Sept 17 03B

Semitic Linguistic Phenomena and Variations: 

Semitic Linguistic Phenomena and Variations Nizar Habash University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies MT Summit IX Workshop Machine Translation for Semitic Languages

Road Map: 

Road Map Introduction Orthography Morphology Syntax Translation Divergences Conclusion

Introduction: 

Introduction What this talk is about Similarities that define “the Semitic family” Variations differentiating members within the family Similarities do not go beyond morphology and syntax Relevance to NLP and MT Most researchers focus on one Semitic language Modern Standard Arabic (henceforth, A) Modern Hebrew (henceforth, H) Arabic Dialect: Palestinian Arabic (henceforth, P)

Road Map: 

Road Map Introduction Orthography Phonology Scripts Spelling Ambiguity Morphology Syntax Translation Divergences Conclusion

Orthography: Phonology: 

Orthography: Phonology

Orthography: Script: 

Orthography: Script Alphabets Graphemic Variants ك ككك (27 out of 36), כ ך (5 out of 22) Encoding issues Optional diacritics Some Vowels שַ שֵ سَ سُ Lack of vowel שְ سْ Consonantal Doubling שּ سّ

Orthography: Spelling: 

Orthography: Spelling Mostly consonantal Spelling سلام = slam = salām, שלום = ʃlvm = ʃalom Dual use of (a w/v j اوي א ו י) as consonant and vowel Diacritics as semantic markers זכָר (zaxar male) זכַר (zaxar to remember) كتب (kataba to write) كُتب (kutiba to be written)

Orthography: Spelling: 

Orthography: Spelling Hebrew Full Spelling, “Defective” Spelling (כתיב מלא,כתיב חסר) kotel כותל כתל (wall) Arabic Morphophonemic Spelling Feminine Marker ة (ta marbuta) كبير (kabīr big ♂) كبيرة (kabīra big ♀) Derivation Marker hawa (to love هوى) (air هوا) Hamza Variants (6 characters for one phoneme) (ء أآإؤئ) بهاء بهاؤه بهائه

Orthography: Ambiguity: 

Orthography: Ambiguity ā ʔ t b ʤ θ x ħ đ d z r s ṣ ʃ ṭ ḍ ʕ ḍ̄ ̣ k ʁ q f l m ت ث ا ب ج ح خ د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ك ل م ن ه و ي ى ء أ آ إ ؤ ئ ة h n w j ū ī a v b d g u h z o t x i j e l k n m ts s p f r ʃ א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ ת ש ר ק צ ל מ נ ס ע פ A H

Orthography: Ambiguity: 

Orthography: Ambiguity ā ʔ t b ʤ θ x ħ đ d z r s ṣ ʃ ṭ ḍ ʕ ḍ̄ k ʁ q f l m ت ث ا ب ج ح خ د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ك ل م ن ه و ي ى ء أ آ إ ؤ ئ ة h n w j ū ī a v b d g u h z o t x i j e l k n m ts s p f r ʃ א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ ת ש ר ק צ ל מ נ ס ע פ P H ō ē ẓ

Road Map: 

Road Map Introduction Orthography Morphology Derivational Inflectional Noun Inflections Verb Inflections Syntax Translation Divergences Conclusion

Morphology: Derivational: 

Morphology: Derivational Roots and Patterns Meaning = (Root.Meaning+Pattern.Meaning)*Idiosyncrasy.Random مكتوب ب K T B ? و مَ ? ? ك ت כתוב ב ? ו ? ? כ ת

Morphology: Root Meaning: 

Morphology: Root Meaning KTB: writing “stuff” כתב מכתב כתב כתיב spelling כתובת address كتب كاتب مكتوب كتاب book مكتبة library مكتب office write writer letter

Morphology: Root Meaning: 

Morphology: Root Meaning لحم laHm לחם lexem LHM-1

Morphology: Root Meaning: 

LHM-2 (battle sense) ملحمة Fierce battle, massacre, epic מלחמה לוחמה לחם לוחם לחימה War, battle, quarrel, conflict, combat, warfare, belligerence, fighting, quarreling, fighter, militarism, militancy, bellicosity Morphology: Root Meaning

Morphology: Root Meaning: 

LHM-3 (Solder sense) لحم تلاحم التحم ملتحم لُحمة Weld, solder, get stuck, cling together, merged, fused, kinship לחם הלחים מולחם מלחם Solder, soldered, soldering iron, Morphology: Root Meaning

Morphology: Root Meaning: 

LHM-4 (Conjuctiva sense) لحمية conjunctiva לחמית conjunctiva Morphology: Root Meaning

Morphology: Noun Inflections: 

Morphology: Noun Inflections conj prep noun poss plural article وكبيوتنا نا + بيوت + ك + و And-like-houses-our And like our houses שבבית ש+ב+ה+בית That-in-the-house Which is in the house Arabic Broken Plurals Hebrew Ambiguous definiteness

Morphology: Verb Inflections: 

conj verb IOBJ object neg subj Morphology: Verb Inflections tense A: وسنكتبها And-will-we-write-it And we will write it H: ואהבתיה And-loved-I-her And I loved her P: وماحتستعمليلوش And-not-will-use-you-for-it-not And you will not use for it

Morphology: Verb Inflections: 

Morphology: Verb Inflections Perfect Verb Derivation (Suffixes only) Imperfect Verb Derivation (Prefix+Suffix)

Morphology: Semantics of Verb Inflections: 

Morphology: Semantics of Verb Inflections

Road Map: 

Road Map Introduction Orthography Morphology Syntax Sentence Structure Noun Phrase Structure Translation Divergences Conclusion

Sentence Structure: 

Sentence Structure Sentence structure Copular sentences Verbal sentences Copular sentences Topic  Complement Definite  Indefinite الكلب كبير הכלב גדול The-dog big * كلب كبير topic comp dog big

Sentence Structure: 

Sentence Structure Verbal sentences The children wrote the poems A: Verb Subject Object كتب الاولاد الاشعار Wrote the-children the-poems H, P: Subject Verb Object הילדים כתבו את השירים The-children wrote obj the-poems الاولاد كتبو الاشعار The-children wrote the-poems

Noun Phrase: 

Noun Phrase Noun  Adjective Noun-Adjective Agreement number, gender, definiteness

Noun Phrase: 

Noun Phrase اضافة / סמיכות (idafa/smixut) Noun1 of Noun2 encoded structurally Noun1-indefinite  Noun2-definite ملك الاردن מלך ירדן king Jordan = the king of Jordan / Jordan’s king Noun1 Form Change Feminine (H and P) ירדן + מלכה  מלכת ירדן Queen of Jordan Plural (A and H) ירדן + מלכים  ירדן מלכי Kings of Jordan Alternatives (only H and P) Noun1 <particle> Noun2 الملك تبع الاردن the-king belonging-to Jordan המלך של ירדן the-king that-for Jordan

Road Map: 

Road Map Introduction Orthography Morphology Syntax Translation Divergences Conclusion

Translation Divergences : 

Translation Divergences Variations beyond syntax How languages map semantics to syntax As complex and diverse as any other language Divergence Dimensions Categorial Variation (develop  development) Conflation (become frozen  freeze) Inflation (freeze  become frozen) Structural (enter the room  enter into the room) Head Swap (swim across  cross swimming) Thematic (John likes Mary  Mary pleases John)

Translation Divergencesconflation : 

* عند كلب יש כלב ל عندي كلب at-me dog have I dog I have a dog יש לי כלב there for-me dog אני انا Translation Divergences conflation

Slide30: 

لست هنا I-am-not here be I here I am not here not ليس ا نا هنا Translation Divergences conflation * פה לא אני לא פה אני I not here

Translation Divergencesthematic : 

* ا نا بردان * קר ל انا بردان I cold be I cold I am cold קר לי cold for-me אני Translation Divergences thematic

Translation Divergencesstructural : 

عثر انا على מצא אני את عثرت على الرجل found-I upon the-man find I man I found the man מצאתי את האיש found-I obj the-man איש رجل Translation Divergences structural

Translation Divergences  structural : 

عثر انا على عثرت على الرجل found-I upon the-man find I man I found the man لقيت الرجال found-I the-man رجل لقى انا رجال Translation Divergences structural

Translation Divergenceshead swap and categorial : 

I swam across the river quickly Translation Divergences head swap and categorial اسرعت عبور النهر سباحة I-sped crossing the-river swimming

Translation Divergences head swap and categorial : 

I swam across the river quickly Translation Divergences head swap and categorial חציתי את הנהר בשחיה במהירות I-crossed obj river in-swim speedily

Translation Divergences  head swap and categorial : 

Translation Divergences head swap and categorial noun prep verb noun adverb verb noun verb noun

Conclusion: 

Conclusion Many defining features of the Semitic family Orthographic conventions, morphological derivation and inflection, phrase structure, etc Many variations that create different kinds of ambiguities and problems Phonology of orthography, Semantics of derivation and inflection Do similarities extend beyond morphology and syntax? Translation divergences within Semitic family Ambiguity preservation between Semitic languages