Re: Universal Translation Language

Dans un courrier dat=E9 du 27/05/99 23:01:59  , Marcos a =E9crit :

> The important thing is to keep it unambiguous
>  enough to be suitable for computer parsing and MT. Btw, this can bring
>  subsequent linguistic advantages, but as I said on my first message,
>  main objectives of the language are computer tractability and ease of
>  learn (at least for western world), in a way it may serve also as a
>  normal IAL.
> =20
> =20
>  Saludos,
>  Marcos
Khmer and Indonesian readily understand what adverbs and adjectives are. The=
y=20
just don't get why they should be tagged differently from nouns and verbs.=20
Khmer example : "fisher tall goto river quick".
"quick" may attach to "river", to "goto" or to the whole "fisher tall goto=20
river", but also to "fisher". Attaching to "fisher", "quick" may refer eithe=
r=20
to "person" or to "fishing". Attaching to "river", quick refers to "flowing"=
.=20
In other words, each argument may attach to a former clause, argument,=20
predicate, integrated predicate inside an argument, etc. : there are adverbs=20
attaching to adjectives, verbs or clauses. Once you have determined to wich=20
morpheme(s !) another morpheme refers to, you have to determine to which=20
semes of the(se) morphemes its own semes refer to in that context : in the=20
=E9nonc=E9 "English is a perfect IAL", "perfect" refers to, and pairs severa=
l=20
semes of "English" and "IAL" lexies like "easy + learning".=20
The huge European computer translation programme gave up a few years ago.=20
French computer translation research programmes now do reversely : they are=20
currently searching and stacking up hundreds of thousands of such possible=20
syntactic and semantic combinations.
To sum up my post : tagging adjectives, adverbs, participles, etc. is (i) no=
t=20
necessary for human speech and (ii) not enough at all for translation=20
programmes.
You may rather want to precise what word or clause refers to what former or=20
latter word or clause, then what semes of each word or clause are combined.=20
But deciding one word only works in a sentence as an "adjective" or an=20
"adverb" or even a "noun" or a "verb" is just illusory : a word is=20
"adjective" to a noun but may be "adverb" to the verb integrated into that=20
noun ("good fisher") and reversely, etc.

Bonne chance !

Mathias