LINGUIST List 6.973

Mon Jul 17 1995

Qs: UN corpus, Cognitive gr, Arabic software, XBM bitmaps

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <dizdartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. Raphael Salkie, Query: United Nations Parallel Corpus
2. Martin Weidner, Q:relation neural nets & Cognitive Grammar
3. , Seek Arabic Software
4. Rodrik Wade, Query: XBM bitmaps of IPA characters

I have some questions for anyone out there who has bought the United Nations
parallel corpus from the LDC (apologies if you have seen this query on the
corpora list as well).

1. What does the corpus contain? Is it just formal documents, or are there
transcriptions of general assembly sessions, etc? Are all the texts of the
same general type, or is there a lot of variety?

2. What condition are the texts in? Are they plain texts, or is there a lot
of garbage in them? Do they include SGML tags?

3. How many of the texts are genuine translations of each other? (I am
particularly interested in English - French, but info about Spanish is also
useful).

I have been unable to get this information from the LDC. I have a grant to
buy the corpus - I want to know if it is worth the money.

If you've read this far you are probably interested in parallel corpora, so
here's another question. I would also like to obtain (at least some of) the
Canadian Hansard. A well-known corpus linguist (I won't reveal his name, but
it begins with B- and ends with -urnard) recently said to me that he thought
the Canadian Hansard was available for 50 dollars. On the LDC price list, the
cost is 5000 dollars. Can anyone explain why this usually well-informed
source had this idea? Is the corpus, or part of it, genuinely "available" for
a small cost? Please let me know.

Many thanks.

Raphael Salkie
University of Brighton, UK
<rms3bton.ac.uk>

Newsgroups: comp.ai.neural-nets
Organization: Linguistic Data Processing, Cologne University, Germany
Summary:
Keywords:

Hi there,

I'm doing a research about the so called "sub-symbolic
paradigma" and their relationship to the "idealized cognivite models"
used in the Cognitive Grammar Theory of Lakoff/Langacker.
I read an interesting german book "Konnektionismus" from Dorffner and am
now looking for related articles. I know of Lakoff 1988, but couldn't
locate it. I also have an article from Catherine Harris, who tried to
implementate Claudia Brugmans ICM model of the preposition "over".

Does anyone know related books, articles or implementation experiments?
 --

Ciao
 Martin

........................................
.Martin Weidner .
.e-mail: Weidnerspinfo.uni-koeln.de .
.Linguistic Data Processing Cologne .
........................................
See also the Students-Linguistic-Forum:
http://www.spinfo.uni-koeln.de/mweidner/

I would be grateful for information on sources of Arabic Language Software for
IBM PC in the following areas:
 1. Translation from Arabic to English.
 2. Arabic language instruction for English-speaking students at advanced
level. I am aware of several elementary programs, such as Arabic Tutor from
University of Oregon and U of Pennsylvania, and the Harvard Language Lab flash
card program for vocabulary in U of Michigan's Modern Standard Arabic.
 3. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software for Arabic fonts. I am aware
of Sakhr's OCR program, but at $1500 it is out of my budget.

Does anyone have small XBM (X-bitmaps) of the common IPA characters
suitable for use in WWW pages? I have found collections of Greek
characters but haven't been able to track down any IPA ones.

Thanks in advance.

-
____________________________________________________________
Rodrik Wade <wademtb.und.ac.za> Phone: +27 (0)31 260 1131
Web Page: http://www.und.ac.za/ling/wade.html
Postal Address: Dept. of Linguistics, University of Natal,
 Private Bag X10, DALBRIDGE 4014, South Africa