Document searching system for multilingual documents

Abstract

The present invention provides a system which enables searching documents at one time, even if they may be written in plural languages, according to key words written in the searcher's language. The system also enables translation of the search results into the searcher's language prior to being displayed. In the document searching system for multilingual documents of the present invention, the translation control means translates the key words written by the searcher's language is provided. Another translation control means for the search results that translates the whole text of the selected documents is provided independently. As for the key word translation means, a simple translation system is applied because the objects of the translation are words such as nouns, verbs and so forth. On the other hand, for the search result translation means, a high-level translation system may be applied because the objects of the translation are common sentences and the appropriate translation is deduced from the context of the document. Therefore, in the processing steps of the free key word translation means, where the search formula may be changed, added, modified or deleted frequently to improve the exactness of the search result, the processing speed in these steps is not decreased so that the whole system response may speed up.