A Descriptive Framework for Translating Speaker's Meaning

A f ramework for t r a n s l a t i n g speake r ' s meaning or intention is proposed based on two notions, Illocutionary Force Types (IFTs) for analysis and Decision Parameters (DPs) for g e n e r a t i o n . IFTs are a c e r t a i n k i n d of classification of utterances concerning speaker's meaning. DPs present background information of language use in order to derive an appropriate expression from speaker's meaning. In Japanese, IFTs can be derived automat ica l ly th rough syntactical constraints. To generate appropriate expressions, language-specific communicat ion strategies related to DP values should be given a priori. The whole process is performed in a unification-based framework.