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Machine translation: Past, present, future
REVIEWS
Andererseits stehen access road und accounting “Buchfiihrung” wohl aber im alpha 40.
II9
(AE) nicht im LDCE,
Zero option = “Nullosung”
ist wohl ein Tribut an unsere Zeit, und iiber den Eintrag “MS = Frau, Fraulein” werden sich einige Damen wundern; bei Friiufein stehen ubrigens Miss und MS < AB > , bei Frau female, Mrs, MS, wife, woman, mistress (separate Eintrage). Verwendungsmoglichkeiten sehe ich primar fur Schiiler, Geschaftsleute und Touristen, die sich elementar und schnell informieren miissen. Die Schuler werden vorerst wegen des relativ hohen Anschaffungspreises aus diesem Kreis ausscheiden obwohl man h&t, da8 der alpha 40 hier sehr popular ist.
alpha 40 bedeutet
gegenuber seinem Vorganger eine gewaltigen Fortschritt, und man muI sich die Frage stellen, wie diese Entwicklung wohl weitergehen wird. Da sich besonders die englischsprachige Lexikographie auf einem hervorragenden Stand befindet, wird man im Bereich der “richtigen” Worterbiicher mit weiteren “Grol3taten” rechnen diirfen: das Langenscheidt/Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English in seiner zweiten Auflage (1987), die vierte Auflage des Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English (1989) im Bereich der Lernerworterbiicher sowie vor allem die zweite Auflage des Oxford English Dictionary (1989) sind Meilensteine der Lexikographie, die jedenfalls teilweise nicht ohne Einsatz der elektronischen Datenverarbeitung denkbar gewesen waren. alpha 40 zeigt such in einer ganz anderen Richtung deutlich an, wie sich der Einsatz “des Computers” positiv niederschlagt. 40 000 Wdrter sind schon eine ganze Menge, aber eben noch nicht genug. Man mu0 gespannt sein, wie die dritte Generation aussehen wird: noch mehr Worter und Bedeutungen, Ausspracheangaben . . .? Broder Carstensen Fachbereich 3_Anglistik/Amerikanistik Universitit-Gesamthochschule-Paderborn Warburger StraI3e 100 D-4790 Paderborn Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
Sysrem. Vol. 18. No. I, pp. Pergamon Press pk. Printed
119-120. in Great
1990 Britain
HUTCHINS, WILLIAM JOHN, Machine Translation: fast, Present, Future. New York: Ellis Horwood, 1986, 382 pp., f41.95 (Ellis Horwood Series in Computers and Their Applications). It is a pleasure to review a book which has been written in an understandable, unbiased manner, which combines the features of a global survey with detailed information on a well-defined subject-matter in a plausible sequence of chapters and which painstakingly and throughout adheres to the principle of neither ignoring nor overtaxing the reader’s knowledge and his data-processing capabilities. All this can be said of the book by Hutchins which can truly be ranked among the most important contributions in the field of machine translation (MT). In addition to a preface, a list of common abbreviations, a chronological
I20
REVIEWS
table of main projects, a comprehensive bibliography and an index, the book consists of 19 chapters: General introduction; Precursors and pioneers; Problems, methods and strategies; Groups and projects in the United States (1950-1966); Groups and projects in the United Kingdom and Western Europe (1954-1966); Groups and projects in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (1955-1967); Groups and projects in Japan, China and Mexico (1956-1966); Expectations and criticisms: The decade from 1956 to 1966; Strategies and methods since the mid-1960s; Interlingual systems, 1965-1975; Other indirect systems, 1965-1975; Direct translation systems since 1965; Transfer systems since 1970; Projects and systems at the Commission of the European Communities (1976); Artificial intelligence systems (1970); Other interlingual systems since 1975; Interactive and human-aided systems; Projects and systems in the Soviet Union and Japan (1974); Present developments and some future prospects. One of the salient-and, at least, from the perspective of the uninitiated reader most gratifying-aspects of the book is that all basic concepts, interactive systems, interlingual systems, transfer systems, direct translation systems, the Q-system, to name just a few, have been outlined in an instructive and at the same time concise manner with the help of a large number of illuminating examples. There are many-and in view of the plethora of theoretical and methodological approaches to MT-most welcome cross-references, the index is a reliable guide (e.g. the reader is referred to the central MT problem of “ambiguity” under the heading “ambiguity”, “multiple meaning” and “polysemy”), the number of misprints or slips is negligible (I have found nine in the whole book). Should I be asked to single out one or two particularly important chapters, I would settle for Chapters 3 (Problems, methods and strategies) and 19 (Present developments and some future prospects). From my own experience with MT I am hesitant to subscribe fully to the concluding sentence of the book: “Whether entering a new period or not, the future of MT is secure: it satisfies a genuine urgent need, it is the subject of worldwide research and development, and it is becoming a commercial product like other technical aids and office equipment; the application of the computer to translation is a reality, for many it is already as much a part of life as the computer itself” (p. 335). Can anyone be certain that, e.g. if Eurotra fails, another ALPAC (Automatic Language Processing Advisory Committee) report is not just around the corner? If anything is secure at all, it is probably human-aided (interactive) MT or pre/post-edited MT of the PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) type or Melby’s translator work station concept, but this is definitely not the same thing as MT in the sense of Bar-Hillel’s “fully automatic high-quality translation” (FAHQT). This will, to all intents and purposes, stay as far away as ever, at least as long as the ambiguity problem in MT, with or without the help of artificial intelligence, cannot be satisfactorily solved, and nobody who looks at the MT scene realistically, as it presents itself today, would probably venture to commit himself to viable solutions now or in the foreseeable future. Wolfram Wilss Universitat des Saarlandes Fachrichtung “Angewandte Sprachwissenschaft sowie Ubersetzen und Dolmetschen” D-6600 Saarbrticken Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
Andererseits stehen access road und accounting “Buchfiihrung” wohl aber im alpha 40.
II9
(AE) nicht im LDCE,
Zero option = “Nullosung”
ist wohl ein Tribut an unsere Zeit, und iiber den Eintrag “MS = Frau, Fraulein” werden sich einige Damen wundern; bei Friiufein stehen ubrigens Miss und MS < AB > , bei Frau female, Mrs, MS, wife, woman, mistress (separate Eintrage). Verwendungsmoglichkeiten sehe ich primar fur Schiiler, Geschaftsleute und Touristen, die sich elementar und schnell informieren miissen. Die Schuler werden vorerst wegen des relativ hohen Anschaffungspreises aus diesem Kreis ausscheiden obwohl man h&t, da8 der alpha 40 hier sehr popular ist.
alpha 40 bedeutet
gegenuber seinem Vorganger eine gewaltigen Fortschritt, und man muI sich die Frage stellen, wie diese Entwicklung wohl weitergehen wird. Da sich besonders die englischsprachige Lexikographie auf einem hervorragenden Stand befindet, wird man im Bereich der “richtigen” Worterbiicher mit weiteren “Grol3taten” rechnen diirfen: das Langenscheidt/Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English in seiner zweiten Auflage (1987), die vierte Auflage des Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English (1989) im Bereich der Lernerworterbiicher sowie vor allem die zweite Auflage des Oxford English Dictionary (1989) sind Meilensteine der Lexikographie, die jedenfalls teilweise nicht ohne Einsatz der elektronischen Datenverarbeitung denkbar gewesen waren. alpha 40 zeigt such in einer ganz anderen Richtung deutlich an, wie sich der Einsatz “des Computers” positiv niederschlagt. 40 000 Wdrter sind schon eine ganze Menge, aber eben noch nicht genug. Man mu0 gespannt sein, wie die dritte Generation aussehen wird: noch mehr Worter und Bedeutungen, Ausspracheangaben . . .? Broder Carstensen Fachbereich 3_Anglistik/Amerikanistik Universitit-Gesamthochschule-Paderborn Warburger StraI3e 100 D-4790 Paderborn Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
Sysrem. Vol. 18. No. I, pp. Pergamon Press pk. Printed
119-120. in Great
1990 Britain
HUTCHINS, WILLIAM JOHN, Machine Translation: fast, Present, Future. New York: Ellis Horwood, 1986, 382 pp., f41.95 (Ellis Horwood Series in Computers and Their Applications). It is a pleasure to review a book which has been written in an understandable, unbiased manner, which combines the features of a global survey with detailed information on a well-defined subject-matter in a plausible sequence of chapters and which painstakingly and throughout adheres to the principle of neither ignoring nor overtaxing the reader’s knowledge and his data-processing capabilities. All this can be said of the book by Hutchins which can truly be ranked among the most important contributions in the field of machine translation (MT). In addition to a preface, a list of common abbreviations, a chronological
I20
REVIEWS
table of main projects, a comprehensive bibliography and an index, the book consists of 19 chapters: General introduction; Precursors and pioneers; Problems, methods and strategies; Groups and projects in the United States (1950-1966); Groups and projects in the United Kingdom and Western Europe (1954-1966); Groups and projects in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (1955-1967); Groups and projects in Japan, China and Mexico (1956-1966); Expectations and criticisms: The decade from 1956 to 1966; Strategies and methods since the mid-1960s; Interlingual systems, 1965-1975; Other indirect systems, 1965-1975; Direct translation systems since 1965; Transfer systems since 1970; Projects and systems at the Commission of the European Communities (1976); Artificial intelligence systems (1970); Other interlingual systems since 1975; Interactive and human-aided systems; Projects and systems in the Soviet Union and Japan (1974); Present developments and some future prospects. One of the salient-and, at least, from the perspective of the uninitiated reader most gratifying-aspects of the book is that all basic concepts, interactive systems, interlingual systems, transfer systems, direct translation systems, the Q-system, to name just a few, have been outlined in an instructive and at the same time concise manner with the help of a large number of illuminating examples. There are many-and in view of the plethora of theoretical and methodological approaches to MT-most welcome cross-references, the index is a reliable guide (e.g. the reader is referred to the central MT problem of “ambiguity” under the heading “ambiguity”, “multiple meaning” and “polysemy”), the number of misprints or slips is negligible (I have found nine in the whole book). Should I be asked to single out one or two particularly important chapters, I would settle for Chapters 3 (Problems, methods and strategies) and 19 (Present developments and some future prospects). From my own experience with MT I am hesitant to subscribe fully to the concluding sentence of the book: “Whether entering a new period or not, the future of MT is secure: it satisfies a genuine urgent need, it is the subject of worldwide research and development, and it is becoming a commercial product like other technical aids and office equipment; the application of the computer to translation is a reality, for many it is already as much a part of life as the computer itself” (p. 335). Can anyone be certain that, e.g. if Eurotra fails, another ALPAC (Automatic Language Processing Advisory Committee) report is not just around the corner? If anything is secure at all, it is probably human-aided (interactive) MT or pre/post-edited MT of the PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) type or Melby’s translator work station concept, but this is definitely not the same thing as MT in the sense of Bar-Hillel’s “fully automatic high-quality translation” (FAHQT). This will, to all intents and purposes, stay as far away as ever, at least as long as the ambiguity problem in MT, with or without the help of artificial intelligence, cannot be satisfactorily solved, and nobody who looks at the MT scene realistically, as it presents itself today, would probably venture to commit himself to viable solutions now or in the foreseeable future. Wolfram Wilss Universitat des Saarlandes Fachrichtung “Angewandte Sprachwissenschaft sowie Ubersetzen und Dolmetschen” D-6600 Saarbrticken Bundesrepublik Deutschland.