An interlingual communication support system that shows semantic matches and mismatches among languages being used for any transaction is discussed. The system uses a thesaurus approach to the meaning structure of language, which is hierarchical, but uses a cross-hierarchical approach to access different meanings for selection of the appropriate usage. Thesaurus research has shown a strong correlation between semantic groupings used in "Roget's International Thesaurus" (3rd edition) and the verbal groupings guiding use of the English language, suggesting that the thesaurus may be regarded as the skeleton for English-speaking society's collective associative memory. The approach was tested on the translation of technical information from Chinese to English. A significant problem encountered was the degree of semantic polarity expressed and expected in English in comparison with that of Chinese. The experiment did produce results correlating well with observations made about Chinese in relation to Western languages, and offers a basis for semantic distribution of other languages. The thesaurus approach is seen as having substantial potential for enhancing cross-linguistic comparison. (MSE)