---
title: "Unification-Based Glossing"
authors:
  - "Vasileios Hatzivassiloglou"
  - "Kevin Knight"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1995/178"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1995/0178.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1995
pages: "1382-1388"
track: "Natural Language"
keywords:
---

# Unification-Based Glossing

Vasileios Hatzivassiloglou, Kevin Knight

*Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 1382-1388.

## Abstract

We present an approach to syntax-based machine translation that combines unification-style interpretation with statistical processing. This approach enables us to translat e any Japan ese newspaper article into English, with quality far better than a word-for-word translation. Novel ideas include the use of feature structures to encode word lattic es and the use of unifi cati on to co mpos e and manipulat e lattices . Unification also allows us to specify abstract features that delay target-language synthesis until enough source-language information is assembled. Our statistical component enables us to search efficiently among competing translations and locate those with high English flu ency.