 1303 among the translatable alternative languages is set to the alternative language corresponding to the request language. Is determined. In the example shown in FIG. 13B, one alternative language 1305 is specified for each request language 1304. Then, the alternative language determined in S1208 is set as the target language (S1209), and the process proceeds to S1206. Note that S1208 is an alternative language determination unit of the present invention, and S1208 to S1209, and S120
Steps 6 to S1207 each function as a third alternative document creation unit.

In the branch of S1201, without generating a substitute document,
If an error occurs, the process proceeds to S1202. In S1202, error notification information indicating that translation into the specified request language is impossible is generated and stored in the transmission document memory 203b.

In this embodiment, the dependency structure data stored as the intermediate format document data is directly input to the syntax generation processing. However, the dependency structure conversion processing is performed before the input to the syntax generation processing. May go. Specifically, instead of using the dependency structure of the sentence stored in the intermediate format document data as it is, a dependency structure conversion process corresponding to the intermediate format conversion means is performed and converted into a dependency structure corresponding to the target language. Then, it is input to the syntax generation processing.

The morphological analysis processing, syntactic analysis processing, dependency structure analysis processing, syntactic generation processing, and morphological generation processing according to the present embodiment are performed by the ETL and Kyoto University, respectively. This is a well-known technique disclosed in "Research on a Bulletin System for Science and Technology Literature-Report on Development of Language Processing System" and JP-A-62-203273.

[0083]

As is apparent from the above description,
The multilingual communication system according to claim 1, wherein a client can specify a desired description language, and generates document data described in a natural language from document data stored in an intermediate format document data in accordance with the desired description language. Since the data can be output by the device, the document data described in a desired language can be browsed without storing the document data described in a number of languages in the server device or installing a language translation program in the client device. Further, even when document data described in a desired language cannot be provided, simpler operations can be performed by generating appropriate document data as substitute document data and transmitting it to the client device.

The multi-language communication system according to the second aspect generates the intermediate format document data from the document data described in the natural language, so that the intermediate format document data can be easily generated. Since the original document data is also stored in association with the document data, the original document data can be selected as the substitute document data.

In the multilingual communication system according to the third aspect, since the original document data is used as the substitute document data, the substitute document data can be viewed most reliably.

[0086] In the multilingual communication system according to the fourth aspect, for example, English, which is the language most frequently used in the world, is used as the predetermined language so that the viewer can substitute the alternative document data. Can be minimized.

In the multilingual communication system according to the fifth aspect of the present invention, by providing the alternative language determining means, for example, a language which is most likely to be understood by a viewer whose native language is the requested language is determined, The language can be used as an alternative language, and the possibility that the viewer cannot understand the alternative document data can be minimized.

Further, in the multilingual communication system according to the sixth aspect, the viewer of the document data can specify an alternative language by using the client device, and uses the alternative language most suitable for the viewer. be able to.

In the communication system according to the seventh aspect of the present invention, the viewer can control the selection of the alternative language, and can select the alternative language created by the method desired by the viewer. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of a multilingual communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a server device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a client device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing flow of a server device and a client device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of document identification information and request language information according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a transmission data creation process according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of processing of an intermediate format document data creation program according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a process of creating intermediate format document data according to the embodiment;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a process of creating intermediate format document data and a process of generating a target language document according to the embodiment;

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram for explaining intermediate format document data according to the embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of target language document generation processing according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a substitute document creation process according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram provided for explanation of alternative language determination information.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of a conventional communication system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 Communication Network 102 Server Device 103 Client Device 202 ROM 202f Alternative Language Determination Information Storage Unit 203 RAM 203d Original Document Storage Unit 204 CPU 203c Intermediate Format Document Data Storage Unit 206 Input Unit 207 Communication Control Unit 305 Display Control Unit 307 Communication Control Unit

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A communication system comprising: a client device capable of receiving desired document data; and a server device transmitting document data according to a request from the client device to the client device. A request information transmitting unit that transmits, to the server device, document identification information that can specify the document data, and request language information that specifies a description language of the document data; and receives the document data from the server device. And a request output unit for receiving the document identification information and the request language information from the client device, and at least one document data in a natural language. Intermediate described in an intermediate form expression obtained as a result of grammatically and semantically analyzing the described document Intermediate format document storage means for storing as format document data; document reading device for reading intermediate format document data corresponding to the document identification information from the intermediate format document storage device; and intermediate format document data read by the document reading device. A determining means for determining whether or not document data described in a language corresponding to the requested language information can be generated; and an intermediate format document read by the document reading means when the determining means determines that the document data can be generated. From the data,
A target language document generating means for generating target language document data described in a language corresponding to the request language information, and an alternative different from the language corresponding to the request language information when the determination means determines that generation is not possible. An alternative document creating unit for creating alternative document data described in a language, and target language document data created by the target language document creating unit or alternative document data created by the alternative document creating unit to the client device. A multilingual communication system, comprising: a document transmitting unit that transmits the document. 2. An original document input unit for inputting original document data described in a predetermined language, an original document storage unit for storing original document data input by the original document input unit, Analyze the original document data input by the original document input means,
Source document analysis means for generating intermediate format document data from the analysis result of the original document data, wherein the intermediate format document storage means stores the intermediate format document data generated by the original document analysis means in the original document 2. The multilingual communication system according to claim 1, wherein the communication system is configured to store the original document data stored in the storage unit in association with the original document data. 3. The substitute document creating means according to claim 1, wherein, of the original document data stored in said original document storage means, the original document data associated with the intermediate format document data read by said document reading means is replaced with alternative document data. First created as
3. The multilingual communication system according to claim 2, further comprising: an alternative document creating unit. 4. The second alternative document creation unit creates, from the intermediate format document data read by the document reading unit, alternative document data described in a predetermined alternative language different from the request language information. The multilingual communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising an alternative document creating unit. 5. The alternative language determination information storage unit that stores in advance determination information that can determine at least one alternative language corresponding to each request language, and the server device is stored in the alternative language determination information storage unit. An alternative language determining unit that determines an alternative language that is an alternative to the language specified by the request language information based on the determination information. The alternative document creating unit includes an intermediate format document read by the document reading unit. 5. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a third alternative document creation unit for creating alternative document data described in the alternative language determined by the alternative language determination unit from the data. Language compatible communication system. 6. The request information transmitting unit is further configured to transmit at least one alternative language information to the server device, and the alternative document creating unit is configured to transmit the alternative document information from the intermediate format document data read by the document reading unit. And a fourth alternative document creation unit that creates alternative document data described in an alternative language corresponding to the alternative language information transmitted from the client device by the request information transmitting unit. 5. The multilingual communication system according to any one of 5. 7. The client device further comprises selection information transmitting means for transmitting selection information for selecting processing of the alternative document creating means to the server device, wherein the alternative document creating means reads out the document by the document reading means. 7. A method according to claim 3, wherein the alternative document data is created by the selected processing from the intermediate format document data based on the selection information transmitted by the selection information transmitting means. The multilingual communication system according to any one of the above.