Interlingua in machine translation systems for sign languages

The article reviews those machine translation systems for sign languages that are based on intermediate semantic language (interlingua). The constrictive principles of two systems are considered: ZARDOZ (multilingual system for translating spoken language into a number of different sign languages, in particular, Irish, American, Japanese) and Multi-path (system with multiple processing pathways for translating spoken English into American sign language). The architecture of those systems and the requirements stipulated by the peculiarities of sign languages are discussed on conceptual level, without going into mathematical and technical details. The purpose of this article is to contribute to better understanding of problems and strategies of formalizing semantics within machine translation systems for sign languages.