Báo cáo khoa học: Report on Research

THE CAMBRIDGE Language Research Unit is primarily concerned with analytic investigation of language, and in particular with a correlative study of the descriptive-linguistic, logical, algebraic and other notational characteristics of natural languages and of translation between natural languages. Much of this work is relevant to machine translation and the following four sections by members of the unit illustrate some of the applications that are being made.
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Báo cáo khoa học: "Report on Research" [Mechanical Translation, vol.3, no.2, November 1956; pp. 36-37]Report on ResearchCambridge Language Research Unit, Cambridge, EnglandTHE CAMBRIDGE Language Research Unit is is represented by a numeral which would beprimarily concerned with analytic investigation calculated from information to hand respectingof language, and in particular with a correla- the current context-situation and the code-tive study of the descriptive-linguistic, logical, number given for the input word under consider-algebraic and other notational characteristics ation, then we could dispense with any actualof natural languages and of translation between t hesaurus entries in the computers storage,natural languages. Much of this work is rele- all the relevant information being contained invant to machine translation and the following the input and output dictionaries which respec-four sections by members of the unit illustrate tively provide the code-number of the inputsome of the applications that are being made. words and decode the numbers, calculated fromThe first three are concerned with the possibi- these and the context, into the target language.lities of using a mechanical thesaurus; the Mathematically, the problem is completelyfourth deals with mechanical translation via an soluble, provided no limit is placed on the lengthinterlingua. of numerical symbols. If we limit ourselves to a practicable length of symbol, the question ofPotentialities of a Mechanical Thesaurus adapting the general mathematical solution to (M. Masterman) actual use becomes one of ingenuity which can The unit of a mechanical dictionary is the probably be solved, but which can only be as-semantically significant chunk, not the free sessed by practical effort. The mathematicalword. From a logical point of view, uncoded procedure consists in finding a set of BooleanMT dictionary entries form trees, the paths operations having certain prescribed propertiesof which can be determined, to a significant which can be deduced from the conditions of theextent, by objective criteria. However, these, problem. These operations are few in numberas they stand, are too complicated to be used and could be built into a computer; beingdirectly for MT. Boolean, they can be performed with very great Attempts to construct multilingual MT dic- speed.tionary entries show that the entries form, not A model solution, substantially simpler thantrees, but algebraic lattices, with translation that recommended for actual trial, will be de-points at the meets of the sublattices. It also scribed, and an example worked in it will beemerges that the complexity of the entries need demonstrated. This will show up the sort ofnot increase greatly with the number of lan- crossword-puzzle ingenuity required to deviseguages, since translation points can, and do, a suitable context classification. The attrac-fall on one another. tion of the method, despite this inevitable lack Such a multilingual MT dictionary is analogous, of elegance, is that it makes the computerin various respects, to a thesaurus. A method actually calculate instead of merely lookingof using such a thesaurus to refine the mecha- things up in lists, and thus makes the whole pro-nical pidgin output of a bilingual mechanical cedure capable of sufficient speed to be feasibledictionary has been devised. for a mechanical-translation program.Mechanical Translation Program Utilizing an Linguistic Basis of the Thesaurus-Type Mecha- Interlingual Thesaurus nical Dictionary and its Application to English- (A.F. Parker-Rhodes) Preposition Classification. The problem of setting the information con- (M.A.K. Halliday)tained in a fully general interlingual thesaurus The thesaurus method of mechanical lexico-into coded form for the use of an electronic graphy is an attempt to systematize the lexiscomputer would be formidable if not impossible in such a way that the one-to-one word equi-of practicable solution, if it were necessary to valence principle can be maintained as theinclude every entry as such. But if we could first stage in the dictionary, since the mechani-devise a system of coding such that each entry cal applicatio ...