Zero pronoun resolution in a Japanese to English machine translation system by using verbal semantic attributes

Abstract

A method of anaphoral resolution of zero pronouns in Japanese language texts using the verbal semantic attributes is suggested. This method focuses attention on the semantic attributes of verbs and examines the context from the relationship between the semantic attributes of verbs governing zero pronouns and the semantic attributes of verbs governing their referents. The semantic attributes of verbs are created using 2 different viewpoints: dynamic characteristics of verbs and the relationship of verbs to cases. By using this method, it is shown that, in the case of translating newspaper articles, the major portion (93%) of anaphoral resolution of zero pronouns necessary for machine translation can be achieved by using only linguistic knowledge. Factors to be given special attention when incorporating this method into a machine translation system are examined, together with suggested conditions for the detection of zero pronouns and methods for their conversion. This study considers four factors that are important when implementing this method in a Japanese to English machine translation system: the difference in conception between Japanese and English expressions, the difference in case frame patterns between Japanese and English, restrictions by voice and restriction by translation structure. Implementation of the proposed method with due consideration of these points leads to a viable method for anaphoral resolution of zero pronouns in a practical machine translation system.

Automatic extraction of rules for anaphora resolution of Japanese zero pronouns from aligned sentence pairs

“…To overcome these kinds of problems, several methods to resolve zero pronouns which consider applications for a practical machine translation system with an unlimited translation target area, have been proposed (Nakaiwa and Ikehara, 1992;Nakaiwa and Ikehara, 1995;. These methods use categorized semantic and pragmatic constraints such as verbal semantic attributes (Nakaiwa et al, 1994) and types of modal expressions and conjunctions as a condition for anaphora resolution of zero pronouns and determine antecedents of zero pronouns depending on the typical category of three types of semantic and pragmatic constraints.…”

Evaluating automated and manual acquisition of anaphora resolution strategies

“…Zero pronoun resolution for machine translation reported by Nakaiwa and Ikehara (Nakaiwa and Ikehara, 1992) used only semantic attributes of verbs in a restricted domain. The small test results (102 sentences from 29 articles) had high success rate of 93%.…”

A system of verbal semantic attributes focused on the syntactic correspondence between Japanese and English

“…Using verbal semantic attributes to analyze anaphoric referents of zero pronouns appearing in Japanese texts is one applicati(m that has been considered (Nakaiwa et al 1992). This technique pays attention to verbal semantic attributes and the relationship between the semantic attributes of tim verbs which govern zero pronouns and the semantic attributes of ttle verbs which govern case element candidates which may be anaphoricatly referred to.…”