Sentence generating system

Claim 2

The system according to claim 1, wherein said sentence generating means has a plurality of partial sentence generating means each of which executes part of sentence generating processing, and said evaluating means evaluates results generated by each of said plurality of sentence generating means.

Claim 3

The system according to claim 1, further comprising result storing means for storing the results generated by said sentence generating means, wherein said evaluating means evaluates the results stored in said result storing means and delivers results of evaluation to said altering means.

Claim 4

The system according to claim 1, wherein an evaluation criterion used by said evaluating means is the length of the sentence generated by said sentence generating means.

Claim 5

The system according to claim 4, wherein said altering means has rules for shortening the length of the generated sentence, these rules describing values for shortening the sentence with regard to said limitation.

Claim 6

The system according to claim 2, wherein an evaluation criterion used by said evaluating means is the length of the sentence generated by said sentence generating means, and said altering means has rules for shortening the length of the generated sentence, these rules describing values for shortening the sentence with regard to said limitation.

Claim 7

The system according to claim 6, wherein said rules regulate word length of a surface word which constructs the generated sentence.

Claim 8

The system according to claim 6, wherein said rules regulate the number of clauses contained in the generated sentence.

Claim 9

The system according to claim 1, further comprising counting means for counting the number of times sentence generation is executed by said sentence generating means; wherein when sentence generation is re-executed based upon the limitation altered by said altering means, said re-execution control means controls re-execution in dependence upon a count recorded by said counting means.

Claim 10

The system according to claim 9, wherein said sentence generating means has a plurality of partial sentence generating means each of which executes part of sentence generating processing, and said evaluating means evaluates results generated by each of said plurality of sentence generating means.

Claim 11

The system according to claim 9, wherein said re-execution control means limits the number of re-executions.

Claim 12

The system according to claim 9, wherein said re-execution control means alters a reference criterion used by said evaluating means.

Claim 13

A sentence generating system for generating a sentence from an inputted semantic representation, characterized by comprising: limitation storing means for storing a limitation which a generated sentence should satisfy; sentence generating means for generating a sentence from the inputted semantic representation based upon a limitation stored in said limitation storing means; evaluation-criterion storing means for storing an evaluation criterion that is for evaluating the sentence generated by said sentence generating means; criterion altering means for altering the evaluation criterion stored in said evaluation-criterion storing means; evaluating means for evaluating the sentence, which has been generated by said sentence generating means, in accordance with the evaluation criterion stored in said evaluation-criterion storing means; limitation altering means for altering the limitation, which has been stored in said limitation storing means, based upon the evaluation made by said evaluating means; and re-execution control means for performing control in such a manner that generation of the sentence by said sentence generating means is re-executed based upon the limitation altered by said limitation altering means.

Claim 14

The system according to claim 13, wherein said criterion altering means has random-number generating means for generating a random number, the evaluation criterion being altered based upon the random number generated by said random-number generating means.

Claim 15

The system according to claim 13, further comprising result storing means for storing the results generated by said sentence generating means, wherein said evaluating means evaluates the results stored in said result storing means in accordance with the evaluation criterion stored in said evaluation-criterion storing means.

Claim 16

A machine translating system for translating an inputted sentence in a first language into a sentence in a second language and outputting the sentence in the second language, characterized by comprising: input means for inputting the sentence in the first language; analyzing means for outputting a semantic representation upon analyzing the sentence in the first language inputted by said input means; limitation storing means for storing a limitation which a sentence generated in the second language should satisfy; sentence generating means for generating the sentence in the second language from the semantic representation based upon the limitation stored in said limitation storing means; output means for outputting the sentence generated in the second language by said sentence generating means; evaluating means for evaluating the sentence generated by said sentence generating means; and re-execution control means having altering means for altering the limitation, which has been stored in said limitation storing means, based upon an evaluation made by said evaluating means, said re-execution control means performing control in such a manner that generation of the sentence in the second language by said sentence generating means is re-executed based upon the altered limitation.

Claim 17

The system according to claim 16, wherein said sentence generating means has a plurality of partial sentence generating means each of which executes part of sentence generating processing, and said evaluating means evaluates results generated by each of said plurality of sentence generating means.

Claim 18

The system according to claim 16, further comprising result storing means for storing the results generated by said sentence generating means, wherein said evaluating means evaluates the results stored in said result storing means in accordance with the evaluation criterion stored in said evaluation-criterion storing means.

Claim 19

The system according to claim 18, wherein said re-execution control means halts re-execution in a case where said evaluating means has determined that a predetermined evaluation criterion has been satisfied.

Claim 20

A sentence generating method of generating a sentence from an inputted semantic representation, characterized by comprising the steps of: a. storing a limitation which a generated sentence should satisfy; b. generating a sentence from the inputted semantic representation based upon the limitation that has been stored; c. evaluating results generated; d. altering the limitation that has been stored based upon the evaluation of step c; and e. repeating steps b through d until the evaluation of step c satisfies a predetermined criterion.

Claim 21

The method according to claim 20, further comprising the steps of: f. counting the number of times sentence generation is executed in step b; and g. controlling re-execution in dependence upon a count recorded in step f, when sentence generation is re-executed based upon the limitation altered in step d.

Claim 22

A machine translating method of translating an inputted sentence in a first language into a sentence in a second language and outputting the sentence in the second language, characterized by comprising the steps of: a. inputting the sentence in the first language; outputting a semantic representation upon analyzing the inputted sentence in the first language; b. generating the sentence in the second language from the semantic representation based upon limitations which are previously stored and which a sentence generated in the second language should satisfy; c. outputting the sentence generated in the second language; d. evaluating the sentence generated in step b; e. altering the limitations based upon an evaluation made in step d; and f. performing re-execution of step b in such a manner that generation of the sentence in the second language in step b is re-executed based upon the limitation altered in step e.

Claim 23

Apparatus for generating a sentence from a semantic representation comprising means for evaluating a generated sentence and generating a modified sentence on the basis of the evaluation.

Claim 24

Apparatus according to claim 23, comprising first means to generate or modify a sentence in accordance with a pre-set parameter, and second means to evaluate a sentence generated by the first means and vary the said parameter in accordance with the evaluation result.