1. Linguist’s Assistant: An Analysis of the Required Modifications when Converting a Computational Tagalog Grammar into an Ayta Mag-Indi Grammar The 13th National NLP Research Symposium April 21st, 2017
Dr. Tod Allman
Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics

2. Presentation Overview
1) Introduction to Linguist’s Assistant (LA) 2) Results of the Ayta Mag-Indi Project 3) Surface Structure Similarities between Tagalog and Ayta Mag-Indi 4) Deep Structure Similarities between Tagalog and Ayta Mag-Indi 5) Tests to determine the Quality of LA’s texts 2

3. Linguist’s Assistant: A Multilingual Natural Language Generator
Generates initial draft translations that are:
easily understandable
grammatically perfect
semantically equivalent to the source documents
at approximately a fifth grade reading level
Employs linguistic techniques rather than stochastic techniques
The texts quadruple the productivity of experienced mother-tongue translators 3

4. Model of Linguist’s Assistant
Show video after this slide 4

5. Five Components of every NLG System
1) Semantic Representations 2) Ontology 3) Transfer Grammar 4) Synthesizing Grammar 5) Lexicon 5

6. LA’s Semantic Representational System
Semantically simple concepts in structurally simple sentences. 6

7. LA’s Feature System - Nouns
Number
Singular, Dual, Trial, Quadrial, Plural, Paucal
Participant Tracking
First Mention, Routine, Generic, Interrogative, Frame Inferable, …
Polarity
Affirmative, Negative
Proximity
Near Speaker and Listener, Near Speaker, Near Listener, Remote within Sight, Remote out of Sight
Person
First, Second, Third, First Inclusive, First Exclusive 7

8. LA’s Ontology Concepts are Precisely Defined
break-A
someone breaks something
(John broke the window.)
break-B
to break a bone
(John broke his leg.)
break-C
to break or disobey a law
(John broke the law.)
break-D
something breaks (intransitive)
The window broke.
break-E
to break a promise
(John broke his promise.) 8

9. LA’s Transfer Grammar 9

10. LA’s Transfer Grammar
1) Insert Complex Concepts ‘to sign,’ ‘foreigner,’ ‘blind,’ etc. 2) Collocation Correction ‘ganda’ -> ‘buti’ (good book, person, food) 3) Theta Grid Adjustment Rules X respects Y -> X lifts up Y’s name X loves Y -> X sits happily with Y X obeys Y -> X hears Y’s talk 4) Structural Adjustment Rules
‘ganda’ is the word usually used to translate the English word ‘good.’ But for a ‘good book’ or ‘good food’ or ‘good man,’ we use ‘buti.’ 10

11. LA’s Synthesizing Grammar11

12. LA’s Synthesizing Grammar
1) Spellout Rules
Insert Case Markers (ang/si, ng/ni, sa/kay)
2) Phrase Structure Rules
Put constituents in their proper order
3) Pronoun Rules
Identify where pronouns can be used
4) Morphophonemic Rules
Change the Relativizer ‘na’ to ‘-ng’
“The man that saw John …” “lalaking nakakita kay Juan …” 12

13. Ayta Mag-Indi Approximately 5,000 speakers Spoken near Pampanga
Language status: stable and developing
Lexical similarity with Filipino: 38%
Lexical similarity with Kapampangan: 51%
Ethnologue.com 13

14. Number of Meetings Tagalog Ayta Mag-Indi Story #1 (2 pages) 38 650 7
Note: For Ayta Mag-Indi I didn’t have to change even one rule in the transfer grammar. The only rules I changed were in the synthesizing grammar, particularly the spellout rules and the morphophonemic rules. I’ll discuss these later. 14

15. Transfer Grammar Rules
Edited
New
Complex Concept Insertion Rules
Feature Adjustment Rules
Styles of Direct Speech
Target Tense/Aspect/Mood Rules
Relative Clause Strategies
Collocation Correction Rules
Genitival Noun-Noun Relationships
Theta Grid Adjustment Rules
Structural Adjustment Rules 15

16. Example of a Transfer Rule16

17. Synthesizing Grammar Rules
Edited
New
Feature Copying Rules
Spellout Rules 5
Clitic Rules
Movement Rules
Phrase Structure Rules 1
Pronoun Identification Rules
Pronoun Spellout Rules
Morphophonemic Rules 34
Find/Replace Rules 17

18. Example of a Synthesizing Rule18

19. Tagalog / Ayta Mag-Indi Case Markers
Common
Proper
Ergative
ng / un
ni / -n
Absolutive
ang / ya
si / si
Oblique
sa / sa
kay / kan
The Tagalog stem is ‘suntok’ and the Ayta stem is ‘dugê’.
English: John hit Bill.
Tagalog: Sinuntok ni Juan si Bill. Ayta Mag-Indi: Dinugun Juan si Bill. 19

20. LA Rule that inserts Tagalog Case Markers20

21. LA Rule that inserts Ayta Mag-Indi Case Markers21

22. Tagalog / Ayta Mag-Indi Personal Pronouns
Absolutive
Ergative
Oblique
1st Sg.
ako / aku
ko / ku
akin / kangku
1st Incl.
tayo / kitamu
natin / tamu
atin / kantamu
1st Excl.
kami / kay
namin / yan
amin / kanyan
2nd Sg.
ka / ka
mo / mu
iyo / kamu
2nd Pl.
kayo / kaw
ninyo / yu
inyo / kamuyu
3rd Sg.
siya / ya
niya / na
kanya / kana
3rd Pl.
sila / sila
nila / la
kanila / kalla 22

23. Tagalog / Ayta Mag-Indi Possessive Pronouns
1st Sg.
aking/ku
1st Incl.
ating/tamu
1st Excl.
aming/yan
2nd Sg.
iyong/mu
2nd Pl.
inyong/yu
3rd Sg.
kanyang/na
3rd Pl.
kanilang/la 23

24. Tagalog Pronoun Rule 24

25. Tagalog Possessive Pronouns
“I saw John’s book.” “Nakita ko ang aklat ni Juan.” “I saw his book.” “Nakita ko ang kanyang aklat.”
I saw John’s book. Nakita ko ang aklat ni John. I saw his book. Nakita ko ang kanyang aklat. If we put the possessive pronoun after the noun, it becomes Nakita ko ang aklat niya. I saw my book. Nakita ko ang aking aklat. or Nakita ko ang aklat ko. 25

26. Tagalog Possessive Pronouns26

27. Ayta Mag-Indi Possessive Pronouns
“I saw John’s book.” “Nakit kuy libron Juan.” “I saw his book.” “Nakit kuy libron na.” 27

28. Ayta Mag-Indi Possessive Pronouns28

29. Ayta Mag-Indi Morphophonemic Rule29

30. Tagalog and Ayta Mag-Indi Particles
Relativizer na ya
Complementizer
Possessive Marker ni
(mata ni Juan) -n
(mata-n Juan)
Adjectivizer
ma-
(ma-linis)
Adverbializer
(ma-buti)
(ma-ngêd)
Verb Phrase Ligature
-ng
(Pumarito ka-ng mabilis …)
(Maku ka-n tambêng …)
‘mata ni Juan’ John’s eyes ‘malinis’ clean ‘mabuti’ thoroughly ‘pumarito kang mabilis’ ‘come quickly …’ 30

31. Similarities at Surface Structure
English: Title: Melissa’s Eyes are Sore Tagalog: Pamagat: Makirot ang mga mata ni Melissa. Ayta Mag-Indi: Pamagat: Makirot ya mani matan Melissa. 31

32. Similarities at Surface Structure
English: But Melissa was not happy because her eyes were very sore. Tagalog: Ngunit hindi masaya si Melissa dahil napakakirot nang kanyang mga mata. Ayta Mag-Indi: Nuwa asê masaya si Melissa gawan napakakirot un mani mata na.
But Melissa was not happy because her eyes were very sore. Tagalog can put a possessive pronoun after the noun, but it’s a different form. This sentence would become “… nang mga mata niya.” 32

33. Similarities at Deep Structure Deletion of Verb Phrase Ligature
English: Melissa shouted, “Alex, come into my house.” Tagalog: Sumigaw si Melissa, "Alex, pumarito ka sa loob ng aking bahay.” Ayta Mag-Indi: Nan-angaw si Melissa, "Alex, maku ka sa lalên bali ku.”
Melissa shouted, “Alex, come into my house.” Both languages delete their verbal connectors ‘-ng/-n’ if the next word is a preposition that begins with ‘sa’. 33

34. Similarities at Deep Structure Pronominal Length
English: He gave a book to you. Tagalog: Binigyan ka niya ng libro. gave you he Ergative book. Ayta Mag-Indi: Binyan na ka-n libru. gave he you-Ergative book.
He gave the book to you. In both languages, single syllable pronouns precede multi-syllable pronouns. In this Ayta Mag-Indi example, both pronouns are single syllable, so the subject pronoun precedes the indirect object pronoun. 34

35. Malayo-Polynesian Language Family Tree
The next language I might work in is Rinconada, which is very closely related to Bikol. So it should be much more similar to Tagalog than Ayta Mag-Indi. 35

36. Things LA Cannot Do gising “to wake up” gumising - nagising
takas “to escape”
tumakas - nakatakas
‘gumising’ means to wake up because you’ve had enough sleep, but ‘nagising’ means to wake up because of some disturbance such as a loud Jeepney, a dream, an earthquake, etc. ‘tumaka’ means a premeditated escape, but ‘nakatakas’ means a spur of the moment escape. Our semantic representations don’t include this kind of information, so the software can’t generate these forms. So we choose whichever one we think is the most common. 36

37. Experiments for Testing the Content and Quality of the Texts
Backtranslation Experiments
Comprehension Questions
Productivity Experiments
Quality Experiments 37

38. Quality Experiments for Jula
Manual
Equal 12 11 17 38

39. Quality Experiments for KoreanLA
Manual
Equal 88 71 33 39

40. Quality Experiments for TagalogLA
Manual
Equal 53 60 56
24 control questionnaires – 2 outliers 40

41. Linguist’s Assistant: An Analysis of the Required Modifications when Converting a Computational Tagalog Grammar into an Ayta Mag-Indi Grammar The 13th National NLP Research Symposium April 21st, 2017
Dr. Tod Allman
Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics