Various Representations of Text Proposed for Eurotra

VARIOUS REPRESENTATIONS OF TEXT PROPOSED FOR EUROTRA Christian Boitet(+), NeLson Verastegui(++), DanieL Bachut(++) (+)Groupe d'Etudes pour La Traduction Automatique UniversitE Scientifique et R~dicaLe de Grenoble BP 68 - 38402 Saint Martin d'H~res - France (++)[nstitut de Formation et ConseiL en Informatique 27, rue Turenne - 38000 GrenobLe - France ABSTRACT We introduce several general notions concerning the texts and the particularities of text proces- sing on a computer support, in relation to some problems which are specific to M(A)T. And we present the solution we have proposed for the duration of the EUROTRA project. INTRODUCTION The input/output modules are very important for a machine (aided) translation system (M(A)T), which must be integrated into some environment (translation office, technical data base, etc.). From an external point of view, the support of a text is either paper with figures, formulas, tables and typographical conventions, or a magnetic support containing, in addition, formatting and page-setting commands for a special text processing system. Within all modern M(A)T systems, including EUROTRA (now in the specification phase), a text is viewed, from an ~IJt~point of view, as a set of decorated nodes, organized according to a particular geometrical distribution (often a tree structure, as in ARIANE-78 (Boitet et al., 1982)). Our objective in proposing some representations of texts for EUROTRA has been to define an internal structure recognized by the EUROTRA software systems, and carrying all information necessary for the translation model and for the restitution of the preceding information at output time. TEXT PROCESSING IN GENERAL Each text (whether or not on computer support) is considered from three points of view, i.e. : IThis work has been carried out as part of a contracCwith the Commission of the European Communities (in the framework of the EUROTRA Research and Development programme) and the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). The ideas and proposals in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily shared or supported by the Commission, nor are they to be interpreted as part of the EUROTRA design. We are grateful to the Commission and the CNRS for agreement to publish this paper. 73 The Fopu~ is everything related to the particu- Lar external aspect of a text on paper. E.g., the fact that it is written in one or several columns, single or double spaced, printed recto or recto/ verso, following a special convention for the numbering of chapters and sections, etc. The ~>¢JC~p.~j¢¢E is the logical division of the text into hierarchically related pieces such as volume, part, chapter, section, sub-section, paragraph, sub-paragraph, sentence, numbered or non-numbered lists, figures, tables, diagrams, etc. This depends on the kind of text : when pro- cessing plays, getting rid or their devision into acts and scenes is out of the question. When poetry is processed, the delimitation of each line cannot be left out. The structure can be externally represented by using various po~E forms. In the context of M(A)T, th~ advantages of taking into account the structure of the text are …

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