Accessing Foreign Languages with Compass
Machine Translation, 12 (1):
153--174 (1997)Abstract
This paper presents an approach to avoiding translation by utilising a context-sensitive dictionary look-up system to assist in the comprehension of on-line texts in foreign languages. The system employs state-of-the-art finite-state technology for the context analysis and uses converted bilingual printed dictionaries as its primary resource of lexical information. The printed dictionaries have been opened up for the system by analysing the dictionary structure and parsing the type-setting tapes. The lexical information has been validated and augmented by corpus-based lexicographic revision, paying special attention to the treatment of multiword lexemes, for which formalised local grammars have been added to the augmented dictionaries. Although the system is currently implemented as a device for comprehension assistance, the same technology and methods can be employed to select information from the dictionaries relevant for translation processes.