LINGUIST List 9.215

Thu Feb 12 1998

FYI: Transcription,ELRA/ELDA,LANGUAGE,ESL Gram Check

Editor for this issue: Martin Jacobsen <martylinguistlist.org>


Directory

  • Kristine Hasund, Sum II: audio & transcription software for Mac & Windows
  • Valerie Mapelli, ELRA/ELDA new address
  • Langrev Langrev, LANGUAGE Web Site
  • Anne Sing, ESL Grammar Checker Available

    Message 1: Sum II: audio & transcription software for Mac & Windows

    Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 14:18:43 +0000
    From: Kristine Hasund <Kristine.Hasundhia.no>
    Subject: Sum II: audio & transcription software for Mac & Windows


    Dear fellow linguists,

    A while ago I posted a summary of the suggestions I got regarding audio/transcription software for the Macintosh.

    After posting the summary, I got another suggestion:

    The Department of Linguistics at Goteborg University has developed a set of tools for transcribing and coding audio and videomaterial:

    http://www.ling.gu.se/gsmlc/

    and

    http://www.ling.gu.se/~sylvana/TransTool.html

    Besides, one of the programs I listed in the summary was SoundEffects, for which I had not been given a URL at the time. Now I've got it:

    http://www.riccisoft.com/soundeffects/

    And those of you who expressed an interest in transcription/audio tools for Windows, check out the following site:

    http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/depts/linguistics/lab/transcription.html

    Best regards, kristine hasund English dept. University of Bergen

    Message 2: ELRA/ELDA new address

    Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 15:20:40 +0100 (MET)
    From: Valerie Mapelli <info-elracalva.net>
    Subject: ELRA/ELDA new address


    The European Language Resources Association and its Distribution Agency have moved! We are expanding our activities,and our offices are moving to new premises. As of the 1st of February 1998, we have the following address:

    - --------------------------- 55-57, rue Brillat Savarin 75013 Paris France

    Tel. +33 - (0)1 - 43 13 33 33 Fax. +33 - (0)1 - 43 13 33 30 - ---------------------------

    The ELRA Web site and the e-mail addresses are not changing, you may still reach us on:

    http://www.icp.grenet.fr/ELRA/home.html

    Khalid CHOUKRI, CEO: elracalva.net Rebecca JAFFRAIN, Assistant manager: info-elracalva.net Valerie MAPELLI, Technical assistant: info-elracalva.net Malin NILSSON, Marketing assistant: elra-eldacalva.net

    Valerie Mapelli Tel: +33 1 43 13 33 33 ELRA/ELDA Fax: +33 1 43 13 33 30 55-57 rue Brillat Savarin E-mail: info-elracalva.net 75013 PARIS http://www.icp.grenet.fr/ELRA

    First International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (Granada, Spain, 28-30 May 1998): http://www.icp.grenet.fr/ELRA/conflre.html

    Message 3: LANGUAGE Web Site

    Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 16:23:20 -0600
    From: Langrev Langrev <langrevwscgate.wsc.edu>
    Subject: LANGUAGE Web Site


    A listing of the book available for 500 word book notices is posted at the LANGUAGE web site: http://semlab2.sbs.sunysb.edu/Language/language.html

    Message 4: ESL Grammar Checker Available

    Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 19:27:19 -1000
    From: Anne Sing <anneshtdc.org>
    Subject: ESL Grammar Checker Available


    Japan Information Processing (JIP) or Nihon Denshi Keisan of Tokyo, Japan has just made their "English Sentence Enhancer" available for free over the Japanese internet. This grammar checker was designed and created by Ergo Linguistic Technologies at their request. The current on-line version represents six months of an eighteen month development cycle.

    The Japanese version can be downloaded from their web site at http://www.jip.co.jp/JIPESE/. Japanese Windows 95 is required for that version of the program and a Japanese Browser is required for the download though their web site can be viewed in English.

    An English version of the same product can be downloaded from http://www.ergo-ling.com. Currently, there are two downloads available from this site: The "BracketDoctor" announced two weeks ago, and now the "English Sentence Enhancer" the grammar checker created for Japan Information Processing. Both the BracketDoctor and the English Sentence Enhancer are Windows 95 programs.

    It is important to remember that this grammar checker represents just six months of an 18 month development. However, even at this early stage it is able to provide functionality that is totally unique, and for that reason should be of interest to those in the NLP community as well as those in ESL, linguistics, and Machine Translation. For example, it can transform actives to passives, and passives to actives, yes/no and information questions to statements and statements to yes/no and information questions, and it can also change tense. There is also a function that will judge the acceptability of students sentences, and in some cases will provide suggestions for corrrections. The target audience is Junior High School English students in Japan and so the vocabulary and structures that are included reflect that level. A beginning or low intermediate ESL textbook might be the best source of test sentences.

    The full 18 month development will include the ability to change noun/adjective/adverb clauses into statements and participial phrases and vice versa as well as the detection of and transformation of many other more detailed grammatical functions. For those of you who are unware of the state of the art in grammar checkers, the ability to transform one structure into another is almost entirely non-existent outside of this product. Of course, the interface can be easily localized to other languages and the unique functions offered in this product can be easily added to other products. Also, these grammar functions can be easily added to existing grammar checkers for native speakers. In addition, parsers with these abilities can be developed for other languages.

    Phil Bralich

    For further information:

    Philip A. Bralich, President Ergo Linguistic Technologies 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175 Honolulu, HI 96822 tel:(808)539-3920 fax:(880)539-3924