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Swedish and French Technical Terms Predicting the Translation of

cecilia.hemming@his.se School 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. Outline. Technical Terms & Translation

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Swedish and French Technical Terms Predicting the Translation of

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  1. cecilia.hemming@his.seSchool 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 TKE 2005

  2. Outline • Technical Terms & Translation • Production Patterns (Swedish vs French) • syntactic differences • semantic representation • Corpus Investigations • method • results • Conclusions TKE 2005

  3. Technical Terms and Translation oil management foothold oljeledningsfäste TKE 2005

  4. Technical Terms and Translation • Terminology, MT and MAHT • Knowledge reuse in: • Dictionaries, Terminology Databases, Translation Memories, … • Word Formation pattern • Swedish Productive Compound Noun • list all compounds in lexicon? TKE 2005

  5. 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] TKE 2005

  6. Outline • Technical Terms & Translation • Studying Production Patterns (Swe-Fre) • syntactic differences • semantic representation • Corpus Investigations • method • results • Conclusions TKE 2005

  7. 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] TKE 2005

  8. 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) TKE 2005

  9. e.g. (Johnston & Busa, 1999), (Bassac & Bouillon, 2001) • Generative Lexicon Theory (Pustejovsky) • Semantic representation powerful enough to make the various interpretations explicit • Head-modifier relationships encoded by different qualia-roles TKE 2005

  10. 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” TKE 2005

  11. Logical Polysemy and dotted types (Pustejovsky) • Complementary ambiguity: multiple senses • overlapping, dependent or shared meanings • From ambiguous compound to specific phrasal constructions • Lexical Conceptual Paradigm • represented by dotted types x·y • inherits the functional behaviour of both types • pipe: physical object, aperture and phys.obj·aperture TKE 2005

  12. Semantic representations • The liquid instantiates the argument of the head nouns telic role (physical object encompassing fuel) • The liquid is the dot.object (aperture with pass_through function) TKE 2005

  13. Possible Figure/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 TKE 2005

  14. Outline • Technical Terms & Translation • Production Patterns (Swe-Fre) • syntactic differences • semantic representation • Corpus Investigations • method • results • Conclusions TKE 2005

  15. 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 TKE 2005

  16. 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 • Container/conductor-concept • aperture with pass_through function • pipe, duct, tap, hole… (101 terms) TKE 2005

  17. Possible Figure/Ground-reversals Group 1) 46 terms Head-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 terms Head-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] TKE 2005

  18. Possible Figure/Ground-reversals Group 3) 17 terms Head-morpheme: some sort of hole or aperture, Modifier: function or substance. dräneringshål # orifice d'évacuation [drainage] luftintag # prise d'air [air inlet] TKE 2005

  19. 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) TKE 2005

  20. 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) TKE 2005

  21. Result 3 • Group 3) hole/aperture, + function or substance • 17 terms: function (16 terms) and substance (1 term) • All Group2-terms are formed with de, none with à TKE 2005

  22. 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 substance) TKE 2005

  23. Web study – Google hits • Head: container/conductor concept [pipe] • modifier: function/substance TKE 2005

  24. Results, Web search • Very few terms with à compared to de • One (1) term more hits with à than de • tuyauterie à carburant [fuel pipe] (30 vs.13) • not in Scania´95 (conduite and tube + de) • More general substances [air] [water] • à scores nearly as high as de • especially with the heads: tube and tuyau TKE 2005

  25. 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, sometimeswith à TKE 2005

  26. Conclusions • in this subdomain de outperforms à • translation suggestions with de as default TKE 2005

  27. Thank You for listening! TKE 2005

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