MT from the research perspective

MT Summit VII Sept. 1999 MT FROM THE RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE Zaharin Yusoff Computer-Aided Translation Unit School of Computer Sciences Universiti Sains Malaysia 11800 PENANG, Malaysia Abstract There has been a wide range of research and development work on machine translation in terms of goals and objectives as well as emphasis. Some are fundamental, some are engineering based and some are product- driven. Different researchers may be motivated by different reasons, some by funding, some by potential commercial returns, some by challenges on the application of various technologies and some by sheer search of knowledge. Trends also tend to emerge in terms of the 'best' approach at a given point in time. This short discussion advocates the possibility of synergising among all types of research while working towards different goals as opposed to looking for the best direction(s) to follow. Introduction Work on machine translation (MT) has been evolving continuously. What started as attempts at automating dictionaries and reshuffling words led to the development of language analyzers and generators backed by deep research in linguistics and formalisms. Some moved away from fully automated translation into the development of machine-aided human translation (MAHT) systems, and others abandon linguistic based approaches to take on corpus based methods. Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques are incorporated and much work has been put into engineering combinations of various approaches. Delivery systems vary from simple dictionary look-ups to sophisticated knowledge based systems with voice recognition capabilities, while many systems have been remodeled to capitalize on the internet service market. Whatever the case may be, one cannot help but sense that trends do emerge and that those who do not follow the current trend at a given time tend to be cast aside. It is indeed very timely that researchers should now take a step back and look closely at what they have been doing and in what direction(s) they are progressing. More so, one should be asking various questions such as whether they are indeed doing research or simply engineering products for the market. On one hand one may be asking whether there is really a need for fundamental research in MT while on the other hand one may ask whether one should succumb to pressures to produce a full blown system. Perhaps as opposed to looking for the direction(s) for all to follow, one should be looking for ways and means to synergise the results from all possible directions. This way there will not be such a thing as a trend and thus researchers would be free to move in any direction in search of knowledge without having to feel obliged to fit in with a current movement. These are precisely the questions that will be explored in this paper, without of course having any pretensions to providing the right answers. What is research? This is perhaps the first question to ask before embarking on the main discussion on MT from the research perspective . Many ways have been put forward for classifying research, but this is …

Content truncated to 500 words