This paper
presents a system capable of context dependent planning in
a multilingual environment. We present data on semantic mismatch,
where shades of meaning are grouped and lexicalized differently in
different languages. We show how we can generate appropriate
multilingual text without resorting to an exhaustive enumeration of
meanings in each language's lexicon by applying context and
language-dependent processing techniques.
We will develop this point with some examples of semantic mismatch, a term that we use to describe situations where semantic distinctions for lexical items across languages are more fine-grained ( pez, pescado in Spanish but fish in English), more coarse grained ( cuire in French but bake, cook in English) or packaged differently ( fliegen in German but send by plane in English).
Our second point builds on these ideas. We argue that intelligent planners often need ``advice'' from the linguistic planning component. For instance, in planning instructional text, a strategic planner might have several options for presenting material. Different languages might be more suited to one of the options than the other. We present an example where the possibility for an elliptical expression leads to a preference in French that is not the same in English. Again, context dependent planning in a multilingual environment is the key.