Title: Semitic Linguistic Phenomena and Variations
1Semitic Linguistic Phenomena and Variations
MT Summit IX Workshop Machine Translation for
Semitic Languages
- Nizar Habash
- University of MarylandInstitute for Advanced
Computer Studies
2Road Map
- Introduction
- Orthography
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Translation Divergences
- Conclusion
3Introduction
- 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)
4Road Map
- Introduction
- Orthography
- Phonology
- Scripts
- Spelling
- Ambiguity
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Translation Divergences
- Conclusion
5Orthography Phonology
6Orthography Script
- Alphabets
- Graphemic Variants
- ? ??? (27 out of 36), ? ? (5 out of 22)
- Encoding issues
- Optional diacritics
- Some Vowels ?? ?? ?? ??
- Lack of vowel ?? ??
- Consonantal Doubling ?? ??
7Orthography 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)
8Orthography 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)
- (? ?????) ???? ????? ?????
9Orthography Ambiguity
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10Orthography Ambiguity
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11Road Map
- Introduction
- Orthography
- Morphology
- Derivational
- Inflectional
- Noun Inflections
- Verb Inflections
- Syntax
- Translation Divergences
- Conclusion
12Morphology Derivational
- Roots and Patterns
- Meaning
- (Root.MeaningPattern.Meaning)Idiosyncrasy.Rando
m
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13Morphology Root Meaning
???? book
write
???
???
???? spelling
????? library
letter
????
?????
????? address
???? office
writer
???
????
14Morphology Root Meaning
??? laHm
??? lexem
15Morphology Root Meaning
- LHM-2 (battle sense)
- ?????
- Fierce battle, massacre, epic
- ????? ????? ??? ???? ?????
- War, battle, quarrel, conflict, combat, warfare,
belligerence, fighting, quarreling, fighter,
militarism, militancy, bellicosity
16Morphology Root Meaning
- LHM-3 (Solder sense)
- ??? ????? ????? ????? ?????
- Weld, solder, get stuck, cling together, merged,
fused, kinship - ??? ????? ????? ????
- Solder, soldered, soldering iron,
17Morphology Root Meaning
- LHM-4 (Conjuctiva sense)
- ?????
- conjunctiva
- ?????
- conjunctiva
18Morphology 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
19Morphology 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
20Morphology Verb Inflections
- Perfect Verb Derivation (Suffixes only)
- Imperfect Verb Derivation (PrefixSuffix)
21Morphology Semantics of Verb Inflections
22Road Map
- Introduction
- Orthography
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Sentence Structure
- Noun Phrase Structure
- Translation Divergences
- Conclusion
23Sentence Structure
- Sentence structure
- Copular sentences
- Verbal sentences
- Copular sentences
- Topic ? Complement
- Definite ? Indefinite
- ????? ???? ???? ????
- The-dog big
topic
comp
???
????
dog
big
24Sentence 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
25Noun Phrase
- Noun ? Adjective
- Noun-Adjective Agreement
- number, gender, definiteness
26Noun 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
27Road Map
- Introduction
- Orthography
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Translation Divergences
- Conclusion
28Translation 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)
29Translation Divergencesconflation
have
??
???
???
I
dog
???
?
???
???
???? ??? at-me dog
I have a dog
?? ?? ??? there for-me dog
30Translation Divergences conflation
be
???
I
here
not
? ??
???
??
??
???
??? ??? I-am-not here
I am not here
?? ?? ??? I not here
31Translation Divergencesthematic
be
? ??
?????
??
?
I
cold
???
??? ????? I cold
I am cold
?? ?? cold for-me
32Translation Divergencesstructural
???
find
???
???
???
I
man
???
??
???
???
???? ??? ????? found-I upon the-man
I found the man
????? ?? ???? found-I obj the-man
33Translation Divergences structural
???
find
???
???
???
I
man
???
????
???
???? ??? ????? found-I upon the-man
I found the man
???? ?????? found-I the-man
34Translation Divergenceshead swap and categorial
I swam across the river quickly
????? ???? ????? ????? I-sped crossing the-river
swimming
35Translation Divergences head swap and categorial
????? ?? ???? ????? ??????? I-crossed obj river
in-swim speedily
I swam across the river quickly
36Translation Divergences head swap and
categorial
verb
verb
noun
noun
verb
noun
noun
prep
adverb
37Conclusion
- 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