ANGLABHARTI: a multilingual machine aided translation project on translation from English to Indian languages

An English to Indian languages machine aided translation system, named ANGLABHARTI, has been developed. It uses pattern directed approach using context free grammar like structures. A 'pseudo-target' is generated which is applicable to a group of Indian languages. Set of rules are acquired through corpus analysis to identify the plausible constituents with respect to which movement rules for the 'pseudo-target' are constructed. A number of semantic tags are used to resolve sense ambiguity in the source language. Alternative meanings for the unresolved ambiguities are retained in the pseudo target language code. A text generator module for each of the target languages transforms the pseudo target language to the target language. A corrector for ill-formed sentences is used for each of the target languages. Finally, a human-engineered post-editing package is used to make the final corrections. The post-editor needs to know only the target language. The strategy used in ANGLABHARTI lies in between the transfer and the interlingua approach. It is better than the transfer approach, as the translation is valid for a host of target language sentences, but falls short of genuine interlingua, in the sense that it ignores complete disambiguation/understanding of the text to be translated.