An Evaluation of UNL Usability for High Quality Multilingualization and Projections for a Future UNL++ Language

In a recent experiment on translating a web site into 4 languages, we have confirmed that using MT results in "translator's mode" can reduce the human work to produce good translations of complex sentences (25 w) at a rate of 25 mn/p with all-purpose commercial MT and at 20 mn/p with lab quality MT. A subexperiment has shown that using deconversions from quality-checked interlingual representations (UNL graphs) reduced the time spent down to 10 mn/p. Reducing the considerable time now needed for producing and checking UNL graphs is possible, which leads to very good usability prospects in situations involving many target languages and allowing for interactive disambiguation of source text or correction of interlingua. An analysis of improvable aspects in both interlingua design and resource building leads to a "roadmap" towards "UNL++" in the framework of the U++C consortium, including strong mutualization (collaborative volunteer work) and open-source aspects.