Universal Networking Language

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UNL can also mean University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In machine translation, Universal Networking Language (UNL) is an artificial pivot language that relies on the semi-automatic translation from the initial text in a natural language into its pivot equivalent. Documents expressed in the pivot language can then be automatically translated into another natural language.

The pivot representation consists of concepts and relations between them. Concepts are not formally defined but represented by their English equivalent. Allowed concepts are listed in the Universal Word Lexicon (UW concepts). The relations between the concepts are drawn from a set of predefined relations.

The Universal Networking Language Project is an attempt to build a knowledge-based translation system. It has developed a format specification of an intermediary language (UNL), a limited lexicon (UW KB) and several demos each of which converts UNL to a natural language. As of 2004, the project is not finished yet.

BabelCode, UNL and KCE (by Carnegie Mellon University) are all more or less based on knowledge representation theory but apply it in different levels.

1 Critical remarks
2 Who created UNL?
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Critical remarks

UNL is not the first attempt to use a pivot for machine translation. These systems, called interlingual machine translation systems, worked, if at all, for a limited domain with a limited number of concepts and a limited number of relations between the concepts. Trying to list all concepts of all cultures seems in this light an impossible task.

The technique of using an English word to represent a concept is also questionable. First of all, many concepts of other cultures cannot be expressed in one English word. Other languages make distinctions English does not make lexically. Second, most English words have more than one meaning, e.g. construction, standing for both the process and the result of a process. Just giving an English word to define a concept without clarifying the meaning is insufficient. Third, many different English words have roughly the same meaning, e.g. to construct, constructing and construction (meaning 'in the process'). Listing them in a dictionary of concepts creates concepts which cannot be distinguished from other contexts. Fourth, the question whether two English words express the same concept is context dependent. In a chemical text, water and H₂O may refer to the same concept. In other texts they may not.

Thus, the claim of UNL to be useful for every language can be seriously questioned. Even if some simple tests have been run with maybe a dozen languages, the diversity and richness of human languages have barely been explored.

[edit] Who created UNL?

UNL is developed, managed by the UNDL Foundation, an international non-profit organization dependent from the United Nations University/Institute for Advanced Studies.

The system is patented by the United Nations and users of UNL should "refrain from commercial activities of products generated from or in conjunction with the UNL"^{[citation needed]}.

The organisation behind UNL is also planning a UNL Encyclopedia.