Machine translation system using well formed substructures

A machine translation system for translating text in a source language to text in a target language, comprising:

• an input interface for putting text in the source language into the system;
• an analyser for analysing a grammatically complete section of the input text into source language signs, each of which has an associated label comprising an identifier for identifying the sign and data identifying any other sign to which the sign is grammatically related;
• a first transformer for transforming the source language signs to target language signs including transforming the identifiers and the data;
• a combiner for combining the target language signs into a target language structure such that each target language sign is associated with at least one other target language sign;
• an evaluator for evaluating the target language structure so as to identify, from the identifiers and the data of the target language signs, well formed substructures and target language signs not forming part of a well formed substructure;
• and a second transformer for transforming the target language structure without dissociating from each other target language signs forming well formed substructures identified by the evaluator, the evaluator and the second transformer alternately evaluating and transforming the target language structure.