GSLT 2005-09-14 1
[email protected] of Humanities and Informatics, University College of Skövde
Graduate School of Language Technology, Göteborg
Swedish and French Technical Terms Predicting the Translation of
Swedish Productive Compound Nouns
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Outline
Technical Terms & Translation Production Patterns (Swedish vs French)
syntactic differences semantic representation
Corpus Investigations method results
Conclusions
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Technical Terms and Translation
oil management foothold
oljeledningsfäste
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Technical Terms and Translation
Swedish Productive Compound Noun list all compounds in the lexicon?
Terminology, MT and MAHT Reuse knowledge in:
Dictionaries, Terminology Databases, Translation Memories, …
Word Formation patterns
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Translation problem
From a Swedish n-n compound to a French equivalent chose among translation candidates suggestions for Unknown Terms and Neologisms which French preposition to use
oljekanal [oil+duct] -- canalisation à huile [duct prep. oil]bränsleledning [fuel+pipe] -- conduite de carburant [pipe prep. fuel]
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Outline
Technical Terms & Translation Studying Production Patterns (Swe-Fre)
syntactic differences semantic representation
Corpus Investigations method results
Conclusions
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Syntactic Term Production Patterns
Language specific production patterns
Swedish: binominal compound noun+noun (modifier+head)
oljekanal [oil+duct], bränsleledning [fuel+pipe]
French: post-modified prepositional compound noun preposition noun (head + prep + modifier)
canalisation à huile [duct prep. oil] conduite de carburant [pipe prep. fuel]
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Semantic connection between the head and the modifier
French explicitly hinted at by the preposition
conteneur de/en verre [glass container] (made-of) conteneur à verre (for)
Swedish underspecified
glascontainer [glass container] (made of/containing glass)
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Generative Lexicon Theory
e.g. (Johnston & Busa, 1999), (Bassac & Bouillon, 2001) Generative Lexicon Theory (Pustejovsky 1995)
Head-modifier relationships encoded by different qualia-roles
Semantic representation powerful enough to make the various interpretations explicit
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Qualia Structure (Pustejovsky)
Four aspects of a word’s meaning
FORMAL distinguishes a word within a larger domain
CONSTITUTIVE relation between an object and its constituents
TELIC the object’s purpose and function
AGENTIVE the object’s origin or “bringing about”
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Complementary Ambiguity and Dotted Types (Pustejovsky)
Complementary ambiguity: multiple senses overlapping, dependent or shared meanings
From ambiguous compound to specific phrasal constructions
LCP Lexical Conceptual Paradigm (meta entries) represented by dotted types x·y two distinct types covered by a meta entry inherits the functional behaviour of both types
pipe: physical object, aperture and phys.obj·aperture
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Semantic representations
The liquid instantiates the argument of the head nouns telic role (physical object (possibly) encompassing fuel)
The liquid is the dot.object (aperture with pass_through function. The function of the compound = that of the complement)
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PossibleFigure/Ground-reversals
[fuel pipe] Physical Object encompassing a substance
–> Formal role Preposition à: bränslerör # tube à carburant
Aperture, enabling substance to pass through
–> Constitutive role – Telic role Preposition de: bränsleledning # conduite de carburant
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Outline
Technical Terms & Translation Production Patterns (Swe-Fre)
syntactic differences semantic representation
Corpus Investigations method results
Conclusions
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Semantic concepts
Nominal Sense alternations (Pustejovsky) Count/Mass Container/Containee batterilåda [battery box] Figure/Ground Reversals bränslerör [fuel pipe] Product/Producer Plant/Food Process/Result [circulation/vacuum pump] Place/People
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Scania’95-Corpus
Scania lorry manuals (4000 terms) designating machines and machine parts Swedish noun-noun -> french prepositional phrase noun de noun and noun à noun
Possible figure/ground reversals object, Container/conductor-concept aperture, pass_through function pipe, duct, tap, hole… (101 terms)
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PossibleFigure/Ground-reversals
Group 1) 46 termsHead-morpheme: some sort of a channel or pipe, Modifier: function or substance.avgasledning # tuyau d'échappement [exhaust pipe]
bränslerör # tube à carburant [fuel pipe]
Group 2) 38 termsHead-morpheme: some sort of tap or valve, Modifier: function or substance.inloppsventil # soupape d'admission [inlet valve]
tryckluftventil # valve à air comprimé [compressed-air valve]
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PossibleFigure/Ground-reversals
Group 3) 17 termsHead-morpheme: some sort of hole or aperture,
Modifier: function or substance.dräneringshål # orifice d'évacuation [drainage]
luftintag # prise d'air [air inlet]
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Result 1
Group 1) channel/pipe, + function or substance
46 terms: function (36 terms) and substance (10 terms)
44 Group1-terms are formed with de, only 2 with à
if modifier- function: exclusive use of de if modifier- substance: both de and à (8 vs. 2)
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Result 2
Group 2) tap/valve, + function or substance
38 terms: function (34 terms) and substance (4 terms)
37 Group2-terms are formed with de, only 1 with à
if modifier- a function: exclusive use of de if modifier- a substance: both de and à (3 vs. 1)
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Result 3
Group 3) hole/aperture, + function or substance
17 terms: function (16 terms) and
substance (1 term) All Group3-terms are formed with de,
none with à
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Results (Scania’95 Corpus)
Head-morpheme: channel/tap/aperture Modifier: expressing its function
exclusively formed with de (85 terms)
Head-morpheme: channel/tap/aperture Modifier: substance passing through
formed with both de (13 terms) and à (3 terms)
Modifier: 85 function vs. 16 substancePrepositions: 98 de vs. 3 à
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Results (Scania’95 Corpus)
96 occurrencies in the Scania’95 Corpus
N1channel/tap/aperture + de/à + N2substance
de rampe, conduit, tube (16), déflecteur, gicleur, prise, conduite, traversée, ouverture, injecteur.
à canalisation, tube (1), valve.
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Web study – Google hits
Head: container/conductor concept [pipe] modifier: substance/function
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Results, Web search
Very few terms with à compared to de tuyauterie à carburant [fuel pipe] (30 vs.13)
not in Scania´95 (conduite and tube + de)
More general substances [air] [water] especially with the heads: tube and tuyau
à scores nearly as high as de
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Conclusions
Swedish terms, Head: container/conductor
Modifier: function a frequent construction in French: most likely formed with de
Modifier: substance passing through less frequent construction in French: mostly with de, sometimes with à
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Conclusions
in this subdomain de outperforms à easy implementation:
translation suggestions with de as default
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Ongoing and future work
other prepositions en, sur, par, dans…
other nominal sense alternations container/containée, process/result…
bigger corpus on-line manuals (copyright questions)
compare to Polish terms (Gawronska)
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Thank You
for
listening!