TRANSLATION AS A MULTISTAGE TRANSFORMATION
FIGURE IV.13. The role of dictionaries and grammars in linguistic transformations.
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The task of translation from one natural language to another is a good illustration of multistage transformation of linguistic information.
Suppose there is a text in a language A that is to be translated into language B. As we have already argued, word-by-word translation leads to very poor and useless results. To translate the text with highest possible quality, the following stages of transformation are necessary:
· First stage of analysis starts from the source text in the language A and gives its morphologic representation specific for language A.
· Second stage of analysis starts from the morphologic representation and gives the syntactic representation specific for language A.
· Third stage of analysis starts from the syntactic representation and gives some level of semantic representation. The latter can be somewhat specific to language A, i.e., not universal, so that additional intra-level operations of “universalization” of semantic representation may be necessary.
The problem is that currently it is still not possible to reach the true semantic representation, i.e., the true level of Meaning, consisting of the universal and thus standard set of semes. Therefore, all practical systems have to stop this series of transformations at some level, as deep as possible, but not yet at that of universal Meaning.
· The transfer stage replaces the labels, i.e., of the conventional names of the concepts in language A, to the corresponding labels of language B. The result is the corresponding quasi-semantic level of representation in language B. In some cases, additional, more complex intra-level operations of “localization” are necessary at this stage.
· First stage of synthesis starts from the quasi-semantic representation with few features specific for the language B, and gives the syntactic representation quite specific for this language.
· Second stage of synthesis starts from the syntactic representation, and gives the morphologic representation specific for language B.
· Third stage of synthesis starts from the morphologic representation, and gives the target text in language B.
In the initial stages, the transformations go to the deep levels of the language, and then, in the last stages, return to the surface, with the ultimate result in textual form once more. The deeper the level reached, the smaller the difference between the representations of this level in both languages A and B. At the level of Meaning, there is no difference at all (except maybe for the labels at semes). The deeper the level reached during the transformations, the smaller the differences that have to be ignored, and the better the quality of translation (see Figure IV.14). This scheme shows only the general idea of all these representations.
FIGURE IV.14. Translation as multistage transformation.
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The given scheme works for an arbitrary pair of natural languages. However, if the two languages are very similar in their structure, the deeper stages of the transformation might not be necessary.
For example, if we translate from Spanish into Portuguese, then, because these two languages differ mainly in their lexicon, it can be sufficient to use only the first stage of analysis and the last stage of synthesis, just replacing each Spanish word by the corresponding Portuguese one on the morphologic level.
In Figure IV.14 this would correspond then to the “horizontal” transition directly on this level.
TWO SIDES OF A SIGN
The notion of sign, so important for linguistics, was first proposed in a science called semiotics. The sign was defined as an entity consisting of two components, the signifier and the signified.Let us first consider some examples of non-linguistic signs taken from everyday life.
· If you see a picture with a stylized image of a man in a wheelchair on the wall in the subway, you know that the place under the image is intended for disabled people. This is a typical case of a sign: the picture itself, i.e., a specific figure in contrasting colors, is the signifier, while the suggestion to assist the handicapped persons is the signified.
· Twenty Mexican pesos have two equally possible signifiers: a coin with a portrait of Octavio Paz and a piece of paper with a portrait of Benito Juárez. The signified of both of them is the value of twenty pesos. Clearly, neither of them has this value, but instead they denote it. Thus, they are two different but synonymous signs.
· Raising one’s hand (this gesture is the signifier) can have several different signifieds, for instance: (1) an intention to answer the teacher’s question in a classroom, (2) a vote for or against a proposal at a meeting, (3) an intention to call a taxi in the street, etc. These are three different, though homonymous, signs.
LINGUISTIC SIGN
The notion of linguistic sign was introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure. By linguistic signs, we mean the entities used in natural languages, such as morphs, lexemes, and phrases.
Linguistic signs have several specific properties, the most obvious of which is that they are to be combined together into larger signs and each one can in turn consist of several smaller signs. Natural language can be viewed as a system of linguistic signs.
As another property of linguistic sign, its signifier at the surface level consists of elementary parts, phonetic symbols in the phonetic transcription or letters in the written form of language. These parts do not have any signified of their own: a letter has no meaning, but certain strings of letters do have it.
We have already mentioned other notation systems to represent words of natural language, such as hieroglyphic writing. Each hieroglyph usually has its own meaning, so a hieroglyph is a linguistic sign. The gestures in the sign language for deaf people in some cases do have there own meanings, like hieroglyphs, and in other cases do not have any meaning of their own and serve like letters.