GSLT 2005-09-14 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

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Outline

Technical Terms & Translation Production Patterns (Swedish vs French)

syntactic differences semantic representation

Corpus Investigations method results

Conclusions

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Technical Terms and Translation

oil management foothold

oljeledningsfäste

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Technical Terms and Translation

Swedish Productive Compound Noun list all compounds in the lexicon?

Terminology, MT and MAHT Reuse knowledge in:

Dictionaries, Terminology Databases, Translation Memories, …

Word Formation patterns

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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]

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Outline

Technical Terms & Translation Studying Production Patterns (Swe-Fre)

syntactic differences semantic representation

Corpus Investigations method results

Conclusions

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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]

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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)

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Generative Lexicon Theory

e.g. (Johnston & Busa, 1999), (Bassac & Bouillon, 2001) Generative Lexicon Theory (Pustejovsky 1995)

Head-modifier relationships encoded by different qualia-roles

Semantic representation powerful enough to make the various interpretations explicit

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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”

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Complementary Ambiguity and Dotted Types (Pustejovsky)

Complementary ambiguity: multiple senses overlapping, dependent or shared meanings

From ambiguous compound to specific phrasal constructions

LCP Lexical Conceptual Paradigm (meta entries) represented by dotted types x·y two distinct types covered by a meta entry inherits the functional behaviour of both types

pipe: physical object, aperture and phys.obj·aperture

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Semantic representations

The liquid instantiates the argument of the head nouns telic role (physical object (possibly) encompassing fuel)

The liquid is the dot.object (aperture with pass_through function. The function of the compound = that of the complement)

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PossibleFigure/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

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Outline

Technical Terms & Translation Production Patterns (Swe-Fre)

syntactic differences semantic representation

Corpus Investigations method results

Conclusions

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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

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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 object, Container/conductor-concept aperture, pass_through function pipe, duct, tap, hole… (101 terms)

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PossibleFigure/Ground-reversals

Group 1) 46 termsHead-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 termsHead-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]

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PossibleFigure/Ground-reversals

Group 3) 17 termsHead-morpheme: some sort of hole or aperture,

Modifier: function or substance.dräneringshål # orifice d'évacuation [drainage]

luftintag # prise d'air [air inlet]

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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)

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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)

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Result 3

Group 3) hole/aperture, + function or substance

17 terms: function (16 terms) and

substance (1 term) All Group3-terms are formed with de,

none with à

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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 substancePrepositions: 98 de vs. 3 à

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Results (Scania’95 Corpus)

96 occurrencies in the Scania’95 Corpus

N1channel/tap/aperture + de/à + N2substance

de rampe, conduit, tube (16), déflecteur, gicleur, prise, conduite, traversée, ouverture, injecteur.

à canalisation, tube (1), valve.

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Web study – Google hits

Head: container/conductor concept [pipe] modifier: substance/function

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Results, Web search

Very few terms with à compared to de tuyauterie à carburant [fuel pipe] (30 vs.13)

not in Scania´95 (conduite and tube + de)

More general substances [air] [water] especially with the heads: tube and tuyau

à scores nearly as high as de

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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, sometimes with à

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Conclusions

in this subdomain de outperforms à easy implementation:

translation suggestions with de as default

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Ongoing and future work

other prepositions en, sur, par, dans…

other nominal sense alternations container/containée, process/result…

bigger corpus on-line manuals (copyright questions)

compare to Polish terms (Gawronska)

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Thank You

for

listening!