European Tribune

Display:
Did you translate this yourself or did you use translation software?

If the latter, how well did the software work?

A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run

by ATinNM on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 01:53:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I use "someone"'s Firefox extension TribExt, that does Scoop-friendly html and allows you to use Google Translate.

I find you must do some work on the translation or it's gobbledegook. How much work depends. I probably edited 20-30% of this one, a bit less on the Facebook article below (but that was written in English first, I think, and translated into French). Yesterday I had to rewrite most of a piece for the Salon.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 02:04:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Thanks.

That's my experience with Google's Language Tools as well.

A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run

by ATinNM on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 02:13:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Here's what Babelfish just gave me for the first paragraph:

Named in July 2007 representative of Four-bit byte (the United States, European Union, Russia and UNO), Tony Blair took her functions in September. Its mission had been defined in a letter of the ten Foreign Ministers of the States of the south of l' Europe members of l' EU.

Four-bit byte indeed.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 02:19:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I see Babelfish doesn't do semantics.

When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 02:23:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Or gender concordance.

When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 02:24:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Google doesn't do gender either (any more than l' or d').

But it did get the Quartet. Which suggests it's got a better contextual algorithm of some sort.

It's all still a long way from automatic AND readable.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 03:16:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]
An early version of Google translation did do semantics. It translated Sarkozy (French) to Blair (English)....
by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Thu May 15th, 2008 at 04:13:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]
That's the well known result of a one-to-one or one-to-{defined} translation paradigm.  

Translation software systems have to abstract Rules for language use in order to get anything done.  Actual language use gives a big neener-neener to those abstractions, unfortunately.  Not only are the relationships one-to-many toss in the Semantic Differential and it looks pretty darn hopeless.

On the other hand, humans are able to Speak Much Good so there's got to be some way to solve it.  Suggesting them wot are working on the problem (not me, BTW) are looking in the wrong place(s) for solutions.

A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run

by ATinNM on Wed May 14th, 2008 at 02:51:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:
Login
. Make a new account
. Reset password
Recommended Diaries
Dancing in the Streets
by rdf - Dec 4
1 comment

On Rhetoric
by rg - Dec 3
84 comments

Me and my son, a Shministim
by shergald - Dec 4
3 comments

Electric Cars for Everyone - Tomorrow
by gmoke - Dec 4
4 comments

Bugger Thy Neighbour
by redstar - Dec 3
264 comments

So, Ideology is Dead. So now what ?
by ValentinD - Nov 26
648 comments

Not quite the 'perfect fix'?
by djhabakkuk - Dec 3
4 comments

Georgia on my mind...[Updated]
by Frank Schnittger - Dec 3
22 comments

Debates
Campaigns
Occasional Series