UNITRAN (UNIversal TRANslator): A Principle-Based Approach to Machine Translation.
Abstract
This report presents an approach to natural language translation that relies on principle based descriptions of grammar rather than rule-oriented descriptions. The model that has been constructed is based on abstract principles as developed by Chomsky (1981) and several other researchers working within the 'Government and Binding' (GB) framework. The approach taken is 'interlingual', i.e., the model is based on universal principles that hold across all languages; the distinctions among languages are then handled by settings of parameters associated with the universal principles. The design of the UNITRAN (UNIversal TRANslator) system is such that a language may be described by the same set of parameters that specify the language in linguistic theory. Because of the modular nature of the model, the interaction effects of universal principles are easily handled by the system; thus, the programmer does not need to specifically spell out the details of rule applications. Because only a small set of principles covers all languages, the unmanageable grammar size of alternative approaches is no longer a problem. Keywords: Natural language processing, Interlingual machine translation, Co-routine design, Principles and parameters, Parsing, Thematic substitution.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1987
- Accession Number
- ADA195281
Entities
People
- Bonnie J. Dorr
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology