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Semitic Linguistic Phenomena and Variations

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Title: Semitic Linguistic Phenomena and Variations


1
Semitic Linguistic Phenomena and Variations
MT Summit IX Workshop Machine Translation for
Semitic Languages
  • Nizar Habash
  • University of MarylandInstitute for Advanced
    Computer Studies

2
Road Map
  • Introduction
  • Orthography
  • Morphology
  • Syntax
  • Translation Divergences
  • Conclusion

3
Introduction
  • What this talk is about
  • Similarities that define the Semitic family
  • Variations differentiating members within the
    family
  • Similarities do not go beyond morphology and
    syntax
  • Relevance to NLP and MT
  • Most researchers focus on one Semitic language
  • Modern Standard Arabic (henceforth, A)
  • Modern Hebrew (henceforth, H)
  • Arabic Dialect Palestinian Arabic (henceforth, P)

4
Road Map
  • Introduction
  • Orthography
  • Phonology
  • Scripts
  • Spelling
  • Ambiguity
  • Morphology
  • Syntax
  • Translation Divergences
  • Conclusion

5
Orthography Phonology
6
Orthography Script
  • Alphabets
  • Graphemic Variants
  • ? ??? (27 out of 36), ? ? (5 out of 22)
  • Encoding issues
  • Optional diacritics
  • Some Vowels ?? ?? ?? ??
  • Lack of vowel ?? ??
  • Consonantal Doubling ?? ??

7
Orthography Spelling
  • Mostly consonantal Spelling
  • ???? slam salam, ???? ?lvm ?alom
  • Dual use of (a w/v j ??? ? ? ?) as consonant and
    vowel
  • Diacritics as semantic markers
  • ???? (zaxar male) ???? (zaxar to remember)
  • ??? (kataba to write) ???? (kutiba to be written)

8
Orthography Spelling
  • Hebrew
  • Full Spelling, Defective Spelling (????
    ???,???? ???)
  • kotel ???? ??? (wall)
  • Arabic
  • Morphophonemic Spelling
  • Feminine Marker ? (ta marbuta)
  • ???? (kabir big ?) ????? (kabira big ?)
  • Derivation Marker
  • hawa (to love ???) (air ???)
  • Hamza Variants (6 characters for one phoneme)
  • (? ?????) ???? ????? ?????

9
Orthography Ambiguity
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Orthography Ambiguity
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11
Road Map
  • Introduction
  • Orthography
  • Morphology
  • Derivational
  • Inflectional
  • Noun Inflections
  • Verb Inflections
  • Syntax
  • Translation Divergences
  • Conclusion

12
Morphology Derivational
  • Roots and Patterns
  • Meaning
  • (Root.MeaningPattern.Meaning)Idiosyncrasy.Rando
    m

?
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K T B
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13
Morphology Root Meaning
  • KTB writing stuff

???? book
write
???
???
???? spelling
????? library
letter
????
?????
????? address
???? office
writer
???
????
14
Morphology Root Meaning
  • LHM-1

??? laHm
??? lexem
15
Morphology Root Meaning
  • LHM-2 (battle sense)
  • ?????
  • Fierce battle, massacre, epic
  • ????? ????? ??? ???? ?????
  • War, battle, quarrel, conflict, combat, warfare,
    belligerence, fighting, quarreling, fighter,
    militarism, militancy, bellicosity

16
Morphology Root Meaning
  • LHM-3 (Solder sense)
  • ??? ????? ????? ????? ?????
  • Weld, solder, get stuck, cling together, merged,
    fused, kinship
  • ??? ????? ????? ????
  • Solder, soldered, soldering iron,

17
Morphology Root Meaning
  • LHM-4 (Conjuctiva sense)
  • ?????
  • conjunctiva
  • ?????
  • conjunctiva

18
Morphology Noun Inflections
conj
  • ????????
  • ?? ???? ? ?
  • And-like-houses-our
  • And like our houses
  • ?????
  • ??????
  • That-in-the-house
  • Which is in the house
  • Arabic Broken Plurals
  • Hebrew Ambiguous definiteness

prep
noun
plural
article
poss
19
Morphology Verb Inflections
A ???????? And-will-we-write-it And we will
write it H ??????? And-loved-I-her And I loved
her P ?????????????? And-not-will-use-you-for-it
-not And you will not use for it
conj
verb
neg
tense
IOBJ
subj
object
20
Morphology Verb Inflections
  • Perfect Verb Derivation (Suffixes only)
  • Imperfect Verb Derivation (PrefixSuffix)

21
Morphology Semantics of Verb Inflections
22
Road Map
  • Introduction
  • Orthography
  • Morphology
  • Syntax
  • Sentence Structure
  • Noun Phrase Structure
  • Translation Divergences
  • Conclusion

23
Sentence Structure
  • Sentence structure
  • Copular sentences
  • Verbal sentences
  • Copular sentences
  • Topic ? Complement
  • Definite ? Indefinite
  • ????? ???? ???? ????
  • The-dog big


topic
comp
???
????
dog
big
24
Sentence Structure
  • Verbal sentences
  • The children wrote the poems
  • A Verb Subject Object
  • ??? ??????? ???????
  • Wrote the-children the-poems
  • H, P Subject Verb Object
  • ?????? ???? ?? ??????
  • The-children wrote obj the-poems
  • ??????? ???? ???????
  • The-children wrote the-poems

25
Noun Phrase
  • Noun ? Adjective
  • Noun-Adjective Agreement
  • number, gender, definiteness

26
Noun Phrase
  • ????? / ?????? (idafa/smixut)
  • Noun1 of Noun2 encoded structurally
  • Noun1-indefinite ? Noun2-definite
  • ??? ?????? ??? ????
  • king Jordan the king of Jordan / Jordans king
  • Noun1 Form Change
  • Feminine (H and P)
  • ???? ???? ? ???? ???? Queen of Jordan
  • Plural (A and H)
  • ???? ????? ? ???? ???? Kings of Jordan
  • Alternatives (only H and P)
  • Noun1 ltparticlegt Noun2
  • ????? ??? ?????? the-king belonging-to Jordan
  • ???? ?? ???? the-king that-for Jordan

27
Road Map
  • Introduction
  • Orthography
  • Morphology
  • Syntax
  • Translation Divergences
  • Conclusion

28
Translation Divergences
  • Variations beyond syntax
  • How languages map semantics to syntax
  • As complex and diverse as any other language
  • Divergence Dimensions
  • Categorial Variation (develop ? development)
  • Conflation (become frozen ? freeze)
  • Inflation (freeze ? become frozen)
  • Structural (enter the room ? enter into the room)
  • Head Swap (swim across ? cross swimming)
  • Thematic (John likes Mary ? Mary pleases John)

29
Translation Divergencesconflation

have
??
???
???
I
dog
???
?
???
???
???? ??? at-me dog
I have a dog
?? ?? ??? there for-me dog
30
Translation Divergences conflation
be
???

I
here
not
? ??
???
??
??
???
??? ??? I-am-not here
I am not here
?? ?? ??? I not here
31
Translation Divergencesthematic


be
? ??
?????
??
?
I
cold
???
??? ????? I cold
I am cold
?? ?? cold for-me
32
Translation Divergencesstructural
???
find
???
???
???
I
man
???
??
???
???
???? ??? ????? found-I upon the-man
I found the man
????? ?? ???? found-I obj the-man
33
Translation Divergences structural
???
find
???
???
???
I
man
???
????
???
???? ??? ????? found-I upon the-man
I found the man
???? ?????? found-I the-man
34
Translation Divergenceshead swap and categorial
I swam across the river quickly
????? ???? ????? ????? I-sped crossing the-river
swimming
35
Translation Divergences head swap and categorial
????? ?? ???? ????? ??????? I-crossed obj river
in-swim speedily
I swam across the river quickly
36
Translation Divergences head swap and
categorial
verb
verb
noun
noun
verb
noun
noun
prep
adverb
37
Conclusion
  • Many defining features of the Semitic family
  • Orthographic conventions, morphological
    derivation and inflection, phrase structure, etc
  • Many variations that create different kinds of
    ambiguities and problems
  • Phonology of orthography, Semantics of derivation
    and inflection
  • Do similarities extend beyond morphology and
    syntax?
  • Translation divergences within Semitic family
  • Ambiguity preservation between Semitic languages
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