nl-kr-request@CS.ROCHESTER.EDU (NL-KR Moderator Brad Miller) (07/01/88)
NL-KR Digest (6/30/88 23:59:59) Volume 4 Number 64 LAST NUMBER IN THIS VOLUME Today's Topics: Re: Grammatic number of Quantifiers A quick tour of Budapest: word-for-word translation Word-for-word translation from Chinese looking for an availabel English Translator Visiting position in NL at Toronto ACL European Chapter Call for Papers Submissions: NL-KR@CS.ROCHESTER.EDU Requests, policy: NL-KR-REQUEST@CS.ROCHESTER.EDU ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Jun 88 11:37 EDT From: morgan@clio.las.uiuc.edu Subject: Re: Grammatic number of Quantifiers Don't expect the facts of agreement to be rational. They aren't. For example, More than one student was/*were arrested. Fewer than two students were/*was arrested. In the first case, at least two students were arrested, the verb is singular; vice-versa in the second case. Another example: decimal fractions <= 1.0 take plural agreement. For example, On the average, .34 (pronounced 'point three four') babies were born each month. There's a lot more to agreement than meets the eye. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Jun 88 16:39 EDT From: gordan <gordan@maccs.UUCP> Subject: Re: Grammatic number of Quantifiers (Re: genderless 3rd person si...) >One of the more curious efforts of the prescriptive grammarians has >been to insist that "everyone" is grammatically singular. Everyone, whether he is male or female, should realize that "everyone" is grammatically singular. No reasonable man could possibly disagree. What we NEED is some grammatical LAW and ORDER to make the Net SAFE for OCHLOCRACY -- Gordan Palameta uunet!mnetor!maccs!gordan ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 25 Jun 88 00:50 EDT From: Rich Wales <wales@valeria.cs.ucla.edu> Subject: Re: Grammatic number of Quantifiers In article <33700003@clio> morgan@clio.las.uiuc.edu writes: Don't expect the facts of agreement to be rational. They aren't. . . . There's a lot more to agreement than meets the eye. Also, number agreement varies from one language to another. Hungarian, for instance, uses the *singular* (not plural) for a noun which is preceded by a quantifier word (including a numeral); and if such a noun phrase is the subject of a sentence, the verb is likewise singular (not plural) -- even though the meaning is obviously plural, and both noun and verb change to plural form if the quantifier word is removed. -- Rich Wales // UCLA Computer Science Department // +1 (213) 825-5683 3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, California 90024-1596 // USA wales@CS.UCLA.EDU ...!(uunet,ucbvax,rutgers)!cs.ucla.edu!wales "We would all become unpeople, undoing unthings untogether." ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 25 Jun 88 21:12 EDT From: Mark William Hopkins <markh@csd4.milw.wisc.edu> Subject: A quick tour of Budapest: word-for-word translation This is dedicated to those who are attending the Machine Translation conference being held in Budapest in August ... and to those who wrongly believe that even the most primitive of MT techniques (word-for-word) does not yield easily comprehensible results. Note: I use the pseudo-word "tha" to stand for the/that. Context should enable one to disambiguate this. (Hungarian is an agglutinative language, so you'll see a lot of hyphens.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A SHORT TOUR OF BUDAPEST The Budapest-ian airport-off-of bus comes the Belva'ros into. This off-of tha bus-off-of down-climb-you. The Danube Hotel-into go-you. This the tall modern building the Pest-ian bank-on stands. The Danube Budapest-away-from north-off-of south-onto flows. The left bank-on on-lies Buda, the right bank-on Pest. The downtown-in the river above eight bridges are. Tha Elizabeth-bridge and the Chainbridge between is the hotel, the-one-which-into walk-you. Here-from tha window-out-of beautifuls the Buda-ian hills. The Gelle'rthill-on stands the tall Freedom-statue. The old Buda-ian Castle and the Matthew-church the Castlehill-on is. Here narrow small streets-in tha short old houses next to Science-ish institutes and museums are. Tha majestic, beautiful buildings between Budapest-ians and foreign-ians, students and tourists stroll. You the hotel-out-of taxi-in go up the Castle-in. The driver and you converse. "Where-onto go we?" "This-onto, the Chainbridge upwards. There turn-you tha street the bridge-on, the-place-which tha the beautiful tall building stands. Tha the Hungarian Science-ish Academy." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There's more, but I think I made my point. Those who speak Hungarian should almost be able to hear the Hungarian in these passages ... so faithful is the word-for-word (actually, morpheme-for-morpheme) translation. If you would like to know more about Budapest ... er, then go there! :-) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Jun 88 23:35 EDT From: Scott Horne <shorne@citron> Subject: Word-for-word translation from Chinese This comes from _The Lady in the Painting_, Fred Fang-yu Wang, Yale, etc. PAINT OBJECT UP 'S BEAUTIFUL PERSON From front have one piece person, surname sheet-of-paper, name big bright. He not have elder brother elder brother, not have younger brother younger brother. Father relative mother relative also all past go completely. Family inside only to-be he one piece person. Also not have money. He stop pass-through three ten more age completely, also not have grand grand, equal correct also not have child son. He every day early up go-out go do work, late up return home. He 's home to-be-at/in/on city outside head. Separate do work 's earth method not far, he every day early up, to-be-at/in/on road up look look mountain, look look water, also have time season sing sing song object. He have not few friend friend, friend friend more-than-one-person all very happy joyous he. He more-than-one-person day day to-be-in/at/on one lump object do work, also to-be-in/at/on one lump object play object. He more-than- one-person really to-be "do work 's time season do work, play object 's time season play object." For use he more-than-one-person all very high excitement. Able to-be arrive completely late up, other person all return home completely, sheet-of-paper big bright also return home completely. Other person home inside have grand grand, have child son. Grand grand make cooked-rice 's time season, he more-than-one-person able use with child son play object. Able to-be sheet-of-paper big bright return arrive home inside, assorted manner person all not have, cooked-rice get self personal do, home inside 's task affection also get self personal do. Think with person talk speech, able to-be not have person listen. For use have time season he self personal with self personal talk speech. ----- I think those few paragraphs will suffice. In some places, I may have gone too far (e.g., in translating the name Zhang Daming as "sheet-of-paper big bright"); in others, I did a little parsing (e.g., the word jia1 means `home' and `family,' depending on the context; I chose the correct one in each occurrence). Now try to prove your point that you can make sense of any word- for-word translation! (No fair finding an English version of the story.) --Scott Horne BITNET: PHORNE@CLEMSON (not working; please use another address) uucp: ....!gatech!hubcap!scarle!{hazel,citron,amber}!shorne (If that doesn't work, send to cchang@hubcap.clemson.edu) SnailMail: Scott Horne 812 Eleanor Dr. Florence, SC 29501 VoiceNet: 803 667-9848 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Jun 88 20:36 EDT From: K Watkins <kww@amethyst.ma.arizona.edu> Subject: Re: Word-for-word translation from Chinese Let me take a stab at understanding this: In article <2042@hubcap.UUCP> shorne@citron writes: >This comes from _The Lady in the Painting_, Fred Fang-yu Wang, Yale, etc. > > PAINT OBJECT UP 'S BEAUTIFUL PERSON > > From front have one piece person, surname sheet-of-paper, name big >bright. He not have elder brother elder brother, not have younger brother >younger brother. Father relative mother relative also all past go completely. >Family inside only to-be he one piece person. Also not have money. He stop >pass-through three ten more age completely, also not have grand grand, >equal correct also not have child son. He every day early up go-out go do >work, late up return home. > To begin the tale, we talk of one person, named Sun Page. He has no siblings, no parents, no relatives - he alone is all his family. And he is poor. He is well past thirty, but has no children. He rises early every day to go work and comes home late. > > He 's home to-be-at/in/on city outside head. Separate do work 's earth >method not far, he every day early up, to-be-at/in/on road up look look >mountain, look look water, also have time season sing sing song object. > His home is by the city gate(?). He works at digging not far from his home, rising early every day; and as he walks along he rejoices in the view of the mountain and the water, and has the time to sing songs about the changes that come with the seasons. >----- I don't have time to work through the remaining paragraph, which is much longer and more complex; this takes the kind of effort that reading a newly learned language does, without the hassle of poking through a dictionary. But am I on track at all? --------------------------- K Watkins (watkins@rvax.ccit.arizona.edu) My fingers, their keyboard, my opinions. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Jun 88 23:07 EDT From: Mark William Hopkins <markh@csd4.milw.wisc.edu> Subject: Word-for-wrod translation: Chinese This comes from _The Lady in the Painting_, Fred Fang-yu Wang, Yale, etc. For convenience's sake, I use the following abbreviations: HOME = home/family BE = to-be AT = at/in/on S = more-than-one (i.e. plural marker) Z = duplication marker (xxxZ = xxx xxx) Zhang Daming = SheetOfPaper, BigBright (proper name) I take it that the various "he"'s, "him"'s etc. refer to a female as per the translated title, but I preserved the pronouns as they originally were. This depends on the assumption that the original Chinese pronouns actually do translate in the masculine gender, rather than as neuter (as they would in the Hong Kong dialect). Some phrases threw me for a loop ("BE-AT road up lookZ mountain, lookZ water") and I can't be sure at all about their accuracy, but the rest is not too difficult once you get used to it. Another one was "time-season" which I took (from context) to be a word indicating frequency or something of the like. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** PAINT-OBJECT UP 'S BEAUTIFUL PERSON ** ** From front have one piece person, surname Sheet-Of-Paper, name Big ** Bright. He not have (elder brother)Z, not have (younger brother)Z. ** Father relative mother relative also all past go completely. ** HOME inside only BE he one piece person. Also not have money. He stop ** pass-through three ten more age completely, also not have grandZ, ** equal correct also not have child son. He every day early up go-out go do ** work, late up return HOME. THE BEAUTIFUL PERSON IN THE PAINTING In the foreground you can see part of a person named BigBright SheetOfPaper. He's over 30 and has no family; no brothers or sisters, no parents, no children nor any elders. His mother and father have already died. Every day, he gets up early in the morning, goes to work and comes home late each night. ** He's HOME BE-AT city outside head. Separate do work 's earth ** method not far, he every day early up, BE-AT road up lookZ ** mountain, lookZ water, also have time-season singZ song-object. His home is just outside the city. He does some farming outside the home not too far off. He gets up early each day, and travels on the road where he can see mountains and water, and will often sing as he travels. ** He have not few friendZ, friendZ S-person all very happy joyous he. ** He S-person dayZ BE-AT one lump-object do work, also BE-AT one lump-object ** play-object. He S-person really BE "do work 's time-season do work, ** play-object 's time-season play-object." For use he S-person all very high ** excitement. Able BE arrive completely late up, other person all return HOME ** completely, BigBright SheetOfPaper also return HOME completely. ** Other person HOME inside have grandZ, have child son. GrandZ make cooked-rice ** 's time-season, he S-person able use with child son play-object. Able BE ** SheetOfPaper BigBright return arrive HOME inside, assorted manner person all ** not have, cooked-rice get self personal do, HOME inside's task affection ** also get self personal do. Think with person talk speech, able BE not have ** person listen. For use have time-season he self personal with self personal ** talk speech. He has quite a few friends, all of whom are happy when they are together. They work and play like a family. They ???"work when they are supposed to and play likewise."???, so they are very excited. They can come to work late, but he finished when they do. The others have elders to cook their meals and children to play with at home, but when BigBright SheetOfPaper comes back home there are none of these various people around waiting for him. He has to make his own meals and clean up after himself. But he can say whatever's on his mind without there being anyone else around to hear him, so he often talks to himself. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 29 Jun 88 14:07 EDT From: UZR515%DBNRHRZ1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU Subject: looking for an availabel English Translator Dear subscriber, Since I subscribed myself to this list just now, I would like to know if there is anyone interested, like me in automatic translation of English texts (into any other language). I will be very pleased to become information from any person interested in this subject, specially about the available translation systems from LISTSERV@FINHUTC or any other possibility to access such a system. Furthermore, I am designing a Language Translator which should translate English Computer Text Books into Persian. ------------------- Your prompt attention would be most appreciated. Yours sincerely, Hooshang Mehrjerdian <UZR515@DBNRHRZ1.BITNET> Bergmeisterstueck 1 5300 Bonn 3 West Germany Tel: (0228)-733358 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 25 Jun 88 10:03 EDT From: Graeme Hirst <gh%aipna.edinburgh.ac.uk@NSS.CS.UCL.AC.UK> Subject: Visiting position in NL at Toronto VISITING POSITION IN NATURAL LANGUAGE UNDERSTANDING UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE GROUP (DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE) A one-year visiting position, for a post-doc or more senior person, is available in the University of Toronto A.I. group, in the area of natural language understanding and computational linguistics. The visitor would carry a 50% teaching load (one half-course per semester), supervise MSc theses, and participate in the research group's activities. The position is to commence asap. The Toronto A.I. group includes 6.5 faculty, 2 research scientists, and approximately 40 graduate students. The natural language subgroup includes one faculty member (Graeme Hirst) and about ten graduate students. For more information, contact Graeme Hirst, preferably by e-mail: In North America: gh@ai.toronto.edu In U.K./Europe: gh@uk.ac.ed.aipna Phone (in U.K. until 18 July): 031 225 7774 x.225 (in Canada from 19 July): 416-978-8747 Write: Graeme Hirst Dept Computer Science University of Toronto Toronto, CANADA M5S 1A4 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Jun 88 17:46 EDT From: walker_donald e <walker@flash.bellcore.com> Subject: ACL European Chapter Call for Papers ACL European Chapter 1989 Status: R CALL FOR PAPERS Fourth Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics 10-12 April 1989 Centre for Computational Linguistics University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology Manchester, England This conference is the fourth in a series of biennial conferences on computational linguistics sponsored by the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics. Previous conferences were held in Pisa (Sep- tember 1983), Geneva (March 1985) and Copenhagen (April 1987). Although hosted by a regional chapter, these confer- ences are global in scope and participation. The European Chapter represents a major subset of the parent Association for Computational Linguistics, and is in its seventh year. The conference is open both to existing members and non- members of the Association. Papers are invited on all aspects of computational linguis- tics, including but not limited to: morphology lexical semantics computational models for the analysis and generation of language speech analysis and synthesis computational lexicography and lexicology syntax and semantics discourse analysis machine translation computational aids to translation natural language interfaces knowledge representation and expert systems computer-assisted language learning Authors should send six copies of a 5- to 8-page double- spaced summary to the Programme Committee at the following address: Harold Somers Centre for Computational Linguistics UMIST PO Box 88 Manchester M60 1 QD England It is important that the summary should identify the new ideas in the paper and indicate to what extent the work is complete and to what extent it has been implemented. It should contain sufficient information to allow the programme committee to determine the scope of the work and its rela- tion to relevant literature. The author's name and address (including net address if possible) should be clearly indi- cated, as well as one or two keywords indicating the general subject matter of the paper. Schedule: Summaries must be submitted by 1st October 1988. Authors will be notified of acceptance by 15th December. Camera-ready copy of final papers prepared in a double- column format on model paper (which will be provided) must be received by 28th February 1989, along with a signed copy- right release statement. Papers not received by this date will not be included in the Conference Proceedings, which will be published in time for distribution to everyone attending the conference. The programme committee will be co-chaired by Harold Somers (UMIST) and Mary McGee Wood (Manchester University), and will include the following Christian Boitet (Grenbole) Laurence Danlos (Paris) Gerald Gazdar (Sussex) Jurgen Kunze (Berlin, DDR) Michael Moortgat (Leiden) Oliviero Stock (Trento) Henry Thompson (Edinburgh) Dan Tufis (Bucharest) Local arrangements will also be handled by Somers and Wood. Please await a further announcement in October for more details. Exhibits and demonstrations: A programme of exhibits and demonstrations is planned. Anyone wishing to participate should contact John McNaught at the above address. Book exhibitors should contact Paul Bennett also at the above address. ------------------------------ End of NL-KR Digest *******************