LINGUIST List 6.1481

Sun Oct 22 1995

Qs: Translating Syntax,The Paston Letters,GB-style parsers

Editor for this issue: <avaldezemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. James E Millican, Translating Syntax
2. , The Paston Letters
3. Vincent DeCaen, Q? GB-style parsers

In talking with professors and other graduate students, we've found
that discussing linguistics (specifically Generative Syntax) outside
English can be nightmarishly difficult ... especially when teaching/taking
graduate classes in Comparative Syntax & Morphology.

I'd like to ask, for those members who speak other languages (esp.
Spanish and French),

a) do you translate linguistic terminology?
b) are there any kind of "accepted" translations?

Although a native English-speaker, I do not like simply throwing in the
English term or giving an anglo-/germanocentric literal translation. To
give four quick examples,

- French displays "qu-movement" -- proprement dit -- as does Spanish.
- Neologisms on "marcar" and "marquer" for "mark/ed/ness" seem absurd.
 Would "destacar" or "ressortir" be any better?
- What about "default case"?
- "Complex NP" can be downright laughable (try "illicit movement" sometime
 while you're at it).

Serious and creative discussion on this subject is sought.

James E. Millican
UT El Paso, Linguistics Graduate program


El Paso, Texas, USA		
"I have never come across anyone in whom the moral sense was dominant who
 was not heartless, cruel, vindictive, log-stupid, and entirely lacking in
 the smallest sense of humanity." -- Writer Oscar Wilde.

Can anyone give me references of linguistic work done on
The Paston Letters ?


FRYD Marc Tel. : (33) 49.45.32.02
Lettres et Langues Internet : frydzeus.univ-poitiers.fr
Universite de Poitiers

I'm not a computational linguist, but I want to get into this stuff.
what I would like to know is what kind of work has been done with
parsers assuming a GB sort of world. I'm especially curious to know
what you need to know in addition to the morphosyntactic category of
the "heads": do you need access to semantic info like which
constituent is "subject", etc.?

this is a *general* question. any info to get me started down this road
will be greatly appreciated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vincent DeCaen		 decaenepas.utoronto.ca

Near Eastern Studies, University of Toronto
Religion and Culture, Wilfrid Laurier University

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I really do not know that anything has ever been
more exciting than diagraming sentences.
				 --Gertrude Stein