- From: CE Whitehead <cewcathar@hotmail.com>
- Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2007 12:00:33 -0400
- To: w3c-translators@w3.org
- Cc: christophe.strobbe@esat.kuleuven.be, duerst@it.aoyama.ac.jp, ecrire@catherine-roy.net
Examples of Machine Translations where pronouns (it/she) and the like (for example, a word that can be either a pronoun or article but where the choice should be clear from context; and also a verb that has two meanings but again where the meaning should be clear from context) are not disambiguated (also one example where the word order got really convoluted in the translation) 1. (Below is the sentence that got goofed up yesterday, without the subjunctive -- which I understand is fading from oral French; but not from written; perhaps that's the problem with this first machine translation example) Il va pleuvoir le dimanche, n'est-ce pas? Y a-t-il quelque chose que je peux faire? Machine Translation (I got slight variation for the two translators I used in this one case I think; I'll check again, but that's out of the scope of this email): It Sunday, isn't this will rain? Is there something which I can do? * * * 2. (The same text as above, except with 'puisse' [the subjunctive form] insted of 'peux' [the indicative]; but note that in neither case does the machine translator know what to do with "le" in "le dimanche"--'le' can be a pronoun or a definite article in French, but here 'le' is clearly, based on the sentence structure, a definite article!) Il va pleuvoir le dimanche, n'est-ce pas? Y a-t-il quelque chose que je puisse faire? Machine Translation: It Sunday, isn't this will rain? Is there something which I can do? * * * 3. (The machine translations do not disambiguate 'it' from 'her' in the example below [where 'l' in the phrase "l'a vue" can refer to either a thing or a woman/girl]; there's not enough information to choose 'it' or 'her' in this case, of course; but actually the translators I looked do seem -- at this point in time -- to ignore all surrounding text when choosing pronouns to translate the pronouns in a phrase embedded in that text!): Est-il possible que personne ne l'ait vue? Machine Translation: Is it possible that nobody saw it? * * * 4. (Below, the machine translator gives two options for the verb "comprenez" -- thus letting the user choose which is correct; a good idea perhaps?): Etant donné que vous ne comprenez rien de ce qui est écrit ci-dessus, est-il aussi possible que vous ne compreniez pas le texte entier? Machine Translation: Since you do not include/understand anything of what is written above, is it as possible as you do not include/understand the whole text? * * * 5. (Is the word order messed up in the translation below, or is it the translation that is messed up?) Pour les traductions ci-dessus, faut-il noter les URL's des documents originaires? Machine Translation: "For is the translations above, necessary to note the URL' S of the originating documents?" * * * 6. (A Convoluted Sentence in the original French -- probably my French is wrong, too -- but anyway note that the correct translation of 'faire' in this case is 'do' but the machine translates 'faire' as 'make'; I thought the machine translations could do better at disambiguating the various meanings of faire!) Le plus que je peux faire en ce cas-ci sera d'y ajouter quelques petites remarques sur les cas où il est possible qu'il n'est pas possible! Machine Translatotion: "More than I can make in this case will be to add some small remarks to it on the cases where it is possible that it is not possible!" * * * --C. E. Whitehead cewcathar@hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________ Get a preview of Live Earth, the hottest event this summer - only on MSN http://liveearth.msn.com?source=msntaglineliveearthhm
Received on Saturday, 9 June 2007 16:00:47 UTC