Báo cáo khoa học: The Linguistic Basis of a Mechanical Thesaurus

[Mechanical Translation, vol.3, no.3, December 1956; pp. 81-88]†M. A. K. Halliday, Cambridge Language Research Unit, Cambridge, EnglandThe grammar and lexis of a language exhibit a high degree of internal determination, affecting all utterances whether or not these are translated from another language. This may be exploited in a mechanical translation program in order to cope with the lack of translation equivalence between categories of different languages, by the ordering of elements into systems within which determination operates and the working out by descriptive linguistic methods of the criteria governing the choice among the elements ranged as terms in one system....
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Báo cáo khoa học: "The Linguistic Basis of a Mechanical Thesaurus " [Mechanical Translation, vol.3, no.3, December 1956; pp. 81-88]The Linguistic Basis of a Mechanical Thesaurus †M. A. K. Halliday, Cambridge Language Research Unit, Cambridge, England The grammar and lexis of a language exhibit a high degree of internal determina- tion, affecting all utterances whether or not these are translated from another lan- guage. This may be exploited in a mechanical translation program in order to cope with the lack of translation equivalence between categories of different languages, by the ordering of elements into systems within which determination operates and the working out by descriptive linguistic methods of the criteria governing the choice among the elements ranged as terms in one system. Lexical items so or- dered form a thesaurus, and the thesaurus series is the lexical analogue of the grammatical paradigm.A FUNDAMENTAL problem of mechanical Syntaxtranslation, arising at the levels of both gram- Where translation is handled as a functionmar and lexis, is that of the carry-over of between two given languages, this problem canelements ranged as terms in particular sys- be met by a comparative description of thetems; i.e., systems established non-compar- kind that has come to be known as transferatively, as valid for the synchronic and syn- grammar, in which the two languages aretopic description of what is regarded for the described in mutually (or unilaterally) ap-purpose as one language. The translation proximating comparative terms. For mechan-process presupposes an analysis, generally ical translation this is obviously unsatisfac-unformulated in the case of human translation, tory, since each language would have to beof the source and target languages; and it is a analyzed in a different way for every new lan-commonplace that a one-to-one translation guage on the other end of the translation axis.equivalence of categories - including not only On the other hand the search for categoriesterms within systems but even the systems with universal translation validity, or eventhemselves - does not by itself result in any- with validity over a given limited group of lan-thing which on contextual criteria could be guages, whether it is undertaken from withincalled translation. One might, for example, or from outside language, could occupy manybe tempted to give the same name aspect to years; and while the statistical survey re-two systems set up in the description respec- quired for the intralinguistic approach wouldtively of Chinese and English, on the grounds be, for the linguist, perhaps the most pleasingthat both systems are the grammatical reflec- form of electronic activity, the pursuit of me-tion of contextually specified categories of a chanical translation cannot await its results!non-absolute time-scale in which components In practice, therefore, we compromise, andof a situation are ordered in relation to one make a descriptive analysis of each languageanother; not only would the terms in the sys- which is at the same time both autonomous andtems (e.g. Chinese and English perfective) geared to the needs of translation. We thennot be translationally identifiable: not even the face the question: what is the optimum point atsystems as a whole (unless a neutral term ...