Compass an Intelligent Dictionary System for Reading Text in a Foreign Language

This paper presents a system which assists in the comprehension of on{line texts in foreign languages by utilising a context{sensitive dictionary look{up system. The system employs state{of{the{art nite state technology for the context analysis and uses converted bilingual print dictionaries as its primary resource of lexical information. A comprehenision{speciic view of the conventional print dictionaries was made available for the system by analysing the dictionary structure and parsing the typesetting tapes. The lexical information was validated and augmented by corpus{based lexicographic revision, and was nally formalised to meet the requirements of an NLP system. An estimation of the eeorts required to prepare full dictionaries for the system is given.