On knowledge-based machine translation

Abstract

This paper describes the design of the knowledge representation medium used for representing concepts and assertions, respectively, in a subworld chosen for a knowledge-based machine translation system. This design is used in the TRANSLATOR machine translation project. The knowledge representation language, or interlingua, has two components, DIL and TIL. DIL stands for 'dictionary of interlingua' and descibes the semantics of a subworld. TIL stands for 'text of interlingua' and is responsible for producing an interlingua text, which represents the meaning of an input text in the terms of the interlingua. We maintain that involved analysis of various types of linguistic and encyclopaedic meaning is necessary for the task of automatic translation. The mechanisms for extracting and manipulating and reproducing the meaning of texts will be reported in detail elsewhere. The linguistic (including the syntactic) knowledge about source and target languages is used by the mechanisms that translate texts into and from the interlingua. Since interlingua is an artificial language, we can (and do, through TIL) control the syntax and semantics of the allowed interlingua elements. The interlingua suggested for TRANSLATOR has a broader coverage than other knowledge representation schemata for natural language. It involves the knowledge about discourse, speech acts, focus, time, space and other facets of the overall meaning of texts.