Machine Translation
Linguistic characteristics of MT systems and general methodology of evaluation
The use of the computer in translating natural languages ranges from that of a translator's aid for word processing and dictionary lookup to that of a full-fledged translator on its own. However the obstacles to translating by means of the computer are primarily linguistic. To overcome them it is necessary to resolve the ambiguities that pervade a natural language when words and sentences are viewed in isolation. The problem then is to formalize, in the computer, these aspects of natural language understanding. The authors show how, from a linguistic point of view, one may form some idea of what goes on inside a system's black box, given only the input (original text) and the raw output (translated text before post-editing). Many examples of English/French translation are used to illustrate the principles involved.
[Lingvisticæ Investigationes Supplementa, 15] 1988. viii, 240 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 18 March 2011
Published online on 18 March 2011
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgements | p. ix
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Preface | p. xi
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Introduction | p. 1
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Identification of system characteristics | p. 5
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Linguistic components of a system | p. 56
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Building a system | p. 128
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Linguistic evaluation by the user | p. 132
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Conclusion | p. 191
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Notes | p. 194
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Appendix A: A Synthesis of Evaluations of MT Systems | p. 196
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Appendix V: An Example of a fully automatic MT chain | p. 223
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“All in all, Bourbeau and Lehrberger have done a good didactic job in describing the intricacies of machine translation and demonstrating how multifaceted and complex its evaluation is. And any potential user will learn a lot in terms of both wisdom and wariness from it.”
Claude Bedard, in Language Technology 9.
“[...] Il faut recommander la lecture de ce livre à tous les traducteurs et particulièrement aux étudiants: on comprend mieux le processus traduisant, la réflexion devient proligère et on veut en savoir davantage. Bref, un bon cours!”
Andre Clas, in META 33.4 (1988)
“[...] the authors are clearly in the forefront of this field. The book reflects their contribution to MT system evaluation, and should be studied by users and system designers alike.”
Neal Oliver, in Information Processing and Management, 25.5 (1989)
“[...] this book makes a significant contribution to the literature on MT evaluation in that it is a serious attempt at formulating a general methodology. [...] the first chapters stand on their own as an introduction to MT for translators, linguists and computer scientists with more than a superficial interest in the subject.”
Ingrid Meyer, in Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 35.1 (1990)
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Loffler-Laurian, Anne-Marie
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Dancette, Jeanne
1995. Bibliographie. In Parcours de traduction, ► pp. 227 ff.
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1993. Current MT research orientation/disorientation. Machine Translation 7:4 ► pp. 253 ff.
Church, Kenneth W. & Eduard H. Hovy
1993. Good applications for crummy machine translation. Machine Translation 8:4 ► pp. 239 ff.
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Minnis, Stephen
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Minnis, Stephen
1994. A simple and practical method for evaluating machine translation quality. Machine Translation 9:2 ► pp. 133 ff.
Somers, Harold L.
1993. Current research in Machine Translation. Machine Translation 7:4 ► pp. 231 ff.
Gotlieb, C. C. & L. d'Haenens
1991. Machine translation of non-literary texts: Some Canadian experiences. Machine Translation 6:1 ► pp. 21 ff.
Meyer, Ingrid
1991. The role and design of computer studies in a research-oriented translation program. Computers and the Humanities 25:5 ► pp. 297 ff.
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Subjects
Linguistics
Translation & Interpreting Studies
Main BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General