1. Translation Divergence LING 580MT Fei Xia 1/10/06

2. Papers Bonnie Dorr (1994): Machine Translation Divergences: a Formal Description and Proposed Solution

3. Outline Formal definition of translation divergence Seven types of divergence Discussion Remaining questions

4. Formal definition of translation divergence

5. Distinction between the source and target languages Two categories (Bernett et. al., 1991): Translation divergence: same information, different structures Translation mismatches: different information  important, but outside of the scope of the paper

6. How to define translation divergence formally? Define the language-to-language divergence via language-to-interlingua divergence: Interlingua: lexical conceptual structure (LCS) Language-to-interlingua: mapping from syntactic form to LCS

7. Lexical conceptual structure (LCS) X’ T(X’) W’ T(W’) Z 1 ’ T(Z 1 ’) Z n ’ T(Z n ’) Q m ’ T(Q m ’) Q 1 ’ T(Q 1 ’) X’: logical head W’: logical subject Z 1 ’…Z n ’: logical argument Q 1 ’…Q m ’: logical modifiers T(Φ’) is the logical type (Event, Path, ….) of the primitive Φ’ (CAUSE, LET, GO, …) … …

8. Root LCS (RLCS) A RLCS is an un-instantiated LCS that is associated with a word definition in the lexicon (i.e., a LCS with unfilled variable position) LCSs are recursively defined.

9. RLCS representation for go X Thing TO Loc Path AT Loc Position X Thing Z Location GO Loc Event  It is different from dependency structure

10. Composed LCS (CLCS) A CLCS is an instantiated LCS that is the result of combining two or more RLCSs by means of unification (roughly). This is the interlingua form that serves as the pivot between the source and target languages.

11. CLCS representation for “John went happily to school” John Thing TO Loc Path AT Loc Position John Thing School Location GO Loc Event Happily Manner  The operations of combining are not defined in this paper.

12. Syntactic phrase X: syntactic head W: external argument Z-MAX i : internal arguments Q-MAX i : syntactic adjuncts  Similar to X-bar theory, GB theory, etc.

13. An example

14. Mapping between LCS and syntactic form Generalized linking routine (GLR): –X’  X (logical head  syntactic head) –W’  W (logical subject  external argument) –Z’  Z (logical argument  internal argument) –Q’  Q (logical modifiers  syntactic adjunct) Canonical syntactic realization (CSR) –Relate T(Φ’) to CAT(Φ): (logical type  syntactic category) Ex: THING  N, EVENT  V

15. Divergence problem Translation divergences occur when there is an exception either to the GLR or to the CSR (or to both) in one language, but not in the other.

16. Outline Formal definition of translation divergence Seven types of divergence Discussion Remaining questions

17. T1: Thematic divergence The repositioning of arguments w.r.t. a head. GLR: W’  Z and Z’  W Example: I like Mary  Maria me gusta

18. :INT and :EXT

19. General Solution

20. T2: Promotional Divergence Promoting a logical modifier into a main verb position (or vice versa) GLR: X’  Z and Q’  X Ex: John usually goes home  Juan suele ir a casa

21. :PROMOTE

22. General Solution

23. T3: Demotional Divergence Demoting a logical head into an internal argument (adjunct?) position (or vice versa). GLR: X’  Q and Z’  X Ex: I like to eat  Ich gern esse

24. :DEMOTE

25. General Solution

26. T4: Structural divergence It does not alter the positions used in GLR mapping But it changes the nature of the relation between different positions (i.e., the “  ” correspondence) Ex: John entered the house  Juan entro en la casa

27. * marker Marker forces logical constituents to be realized compositionally at different levels

28. General solution

29. T5: Conflational Divergence The suppression of a CLCS constituent (or the inverse of the process) GLR:  correspondence of step (3) or (4) is changed.

30. Example I stabbed John  Yo le di punaladas a Juan

31. :CONFLATED

32. General solution

33. T6: Categorical divergence CAT(Φ) is different from CSR(T(Φ’)). Ex: I am hungry  Ich hunger habe

34. :CAT

35. General solution

36. T7: Lexical divergence As a side effect of other divergences. Ex: John broke into the room  Juan forzo la entrada al cuarto

37. Summary of seven types Repositioning (GLR mappings): thematic, promotional, demotional divergences Changing  correspondence: structural, conflational divergences Category: categorical divergence ??: Lexical divergence

38. Discussion

39. Limits on Repositioning Divergences Promotional vs. Demotional Divergences Lexical Selection: Full Coverage Constraint Interacting Divergence Types

40. Limits on Repositioning divergences Three types to cover all repositioning divergences: –Thematic: W’  Z, Z’  W –Promotional: X’  Z, Q’  X –Demotional: X’  Q, Z’  X (X, W, Z, Q)  (X’, W’, Z’, Q’) –W has a special status: 4 4 =256  3 3 =27 –a CLCS must contain exactly one head: 3 3 =27  12

41. Limits on Repositioning Divergences (cont) Z can never be associated with Q’, and Q can never be associated with Z’: 12  5 Modifying relation cannot be reversed: 5  4 (Q’  X, X’  Q, Z’  Z) Argument relation cannot be reversed: 4  3 (Z’  X, X’  Z, Q’  Q) Canonical positions: 3  2

42. Promotional vs. Demotional Divergences Promotion is triggered by a main verb (e.g., soler in soler-usually) Demotion is triggered by an adverb (e.g., gern in like-gern)

43. Interacting Divergence Types Promotional and thematic divergence: S: Leer libros le suele gustar a Juan ‘reading books (him) tends to please (to) John’ E: John usually likes reading books

44. Remaining questions

45. Remaining questions: Interlingua How to build RLCS? –What are logical head, subject, arguments and modifiers? Ex: like  likingly –How to represent a verb: stab  CAUSE GO Poss KNIFE-WOUND How are RLCSs combined to form CLCSs? –Unification = substitution? Are CLCSs really sufficient to handle all the languages?

46. Remaining issues: divergences Are the seven types really sufficient to cover all the convergences? –Is the “proof” for limits on repositioning divergences convincing? –“Translation divergences occur when there is an exception to GLR/CSR in one language, but not the other”: what if there are exceptions in both languages? –Can a dependent of X become a dependent of Y?

47. Remaining issues: MT How to build a real MT system with this approach?