Natural-language processing system

A machine-readable dictionary system used by a plurality of users for natural-language processing, comprising:

• a plurality of dictionaries organized in a hierarchical structure, including at least a first dictionary and a plurality of second dictionaries directly subordinate to the first dictionary;
• and
• a unifier unit for transferring information appearing in at least a certain number of said second dictionaries into the first dictionary.

The machine-readable dictionary system of claim.6, wherein:

• said user dictionaries store entries, each entry among said entries each comprising a key and a value;
• and
• if entries having a first key and a first value appear in at least a certain number of said user dictionaries, and entries having the first key and a second value appear in at least said certain number of said user dictionaries, the splitter-generator unit creates a pair dictionaries subordinate to the first dictionary, places an entry having the first key and the first value in one dictionary in said pair, and places an entry having the first key and the second value in another dictionary in said pair.

A machine translation system having a user dictionary editable by a user, comprising:

• a processor for collecting words that could not be translated by the machine translation system;
• and
• an editing unit for displaying the words collected by the processor and enabling the user to enter corresponding information for editing the user dictionary.

A machine translation system having a plurality of dictionaries, one of said dictionaries being a user dictionary to which a user can add information, comprising:

• a reference unit for assisting said user in adding said information to the user dictionary by obtaining related information from dictionaries other than said user dictionary among said plurality of dictionaries;
• and
• an editing unit for displaying said related information, and receiving from the user information to be added to said user dictionary.

A machine translation system having a plurality of dictionaries, and preparing to translate a source document by dividing said plurality of dictionaries into selected dictionaries and non-selected dictionaries, comprising:

• a translation engine for translating the source document by using the selected dictionaries, and by using the non-selected dictionaries to translate words missing from the selected dictionaries, thereby obtaining a translation result;
• and
• an extraneous translation highlighter for marking words in the translation result that were translated by use of the non-selected dictionaries, to make the marked words distinguishable from words that were translated by use of the selected dictionaries.

A machine translation system having a user dictionary editable by a user, comprising:

• a translation unit for translating a source document from a source language into a target language, thereby obtaining a translation result;
• and
• a display unit having a screen, for displaying the translation result in a first part of the screen while enabling the user to edit the user dictionary in a second part of the screen.

A machine translation and document display system that translates source text and generates translated text marked up according to a predetermined markup language by inclusion of markup symbols, comprising:

• a script generator for embedding machine-executable script in said markup symbols, the machine-executable script including source text corresponding to translated text identified by corresponding markup symbols;
• and
• a display and operation unit for displaying said translated text, and responding to operations on said markup symbols by executing said embedded machine-executable script, thereby displaying the source text included in said machine-executable script.

A machine translation and document display system that translates source text into translated text and generates a mixed document including at least the source text and the translated text, comprising:

• an attribute generator for embedding markup symbols in said mixed document, the markup symbols dividing said mixed document into parts and subparts, each part of the mixed document including one subpart with part of the source text and another subpart with a corresponding part of the translated text, the subparts being identified by markup symbols specifying the language of the source text and the language of the translated text;
• and
• a display and operation unit for receiving a language specification and selectively displaying the source text and the translated text in response to the language specification.