Accessing Foreign Languages with COMPASS

This paper presents an approach to avoid translations by utilizing a context-- sensitive dictionary look--up system to assist in the comprehension of on--line texts in foreign languages. The system employs state--of--the--art finite state technology for analysis of the context and uses converted bilingual print dictionaries as its primary resource of lexical information. The print dictionaries are opened up for the system by analysing the dictionary structure and parsing the type--setting tapes. The lexical information is validated and augmented by corpus based lexicographic revision, where special attention is paid to the treatment of multi--word lexemes, for which formalized local grammars are added to the augmented dictionaries. Although the system is currently implemented as a device for comprehension assistance, the same technology and methods can be employed to select information from the dictionaries that is relevant for tranlation processes