Computational stylistics for natural language translation. DiMarco, C. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, February, 1990. Published as technical report CSRI-239
abstract   bibtex   

The problem of style is highly relevant to machine translation, but current systems deal only superficially, if at all, with the preservation of stylistic effects. At best, MT output is syntactically correct but aims no higher than a strict uniformity in style. The expressive effects contained in the source text, together with their associated meaning, are lost.

I have developed an approach to the computational treatment of style that incorporates three selected components — lexical, syntactic, and semantic — and focuses on certain aspects of syntactic style. I have designed and implemented the foundations of a computational model of goal-directed stylistics that could serve as the basis of a system to preserve style in French-to-English translation. First, I developed a vocabulary of style that contains both primitive and abstract elements of style. The primitive elements describe the stylistic effects of individual sentence components. These elements are combined into patterns that are described by a stylistic meta-language, the abstract elements, that define the stylistic effects common to a group of sentences. These elements have as their basis the notions of concord and discord, for it is my contention that style is created by patterns of concord and discord giving an overall integrated arrangement. These patterns are built from the abstract elements and associated with specific stylistic goals such as clarity or concreteness. Thus, I have developed a syntactic stylistic grammar at three interrelated levels of description: primitive shapes, abstract elements, stylistic goals. Grammars for both French and English have been constructed, using the same vocabulary and the same development methodology. As well, Mark Ryan has used this vocabulary and methodology to construct a semantic stylistic grammar. Parsers that implement these grammars have also been implemented.

Together, the English and French parsers could form the basis of a system that would preserve many aspects of style in translation. The incorporation of stylistic analysis into MT systems should significantly reduce the current reliance on human post-editing and improve the quality of MT output.

@PhDThesis{	  dimarco8,
  author	= {Chrysanne DiMarco},
  title		= {Computational stylistics for natural language translation},
  school	= {Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto},
  month		= {February},
  year		= {1990},
  note		= {Published as technical report CSRI-239},
  abstract	= {<P>The problem of style is highly relevant to machine
		  translation, but current systems deal only superficially,
		  if at all, with the preservation of stylistic effects. At
		  best, MT output is syntactically correct but aims no higher
		  than a strict uniformity in style. The expressive effects
		  contained in the source text, together with their
		  associated meaning, are lost.</p> <P> I have developed an
		  approach to the computational treatment of style that
		  incorporates three selected components --- lexical,
		  syntactic, and semantic --- and focuses on certain aspects
		  of syntactic style. I have designed and implemented the
		  foundations of a computational model of goal-directed
		  stylistics that could serve as the basis of a system to
		  preserve style in French-to-English translation. First, I
		  developed a vocabulary of style that contains both
		  <I>primitive</I> and <I>abstract elements of style</I>. The
		  primitive elements describe the stylistic effects of
		  individual sentence components. These elements are combined
		  into patterns that are described by a stylistic
		  meta-language, the abstract elements, that define the
		  stylistic effects common to a group of sentences. These
		  elements have as their basis the notions of <I>concord</I>
		  and <I>discord</I>, for it is my contention that style is
		  created by patterns of concord and discord giving an
		  overall integrated arrangement. These patterns are built
		  from the abstract elements and associated with specific
		  stylistic goals such as clarity or concreteness. Thus, I
		  have developed a <I>syntactic stylistic grammar</I> at
		  three interrelated levels of description: primitive shapes,
		  abstract elements, stylistic goals. Grammars for both
		  French and English have been constructed, using the same
		  vocabulary and the same development methodology. As well,
		  Mark Ryan has used this vocabulary and methodology to
		  construct a <I>semantic stylistic grammar</I>. Parsers that
		  implement these grammars have also been implemented.</p>
		  <P> Together, the English and French parsers could form the
		  basis of a system that would preserve many aspects of style
		  in translation. The incorporation of stylistic analysis
		  into MT systems should significantly reduce the current
		  reliance on human post-editing and improve the quality of
		  MT output.</p>},
  download	= {http://ftp.cs.toronto.edu/pub/gh/DiMarco-PhD-1990.pdf}
}

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