Example-based translation method and system which calculates word similarity degrees, a priori probability, and transformation probability to determine the best example for translation

A translating apparatus and a translating method wherein a first language sentence is divided into syntax units consisting of predetermined units of sentence structure such as clauses and phrases in stages from large syntax units into small syntax units and at each stage stored examples most similar to these syntax units are detected using probability models taking into account grammatical attributes of the syntax units and of the examples and using generalized linguistic knowledge and with reference to a thesaurus and the syntax units are translated on the basis of these detected examples and the results of translation of the syntax units are compounded to generate a second language sentence. The invention makes it possible to carry out high-quality translating efficiently and therefore at a high processing speed while eliminating the need for many superficially different examples having the same meaning content to be prepared and the need for the thesaurus to be regularly structured or have uniform distances between concepts.