Re: [tlug] Free program translates Euro languages to/from English

[Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>]

On 11/2/05, Michael Smith <smith@example.com> wrote:

> Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com> writes:
>
> Actually, I think one problem with most machine translation tools
> is that they try to be _too_ smart. Sometimes (maybe usually) I
> don't want or need grammar translation. I just want the source
> translated word-by-word. Or even morpheme-by-morpheme.

But this is not really machine translation. This is just an automated
dictionary.

Which is not to say that such a thing is not useful; quite the
contrary, especially for academics and translators.

Machine translators *must* be smart. The examples that you gave with
会う proved that they (meaning at least the free machine translation
tools) are still *far* too dumb for JK, at least.

My wife and I have had a few spirited discussions on this topic. She
leans towards machine translation of JK as impossible, and it seems
that most linguists do. Computer scientists, especially those with
some interest in AI, seem to be slightly more hopeful. No-one that I
have talked to has said it would be easy. :)

-Josh