Rapidly retargetable interactive translingual retrieval

This paper describes a system for rapidly retargetable interactive translingual retrieval. Basic functionality can be achieved for a new document language in a single day, and further improvements require only a relatively modest additional investment. We applied the techniques first to search Chinese collections using English queries, and have successfully added French, German, and Italian document collections. We achieve this capability through separation of language-dependent and language-independent components and through the application of asymmetric techniques that leverage an extensive English retrieval infrastructure.