Oxygen: A language independent linearization engine

Abstract

This paper describes a language independent linearization engine, oxyGen. This system compiles target language grammars into programs that take feature graphs as inputs and generate word lattices that can be passed along to the statistical extraction module of the generation system Nitrogen. The grammars are written using a flexible and powerful language, oxyL, that has the power of a programming language but focuses on natural language realization. This engine has been used successfully in creating an English linearization program that is currently employed as part of a Chinese-English machine translation system.