<s>
Eurotra	B-General_Concept
was	O
an	O
ambitious	O
machine	B-Application
translation	I-Application
project	O
established	O
and	O
funded	O
by	O
the	O
European	O
Commission	O
from	O
1978	O
until	O
1992	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Emboldened	O
by	O
modest	O
success	O
with	O
an	O
older	O
,	O
commercially	O
developed	O
machine	B-Application
translation	I-Application
system	I-Application
SYSTRAN	B-General_Concept
,	O
a	O
large	O
network	O
of	O
European	O
computational	O
linguists	O
embarked	O
upon	O
the	O
Eurotra	B-General_Concept
project	O
with	O
the	O
hope	O
of	O
creating	O
a	O
state-of-the-art	O
MT	O
system	O
for	O
the	O
then	O
seven	O
,	O
later	O
nine	O
,	O
official	O
languages	O
of	O
the	O
European	O
Community	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
true	O
character	O
of	O
Eurotra	B-General_Concept
was	O
eventually	O
acknowledged	O
to	O
be	O
in	O
fact	O
pre-competitive	O
research	O
rather	O
than	O
prototype	O
development	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
To	O
solve	O
this	O
problem	O
Eurotra	B-General_Concept
was	O
devised	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Older	O
systems	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
SYSTRAN	B-General_Concept
,	O
were	O
heavily	O
dictionary-based	O
,	O
with	O
minor	O
support	O
for	O
rearranging	O
word	O
order	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Eurotra	B-General_Concept
addressed	O
the	O
constituent	O
structure	O
of	O
the	O
text	O
to	O
be	O
translated	O
,	O
going	O
through	O
first	O
a	O
syntactic	O
parse	B-Language
followed	O
by	O
a	O
second	O
parse	B-Language
to	O
produce	O
a	O
dependency	O
structure	O
followed	O
by	O
a	O
final	O
parse	B-Language
with	O
a	O
third	O
grammar	O
to	O
produce	O
what	O
was	O
referred	O
to	O
internally	O
as	O
Intermediate	O
Representation	O
(	O
IR	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Since	O
all	O
three	O
modules	O
were	O
implemented	O
as	O
Prolog	B-Language
programs	O
,	O
it	O
would	O
then	O
in	O
principle	O
be	O
possible	O
to	O
put	O
this	O
structure	O
backwards	O
through	O
the	O
corresponding	O
modules	O
for	O
another	O
language	O
to	O
produce	O
a	O
translated	O
text	O
in	O
any	O
of	O
the	O
other	O
languages	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
first	O
"	O
live	O
"	O
translation	O
occupied	O
a	O
4Mb	O
Microvax	B-Device
running	O
Ultrix	B-Operating_System
and	O
C-Prolog	O
for	O
a	O
complete	O
weekend	O
some	O
time	O
in	O
early	O
1987	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
main	O
problem	O
faced	O
by	O
the	O
system	O
was	O
the	O
generation	O
of	O
so-called	O
"	O
Parse	B-Language
Forests	O
"	O
-	O
often	O
a	O
large	O
number	O
of	O
different	O
grammar	O
rules	O
could	O
be	O
applied	O
to	O
any	O
particular	O
phrase	O
,	O
producing	O
hundreds	O
,	O
even	O
thousands	O
of	O
(	O
often	O
identical	O
)	O
parse	B-Language
trees	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
While	O
Eurotra	B-General_Concept
never	O
delivered	O
a	O
"	O
working	O
"	O
MT	O
system	O
,	O
the	O
project	O
made	O
a	O
far-reaching	O
long-term	O
impact	O
on	O
the	O
nascent	O
language	O
industries	O
in	O
European	O
member	O
states	O
,	O
in	O
particular	O
among	O
the	O
southern	O
countries	O
of	O
Greece	O
,	O
Italy	O
,	O
Spain	O
,	O
and	O
Portugal	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
There	O
is	O
at	O
least	O
one	O
commercial	O
MT	O
system	O
(	O
developed	O
by	O
an	O
academic/commercial	O
consortium	O
in	O
Denmark	O
)	O
derived	O
from	O
Eurotra	B-General_Concept
technology	O
.	O
</s>
