Advanced Encoding for Multilingual Access in a Terminological Data Base A Matter of Balance

1. Advanced Encoding for Multilingual Access in a Terminological Data BaseA Matter of Balance Marie-Claude L'Homme Patrick Leroyer Benoit Robichaud Observatoire de linguistique Sens-Texte (OLST)Département de linguistique et de traductionUniversité de Montréal CentlexAarhus School of BusinessAarhus University

2. Outline Objectives Access to translations of specialized collocations encodedin a terminological database The terminological database: The DiCoInfo Current contents and structure Current functionalities and limitations for translation needs A model for accessing specialized collocations The linguistic apparatus The technical apparatus Challenges and future work L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

3. Objectives Implementing new translation functionalitiesin an existing terminological database: Direct access to data for L1-L2 translation:what is the translation of a specific collocation? Esp. providing users access to translations of collocations: send a file as an attachment -> envoyer, transmettre un fichier en pièce jointe Define a method that allows for the enrichment of the database without having to translate collocations one by one Access functionalities should not presuppose technical linguistic knowledge from the user L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

4. The DiCoInfo: a dynamic, polyfunctional tool (1):an overview • An XML database containing terms related to the fieldsof computing and the Internet • Approx. 1,000 entries in French and 400 in English • Based mainly on the lexical framework of Explanatory Combinatorial Lexicology (ECL, Mel’cuk et al. 1984-1999; 1995) • Descriptions based on corpora(2 million words in French; 1 million words in English) L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

5. The DiCoInfo: a dynamic, polyfunctional tool (2):the term record L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

6. The DiCoInfo: a dynamic, polyfunctional tool (3):the user interface Search Language Search Mode Search Precision L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

7. The DiCoInfo: a dynamic, polyfunctional tool (4):narrowing searches L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

8. The DiCoInfo as a translation aid:current functionalities For L1-L2 translation L1 reception phase: Comprehensive coverage of the domain Headwords and definitions Access to lists of semantically related items L2 production phase: Presentation of grammatical data Actancial structures and linguistic forms of actants Contexts for pragmatic and stylistic information(professional discourse) L1 > L2 translation phase: Equivalents to the headwords Equivalents to collocations L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

9. One DicoInfo database = one dictionary Lexicographic team Dicoinfo database Dictionary Interface L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

10. One DicoInfo database = several dictionaries Lexicographic team Dicoinfo database Searchengine L1 & L2 Production Dictionary L1<>L2 Translation Dictionary LSP-learning Dictionary Otherdictionaryapplications L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

11. The DiCoInfo as a translation tool:potential improvements Extensive lists of collocations Comprehensiveness leads to lists of collocations that are not discriminated according to specific situations or user needs E.g. file has a long list of collocates (e.g., create, delete, compress. generate, use, edit a file, etc.); its French equivalent fichier has more than 100 collocates Limited multilingual assistance Established at the level of headwords, but not at the level of lexical relationships (this includes collocations) E.g. there is a formal link between attachment and pièce jointe, but not between send something as an attachment and envoyer qqch. en pièce jointe For L2 production phase, the translator needs direct access to translations of collocations L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

12. Accessing translations of collocations: the model • Two components • A linguistic apparatus based on Combinatorial Explanatory Lexicology: lexical functions (LFs) • Encodings and formalization • Explanation-based grouping • A technical apparatus based on advanced search functions • Searching for lexical relations and expressions • Displaying equivalences

13. The linguistic apparatus (1) Lexical function (LF) encodes: Syntactic relationship between the base and the collocate: Space bar: Verb + 1st complement: press the ~ Verb + 1st complement: release the ~ Verb + 2nd complement: insert ... (a space) with the ~ Argument structure of the base: Space bar: ~ used by someone (arg1) to act on something (arg2) 1st argument: press the ~ 1st and 2nd arguments: insert something with the ~ General and abstract meaning of the collocate: Typical uses: press, releasea space bar, insert something with a space bar Creation: create, define a password write, develop a program L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

14. The linguistic apparatus (2) Lexical function (LF) Written: f (x) = y f = function x = keyword y = value Real1(space bar) = press the ~ FinReal1(space bar) = release the ~ Labreal12(space bar) = insert … with the ~ L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

15. The linguistic apparatus (3) L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

16. The technical apparatus:Equivalents of collocates (1) • Searching the database: • Find the term records that describe the searched term in a lexical relation • Find the term records of the equivalents L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

17. The technical apparatus:Equivalents of collocates (2) • Linking the equivalents inthe interface: ? L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

18. The technical apparatus:Equivalents of collocations (1) • Find the term records in which:(i) a first word appears as the headword(ii) a second word appears as a collocate • Find the equivalent term records L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

19. The technical apparatus:Equivalents of collocations (2) • Linking the equivalents inthe interface: L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

20. The technical apparatus:Side effects L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

21. Challenges (1) • Different syntactic structures • Different LFs according to syntactic functions of the key word: • Real12: Search the Internet for information • Labreal12: Chercher de l’information dans Internet • Split actants • partition: ~ created by user1 to act on data1 or software1 • Labreal121 : Save data on a partition • Labreal122 : Install a program on a partition L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

22. Challenges (2) • Different senses not discriminated by abstract LFs • Typical and less typical activities associated with entities: • Labreal12: Click on something with a mouse • QLabreal12: Drag and drop something with a mouse • Chronological steps described by abstract LFs • Lire, accéderà, décoder, interpréterune instruction • IncepReal1I Lire, accéderàune instruction (step 1) • IncepReal1II Décoder, interpréterune instruction (step 2) L’Homme – Leroyer – Robichaud / TKE 2010Dublin

23. Concluding remarks • We proposed a model to retrieve translations of collocations • That meets user needs • That is transparent (does not presuppose special linguistic or technical knowledge) • That does not require that all collocations be translated on an individual basis

24. Future work Extension of the coverage of English terminology adding English collocations to the database Extension to other languages, namely Spanish which is currently under development Extension to other subject fields Ongoing project in the field of climate change Extension of search capabilities To allow users to discover collocates based on an onomasiological search

25. Go raibh maith agat References L'Homme, M.-C. (2008) Le DiCoInfo. Méthodologie pour une nouvelle génération de dictionnaires spécialisés, Traduire 217, pp. 78-103. L’Homme, M.-C. et al. (2009). Le manuel du DiCoInfo. http://olst.ling.umontreal.ca/dicoinfo/manuel-DiCoInfo.pdf L’Homme, M.-C. and P. Leroyer (2009). Combining the semantics of collocations with situation-driven search paths in specialized dictionaries. Terminology 15(2), pp. 258-283. Leroyer, P. (2007) Terminologie et dictionnaires: la porte des utilisateurs. In Quirion, J. : Terminologies, Approches Transdisciplinaires. Actes en ligne. Gatineau : Université du Québec en Outaouais. http://www.uqo.ca/terminologie2007/documents/Leroyer.pdf Mel’čuk, I., A. Clas and A. Polguère (1995) Introduction à la lexicologie explicative et combinatoire. Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgique): Duculot / Aupelf - UREF. Mel’čuk, I. et al. (1984-1999) Dictionnaire explicatif et combinatoire du français contemporain. Montréal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal.