Translation in human history

Greek to Arabic translation in 8th-10th century Baghdad and the flowering of Arab science
Arabic and Hebrew translation in 12th-13th century Toledo and the European Renaissance
Machine (-assisted) translation and the promise of cross-linguistic knowledge sharing in the 21st century

Examples

I haven't read the book that you lent me.

Je n'ai pas lu le livre que tu m'as prêté

I not have(1sing) not read(pp) the(masc) book that you(sing) me have(2sing) lent(pp)

Sijakisoma	kitabu	ulichoniazimia
I have not read it(ki)	book	that you lent me it(ki)
Si–ja–ki–soma	kitabu	u–li–cho–ni–azimia
I:not–have:not–it(ki)–read	book	you(sing)–past–it(ki/rel)–me–lend

- Single use. This license allows you to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time. You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so.
- Uso único. Esta licencia le permite instalar, utilizar y ejecutar una (1) copia del Software Apple en un único ordenador de marca Apple al mismo tiempo. Usted se compromete a no instalar, utilizar o ejecutar el Software Apple en ningún ordenador que no sea de marca Apple o permitir que otras personas lo hagan.

Human translation

Technical vs. literary translation
Simultaneous vs. consecutive translation
Constraints
- Faithfulness
- Fluency
- Time
Processes, strategies
- Prediction of future input
- Monitoring, feedback
- Evaluating multiple acceptable outputs
- Continuous vs. back-and-forth processing
- Content-based vs. form-based translation
- Global vs. local comprehension of input
- Maintaining both languages active but separate (in interpretation)

The components of translation

The Vauquois triangle

Direct translation

Use a lexicon to find translation equivalents.
Do some morphological analysis and/or generation.
Do some local reordering on output.
I haven't read the book that you lent me

je ne..pas + avoir
n'ai pas
n'avez pas
... lire
lu
lis
... le
la
... livre que
ce
... tu
vous
te prêter
prêtait
a prêté
... me
moi

Transfer

Perform some syntactic analysis of the source.
Apply lexical and syntactic transfer rules to the resulting structure.
Generation the output from the target structure.
A transfer rule

Interlingua

Analyze the source into a language-independent semantic representation.
Generate the output from this representation.

A possible interlingua representation

[speaker=?S,
 hearer=?H,
 prop=[pred=READ,
       polarity=NEG,
       tense=PRES,
       aspect=PRF,
       agent=?S,
       theme=?B [cat=BOOK]]
 ctxt=[pred=LEND,
       tense=PAST,
       agent=?H,
       patient=?B,
       recipient=?S]]

Example-Based MT

Case-based learning and processing
Requires a database of parallel sentences
May store parsed sentences or generalized examples
Steps
1. Matching: identify sentence(s) in database that match the input on the basis of fragments of the input.
2. Alignment/adaptation: identify corresponding fragments in target-language sentences.
3. Recombination: recombine target-language fragments to form output.

Example-Based MT: Example

Matching
- I haven't done the task that you assigned me.
  Je n'ai pas fait le tâche que tu m'as confié.
- I haven't opened the present that you sent me.
  Je n'ai pas ouvert le cadeau que tu m'as envoyé.
- You haven't read the book.
  Tu n'as pas lu le livre.
- He hasn't read the book.
  Il n'a pas lu le livre.
- Why don't you return the DVD that I lent you?
  Pourquoi tu ne me rends pas le DVD que je t'ai prêté?
- Where is the painting that Frank lent us?
  Ou est la peinture que Frank nous a prêté?
Alignment/adaptation
- I haven't ... the ... that you ... me.
  Je n'ai pas ... le ... que tu m'as ...
- ... read the book
  ... lu le livre
- ... the ... that ... lent ...
  ... le/la ... que ... prêté
Recombination

Je n'ai pas le que tu m'as

lu le livre

le/la que prêté

Je	n'ai	pas	lu	le	livre	que	tu	m'as	prêté
I	not have(1sing)	not	read(pp)	the(masc)	book	that	you(sing)	me have(2sing)	lent(pp)

I	haven't	read	the	book	that	you	lent	me
je	ne..pas + avoir n'ai pas n'avez pas ...	lire lu lis ...	le la ...	livre	que ce ...	tu vous te	prêter prêtait a prêté ...	me moi

Je n'ai pas		le		que	tu	m'as
	lu	le	livre
		le/la		que			prêté