Classifiers in Japanese-to-English Machine Translation

Classifiers in Japanese-to-English Machine Translation Francis Bond and Kentaro Ogura and Satoru Ikehara NTT Communication Science Laboratories ]-2356 Take, Y()kosuka,-shi, t<;ma,gawa-ken, ,1 APAN 2384)3 bond~nttkb, ntt. j p Abstract This l)a.i)cr t)rot)oses ;m mmlysis of clas- sifters into ['our ma,jor l;yl)(;s: t0Nl'l', ME'I't(I(1, (III()UI' il,lld SPI,;(',IES, ])~lS(!(1 Oil prot)('xl;ies ()[ l)ol,h .la.l/a.tw, s(~ and 10,u - glish. Tlm nnalysis mak(!s tlossibl(~ a mfiform :m(l straightforward l;r(~atm(;nt of noun t)hras(',s h('.a(h;d t/y (:lassitio, r,~ in Jallmmse--1;()q~;nglish ma(:hin(~ trnnsla.- lion, mM has b(',el~ iinph'm('att,(',d in t,he MT sysl;(',m ALT-J/E. Alth(lugh the analysis is bas('.d (m l;tm (;}mra(;l;eri,qt;it;s of, and diff(;r(m(:(~s b(',tw(~en, Ja.l)anes(~ and English, it is shown to 1)e also at)- t)li(:al/l(~ to tim mn(~lated languag(~ Thai. 1 Introduction N()m~ I)hras(',s in Ja.pmms(' difl'(!r from l,hos(~ in l';n- glish in two ilnt)orl;mll; ways. ]?irsl;, ,]al)ml(~s(! has no ('quivalent synl;a(:l;i(: (;a,l,('gory l;(/ l",nglish (l(;t(',r- tniners. S(;(;on([, thtu'c is tit) grmmuatical tam'k- ing of tl/lllil)(*,r, t ])~(~(;~l.ll,q(; ()f tlt(~SC diIl'(w(m(:es~ ml m('.ri(:a.1 expr(~ssi(/ns a.r(~ r('.aliz(;d very (lifft!r('.ntly in .la.lm, nes(~ and English. [n English, comltal)l(; nouns can ])t; directly m()dili(!d l)y a mun(!ral: 2 dog,s. In ,la,limmse , h()w(!v('.r, nmncrals (:a,nnot, (li- re(:tly mo(tiily C(/llllllOtl llOllliS, inst('ml a (:lassitier is us(;(t, in l;he stunt; way l;h~d; ~t ])arl;il;ivc noun is used wil,h a,n unc(mnta.ble noun in English: 2 pieces of fltrnit',,r'e. In addition, when .]a.I)an(*a ~. is translated int(/li;nglish, tim scle(:tion ()I' a,l/pr()- t)ria, l;(', d(;t(,,rmin(;rs, su(:h sis re'tit;los a,n(t t)ossc.ssiv(~ l/rOnouns, tLtl(t l;h(', d(;1,('amin~l;i(nt (if (:()unta.t)ilit;y a.nd mmfl)(;r is l)r()l)l('ma.tic. Various s(/lutions to t;he pr(/I)h~ms ()f gen(wat- ing a.rti(:l(',s ;rod t)oss(',ssiv(~ 1)ronouns a.nd (t(;t('~r- mining (:omltal)ilil;y a.nd munbcr have be(',n I/r()- t)oseA (MunLta and Nagao, 1993; Cornish, Fujit;% and Sugimura, 1994; ll(md, Ogm'a, and Kawaoka., 1!)95). The (tiff(~r('.n(',('.s t)cl,w(wal the way mun(',ri- (:M Cxlirt',ssi(/ns are realized in ,la.t)all(!s(~ a.ud En- glish lists 1)Cell lo, ss studi(',d (Asa.hioka, llira.knwa, &n(l Alll;l, tl(), 1.990). In this 1)a.t)(;r we l)roI)()s(~ m~ mmlysis of (:lassifiers based on lirOl)('rties of l)oth ,lapan(~,q('. mM English. Our caLegory (If classi- tier includes both ,]a.im,nesc josusM 'tmm(.q'al clas-. ~.lal)mW~se does noI, ]ta,ve contrasting singular and l)hlr;fl forms of nouns. silicrs' mM English lmr(;itivo, nouns. W(', divide classifiers inl;o four m~ki(ir l,yl)c.s: UNIT, METIll(:, (;l/()[Jl' ~-Llld S['E(JII,;S. UNIT (:lassiIio.rs are I'urtlmr divided inl,o (II,;NEIIAI,, TYPI(?AI, ~LII(I SI'I,;(:IAI., whil(~ MI,YI'I/I(? classifiers are divided into h,ll,;:\StJl¢l,; ~/,lld (R)NTAINEII. classifiers. All,hough our ~malysis was tmscd on l;hc characteristics of, and difl'o, rences lmtwt!en, .bq)ane,q(! and Euglish, we fomtd il; t;o }m strikingly similaa to the, annlysis for Thai 1)rol)OS(~d by Sornlcrtlamwmic, het al. (1994), which sugg(',sts I;ha.l, Lhe re,quits ma.y bc useful for e.xa.miniug ol;hcr la.ngllages. The analysis inl;rotlut;ed in this tin.per has })eun iml)lem(!nla',(l in NTT Commutfi(:al;i(m S(:ien(:c l,a.1)or;~tori('.s' .J;qm.n(~s(>t()-English nmchitm tr;ms- lal;i(m system ALT-J/E (lko, lm.r;~ el, al., 1!)91; ()gm'a ut al., 1993) ,qnc(! 1994. Ex~mlt)les o1' how it, has l)c(~n inipl(un(!nlx~(1 in ALT-J/E m(~ w(/v(!n l, hrough()ut the l;(!x[;, nlth(mgh tim analysis it;self is not ti(',(1 t;o any t'ornmli,qm or ])ml;it:ulm repr(> scnl;a,l;ion, so is ;Ma,ptat)lt: to any sysl;t;m, We Sl;al'l; O[[ …

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