From what I read, Apertium also supports morphological analyzers (like: [1], [2] and [3]). I used the term "word" because it is more approachable for a first stage development. Later on it could be expanded to support languages that don't use words. In any case I think it is preferable to assist MT in form of platform and community support rather than getting involved in research projects.
In answer to Matthieu, I don't think perfection is something to aim for during the first stage. Just a MT that gives a fairly good text about the subject without big mistakes, would be already a big improvement. IMHO, goals should be set step by step and at a reasonable height. The lowest hanging fruit seems to be pairs of closely related languages, tolerating instances like the one you pointed out. David [1] http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/kieliteknologia/tutkimus/hfst/ [2] http://www.cis.uni-muenchen.de/~schmid/tools/SFST/ [3] https://code.google.com/p/foma/ On Wed, May 1, 2013 at 8:33 AM, Fred Bauder <[email protected]> wrote: > All European languages, with the exception of Basque, are essentially one > language with different vocabulary. MT should generally work, but needs > help as the example shows. The big, and perhaps insurmountable, problem > comes with trying to use it with say, Hopi, which assigns meanings in a > wholly different way. > > Fred > > > Ha, I just met a good example of a text you may hardly translate with MT > > means. > > > > Look at this text which come from [1]: > > > > The term "manifold" comes from German Mannigfaltigkeit, by Riemann. In > > Romance languages, this is translated as "variety" – such spaces with a > > differentiable structure are called "analytic varieties", while spaces > > with an algebraic structure are called "algebraic varieties". In > > English, "manifold" refers to spaces with a differentiable or > > topological structure, while "variety" refers to spaces with an > > algebraic structure, as in algebraic varieties. > > > > This is a good example because cleary in German you obviously won't say > > that Mannigfaltigkeit come from the German Mannigfaltigkeit. Also if you > > translate it to a Romance language like French you won't formulate this > > paragraph in the same way. > > > > Well, it doesn't add more to what I already said, but it probably give a > > more concrete example of MT limits. > > > > > > [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_manifolds_and_varieties > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list > > [email protected] > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l > -- Etiamsi omnes, ego non _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
