contrasting polish and english derivational groups

Contrasting Polish and English Derivational Groups

Karolina Tymowicz

based on•Jadacka, H. Rzeczeownik polski jako baza derywacyjna,WN-PWN 1995 •independent contrastive study of 540 Polish-English pairs of derivations

November 28th 2000

Outline

• Defining terms:– Derivational group– Derivational base– Affixes– Similarity of and within derivational groups

• Procedure of comparison

• Conclusions

Derivational group

• A well-ordered system constructed around an underived entry word concentrating all the derivatives connected with it by means of direct or indirect process of derivation

• a hierarchical structure in which each element functions as a link between other derivatives and the BASE

Derivational base

• The item to which an affix is added to derive a new word-form

• the word-forms consisting of the derivational base and an affix are called DERIVATIVES– e.g. STYLE - STYLIZE - STYLIZER– e.g. CENTRE - CENTRIC - CENTRICALLY

Affix

• a morpheme that is added to a word, and which changes the meaning or function of the word

• affixes are bound-forms that can be added:– to the beginning of a word = a prefix, e.g.:

unkind– to the end of a word = suffix, e.g.: kindness

Similarity within derivational groups

Four kinds of similarities within derivational groups are considered. Three types of translational similarity– translational similarity between morphemes

– translational similarity between derivatives

– translational similarity between derivational groups

and one type of grapho-etymological similarity – graphemic and etymological similarity between bases

degrees of translational similarity between morphemes (incl. bases)

def. translational similarity between L1 and L2 morphemes is a degree to which L1 morpheme can correctly be rendered as a corresponding L2 morpheme (i.e. morphemes occupying the same position with respect to the base).

• no similarity, e.g.

ponad- vs. -less in P. ponad-czasowy, E. time-less)

• 1st degree of similarity, e.g.

bez- vs. -less in P. bez-głośny, E. voice-less

• 2nd degree of similarity, e.g.

-ik vs. -er in P. głośn-ik, E. loudspeak-er

-czas- vs. time- in P. ponad-czas-owy, E. time-less)

degrees of translational similarity between derivativesdef.: a joint translational similarity between all the

corresponding morphemes of the Polish and English derivatives

e.g. Pol. Eng.

za- = a-

les’- = forest

ać

whereby two morphemes are corresponding iff they occupy the same position with respect to the base.

similarity between derivational groups is a function of – the grapho-etymological similarity of

their bases,– and the translational similarity of all

their derivatives.

degrees of translational similarity between derivative groups

Degrees of graphemic-etymological similarity between

derivational bases

def. Similarity established between two bases with respect to their etymological and graphemic features with the assumption of their translational equivalence

– no similarity, e.g. dom vs. house

– remote similarity, e.g. brat vs. brother

– close similarity, e.g. styl vs. style

irrespective of the translational equivalence of their derivatives

Scale of translational similarity between derivatives

This scale used here consists of 12 levels of similarity counted from 11 to 0, where 0 stands for the lowest level of similarity and 11 denotes the highest level of similarity.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Treatment of compound derivatives

If a single compound derivative of the form “A-B” or “AB” (but not “A B”) has an equivalent in the other language in the form of 2 separate words “C D” then it is included into our classification as long as

• C is a direct translation of A and D is a direct translation of B

• or C is a direct translation of B and D is a direct translation of A.

This convention has been adopted because• Jadacka’s derivational groups contain only derivatives of the

form ‘AB’ or ‘A-B’, but no ‘A B’ derivatives

• Jadacka’s work constituted the main and most reliable source of derivatives and derivational groups considered in the study.

11. P. BASE1 + BASE2 + SUFFIX =

E. BASE1 + BASE2 + SUFFIX

e.g.: słowo - word

słowo-twór-stwo word form-ation

10. E. BASE1 + (BASE2 + SUFFIX) =

P. (BASE2 + SUFFIX) + BASE1

e.g.: krew - blood

blood-stain-ed poplamio-ny krwią

9. E. BASE1 + BASE2 =

P. BASE2 + (BASE1 + SUFFIX)

e.g.: głos - voice

voice-mail poczta głos-owa

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 C

ompound derivatives 1

Scale of similarity

Com

pound derivatives 2

8. P. BASE1 + BASE2 =

E. BASE1 + BASE2

e.g.: słowo - word

pół-słowo half-word

7. E. BASE1 + BASE2 =

P. BASE2 + BASE1

e.g.: styl - style

free-style styl wolny

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Scale of similarity

6. P. BASE + SUFFIX =

E. BASE + SUFFIX

e.g.: las - forest

les’-nik forest-er

P. BASE + SUFFIX + SUFFIX =

E. BASE + SUFFIX + SUFFIX

e.g.: styl - style

styl-ist-yczny styl-ist-ic

P. PREFIX + BASE + SUFFIX =

E. PREFIX + BASE + SUFFIX

e.g.: las - forest

wy-les’-anie de-forest-ation

P. PREFIX + BASE + SUFFIX + SUFFIX =

E. PREFIX + BASE + SUFFIX + SUFFIX

e.g.: centrum - centre

de-centr-al-izować de-centr-al-ize

Single derivatives 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Scale of similarity

5. P. PREFIX + BASE + SUFFIX =

E. BASE + SUFFIX + SUFFIX

e.g.: dziecko - child

bez-dziet-ność child-less-ness


E. BASE + SUFFIX

e.g.: pan - lord

wielko-pań-ski lord-ly


E. PREFIX + BASE

e.g.: las - forest

za-leś-ać a-forest


Scale of similarity

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

2. P. BASE + SUFFIX =

E. BASE + ____

e.g.: słowo - word

słow-nik word-book

P. BASE + SUFFIX =

E. BASE

e.g.: dziecko - child

diec-inka child

1. P. BASE + SUFFIX + SUFFIX =

E. _____ + _______ + SUFFIX

e.g.: słowo - word

słow-nik-arz lexico-graph-er

P. BASE + SUFFIX =

E. _____ + SUFFIX

e.g.: znak - sign

znacz-nik mark-er


Scale of similarity

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

0. E. BASE + BASE =

P. _____

e.g.: time - czas

time-piece zegarek

P. BASE + SUFFIX =

E. _____

e.g.: kość - bone

kos-tka ankle

E. PREFIX + BASE =

P. _______

e.g.: child - dziecko

grand-child wnuk


Scale of similarity

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Experiment

• 540 Polish-English pairs of derivatives were judged as to their similarity according to the 12-point scale presented above

• the translational similarity points for each pair of derivatives obtained for each of the Polish and English bases together with the grapho-etymological similarity between these bases were analysed statistically

Statistical tests applied in the study

• in spite of nonnormality of the data the following parametric tests were applied• MANOVA for

– for translational similarity between derivatives by– grapho-etymological similarity between the basis these derivatives were obtained from, and– direction of translation

» (Polish-English: based on Jadacka ‘95 and Collins Polish-English Electronic Dictionary, » English-Polish: based on Harper-Collins Electronic Dictionary and Collins English-Polish

Electronic Dictionary)

• Multiple Range Tests for – translational similarity of the derivatives, irrespective of whether they were obtained through Polish-English

or English-Polish translation– by grapho-etymological similarity between the Polish and English bases they were derived from

• Multiple Range Tests for – translational similarity of the derivatives obtained through Polish-English translation– by grapho-etymological similarity between the Polish and English bases they were derived from

• additionally some non-parametric tests were applied• Mann-Whitney W test to compare

– medians of the similarity points obtained for the derivatives in Polish-English translation– with the medians of the similarity points obtained for the derivatives in English-Polish translation

Some results: MANOVA

• Type III Sums of Squares was used

• All F-ratios were based on the residual mean square error.

Source Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F-Ratio P-Value

A:graph_ethym_sim_betw_bases 590,704 2 295,352 53,53 0,0000

B:direction_of_translation 195,227 1 195,227 35,38 0,0000

RESIDUAL 2957,27 536 5,5173

TOTAL (CORRECTED) 3903,44 539

The P-values test the statistical significance of each of the sources. Since P-values are less than 0,05,

these grapho-etymological similarity between bases and the direction of translation have a statistically

significant effect on the translational similarity between the derivatives obtained from these bases

at the 95,0% confidence level.

Contrast Difference +/- Limits

0 - 1 0,197742 1,25397

0 - 2 *-2,60124 0,488299

1 - 2 *-2,79898 1,30672

* denotes a statistically significant difference.

which means that the derivational groups

* of the Polish-English bases that were judged to bear no similarity with respect to their grapho-etymological features, and the derivational groups

* of the bases that were judged to be remotely similar with respect to their grapho-etymological features

(i.e. 0-1) do not differ significantly with respect to the similarity of the derivatives that constitute derivational groups of each of these basis.

on the other hand, groups derived from bases that differed in their etymology and graphemic representation (contrasts 0-2 and 1-2) have significantly different derivatives as far as the translational similarity of these derivatives is concerned.

Some results: Multiple Range Tests

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

6 0 3 4 10 9

Degrees of similarity

Fre

qu

en

cy

,00%

10,00%

20,00%

30,00%

40,00%

50,00%

60,00%

70,00%

80,00%

90,00%

100,00%

1 2 5 7 8

FrequencyCumulative %540 observations = 100%

Applications of the study

The results of the study provide insights into the possibility of automatic translation of UNKNOWN L1 derivatives on the basis of – the L2 equivalents of the component

morphemes of L1 derivative– the degree of grapho-etymological similarity

between the bases of these derivatives

For example: assume • we do not know the equivalent of a derivative leśnik • we can interpret bases even if they are modified by other

morphemes (las leś-)• we know the equivalents of the component morphemes:

les’- (= las) forest -nik -er

• we know the grapho-etymological similarity between the bases (= 0)

Hence, we guess with a relatively small certainty thatEnglish equivalent of leśnik is forester

Pessimistic scenario for automatic translation of derivatives

correct translation

38%

incorrect translation

62%

Scale of similarity

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Optimistic scenario for automatic translation of derivatives


53%

correct translation

47%

Scale of similarity

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Very optimistic scenario for automatic translation of derivatives

correct translation

56%


44%

Scale of similarity

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Conclusions

• COMPOSITIONALITY: The meaning of the derivative is a direct function of the meaning of its morphemes in app. 38-56% of cases

• Assuming we know the equivalents of all the morphemes of an L1 derivative we have app. 38-56% chance of producing a comprehensible L2 derivative

• The grapho-etymological similarity of L1 and L2 bases influences the translational similarity of their derivational groups

contrasting polish and english derivational groups

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