Tonal language dictionary search device, tonal language dictionary search method, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program readable by a computer of a tonal language dictionary search device

A search method performed by a search device, the search method comprising:

• causing a display of an external terminal to display a search character input area;
• receiving, from the external terminal via a communication network, input of a character string entered into the search character input area, the input character string being constituted by a plurality of characters and a tone indication, the plurality of characters including an unknown character;
• acquiring a first search target character string based on the input character string received from the external terminal;
• acquiring, as a conversion candidate, a character string which matches the first search target character string without the tone indication;
• generating a conversion candidate character string of a predetermined number of characters by adding a tone indication to the conversion candidate;
• generating a second search target character string by at least adding a character indicative of an unknown tone indication to a position immediately after the unknown character among the plurality of characters in the first search target character string;
• comparing the second search target character string with the conversion candidate character string;
• and
• causing the display of the external terminal to display a comparison result of comparing the second search target character string with the conversion candidate character string.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a program that is executable by a computer to cause the computer to:

• cause a display of an external terminal to display a search character input area;
• receive, from the external terminal via a communication network, input of a character string entered into the search character input area, the input character string being constituted by a plurality of characters and a tone indication, the plurality of characters including an unknown character;
• acquire a first search target character string based on the input character string received from the external terminal;
• acquire, as a conversion candidate, a character string which matches the first search target character string without the tone indication;
• generate a conversion candidate character string of a predetermined number of characters by adding a tone indication to the conversion candidate;
• generate a second search target character string by at least adding a character indicative of an unknown tone indication to a position immediately after the unknown character among the plurality of characters in the first search target character string;
• compare the second search target character string with the conversion candidate character string;
• and
• cause the display of the external terminal to display a comparison result of comparing the second search target character string with the conversion candidate character string.

A computer-implemented tonal language search system comprising:

• a memory which is configured to store a dictionary of a tonal language, a first look-up table and a second look-up table, wherein the first look-up table lists character strings of entry words of the dictionary as tone-number-omitted phonetic character strings, and wherein the second look-up table lists character strings of corresponding entry words of the dictionary as tone-number-added phonetic character strings in which tone numbers are included at each syllable, wherein the phonetic character strings of the first and second look-up tables are phonetic representations of the corresponding entry words of the dictionary and utilize an alphabet other than a native alphabet of the tonal language;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• cause a display of an external terminal to display a search character input area;
• receive, from the external terminal via a communication network, input of a tone-marked search character string entered into the search character input area, the tone-marked search character string being constituted by a plurality of phonetic characters and one or more tone indications associated with one or more of the phonetic characters, wherein at least one of the phonetic characters is unknown and is represented by a predetermined wildcard character in the input tone-marked search character string, wherein the phonetic characters of the input tone-marked search character string utilize the same alphabet as the phonetic character strings of the first and second look-up tables;
• convert the one or more tone indications of the input tone-marked search character string into tone numbers as a conversion into an XML-type description language according to a tone mark addition rule, which is a rule for positions of tone numbers and stipulates additions to tone-mark-associated vowels, to thereby generate a first search target character string in which tone numbers are added at positions defined by the tone mark addition rule;
• generate a tone-number-omitted search character string by deleting the tone numbers included in the first search target character string, using a duplicate of the first search target character string;
• iteratively search a defined search window of the first look-up table to identify a tone-number-omitted phonetic character string that matches the tone-number-omitted search character string except at the unknown character represented by the wildcard character;
• acquire, as a conversion candidate, a tone-number-added character string from the second look-up table which corresponds to the identified tone-number-omitted phonetic character from the first look-up table that matches the tone-number-omitted search character string;
• generate a conversion candidate character string of a predetermined number of characters by rearranging positions of the one or more tone numbers of the conversion candidate according to the tone mark addition rule, and by adding, to the conversion candidate, a placeholder character indicative of an absence of a tone indication to a character to which no tone number is added in the conversion candidate;
• generate a second search target character string by adding an additional wildcard character indicative of an unknown tone indication to a position immediately after the wildcard character representing the unknown character among the plurality of characters in the first search target character string, and by adding the placeholder character indicative of an absence of a tone indication to a character to which no tone number is added in the first search target character string;
• compare the second search target character string with the conversion candidate character string by executing a match evaluation that disregards the wildcard characters to determine whether the second search target character string matches the conversion candidate character string in total number of characters and matches in characters except at the wildcard characters;
• and
• in response to a determination that the second search target character string matches the conversion candidate character string, cause the display of the external terminal to display an entry word from the dictionary stored in the memory corresponding to the conversion candidate character string.