{ "paper_id": "C65-1025", "header": { "generated_with": "S2ORC 1.0.0", "date_generated": "2023-01-19T13:12:13.328668Z" }, "title": "", "authors": [], "year": "", "venue": null, "identifiers": {}, "abstract": "Skalmowski-I SUY~I~RY. A remarkable regularity of distribution of Arabic verbal roots in the vocabulary is shown to exist. Presented results sugsest that similar resular distributions of semantic units in other languages may be found with the help of word formation rules and vocabulary statistics.", "pdf_parse": { "paper_id": "C65-1025", "_pdf_hash": "", "abstract": [ { "text": "Skalmowski-I SUY~I~RY. A remarkable regularity of distribution of Arabic verbal roots in the vocabulary is shown to exist. Presented results sugsest that similar resular distributions of semantic units in other languages may be found with the help of word formation rules and vocabulary statistics.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Abstract", "sec_num": null } ], "body_text": [ { "text": "approaching the problem of \"true\" multiple meaning in MT are being discussed.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "", "sec_num": null }, { "text": "The notion of \"semantic unit\" may be formulated in several ways /I/ so that the application of this term makes its explicit definition indispensable. It seems that difficulties in definin~ it arise from the fact that llke most general terms it should be related to some deflnlte theory. At present we do not possess any sufficiently strong and ~eneral theory of the semantics of natural languages~ though important preliminary steps in this direction have already been made /2/. For this reason most semantic investigations of natural languages still preserve the \"artlsanllke\" character stressed by LI.Coyoud and all definitions of the semantlo notions remain rather tentative-as well as all the more ~eneral conclusions drawn from such investlg~tlons.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "", "sec_num": null }, { "text": "ThIs~ too~ holds true for the present contrlbution, in which an empirical fact is described and some remarks on its possible applications to the problem of the \"~rue\" multiple meanln~ have been made. ", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "", "sec_num": null }, { "text": "For this paper it seems advisable to hold apart two notions: that of the \"concept\" and that of the \"semantic uz~it\".", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Skalmowski -2", "sec_num": null }, { "text": "Given a generative descrlptional device G z~rammar/ and a pro- ty arises from the fact that the \"concept-systems\" of lansua~es are not isomorphic and even if we manage to brinS tk, e~u closer to,sether there remains some amount of \"looseness\" within the concepts themselves, giving. rise to the problem of \"true\" mul- and '~worse ~T translations of nonsensical expressions~ such as the famops ';furiously sleel)ing ideas\". Le6ative ans'~'Jer would mean that every translation is equally sood~ ~,;hioh in turn would i.lean that o~:ly \"meaningful\" sentences are translatable~ in that case the i,!T problems would be \"enriched\" with the whole load of philosophioal questions -an embarassing development~ certainly.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Skalmowski -2", "sec_num": null }, { "text": "Vaguely felt differences between the intrinsic \"semantic values\" of different elements of language have given rise to the notions of \"size\" or \"content\" of Semantic elements /5/ and several attempts -both to define these notions and to furnish models of the underlying ~,~eohanism [~ave been ,,~r~e /p~6/.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Skalmowski -2", "sec_num": null }, { "text": "The m~in assumption -based on observations of ,lillis -','as that there existed a \"nat-ral hierarchy\" of concepts in natural languages~ forming a tree or at least a lattice with some definite statistical properties. The applied \"method\" bein~ unsystematic and ad hoc the example allows no generallsations but it may illustrate our argument that the problem of'~ue\" multiple meaninz arises in cases of \"expressive language\" from the fact that even when the concepts of source and target languages a~;ree there is no correlation between their respective oom~onents e~oept for differences between their \"value\", based on differences on ti.e paradigmatic level. Titus e.g. for the concept \"aplplyins heat on solnething '~ two different semantic units could have been arbitrarily chosen by t~e two interpreters, as they reEarded th subsets of synonyms within the concepts as unordered..iF suggestion is that these subsets might be at least ~art\u00b1ally ordered by means of the intril]sic value of the semantic u~its underlyin~ them and that correlations between them might be established in more objective terms of numeric measures of their content.", "cite_spans": [], "ref_spans": [], "eq_spans": [], "section": "Skalmowski -2", "sec_num": null } ], "back_matter": [], "bib_entries": { "BIBREF0": { "ref_id": "b0", "title": "Quelques probl~mes de construction d'un \"langa~ formalis~ s~mantique\". 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London 196~", "volume": "", "issue": "", "pages": "", "other_ids": {}, "num": null, "urls": [], "raw_text": "//3/ Sparck-Jones Ii. -~,!ec~anised semantic classification. 1961 International Conference on, ech.Transl, and ~pplied Language ~nalFsis. London 196~. Vol.ll", "links": null }, "BIBREF3": { "ref_id": "b3", "title": "On the Language of Taxonomy: an Outline of a \"Tbermostatistical\" Theory of ~ystems of Categories with", "authors": [ { "first": "B", "middle": [], "last": "/ I", "suffix": "" } ], "year": 1956, "venue": "Villis ~i~atural/ Stz~uotureo Information Theory", "volume": "", "issue": "", "pages": "", "other_ids": {}, "num": null, "urls": [], "raw_text": "/6/ i,;andelbrot B. -On the Language of Taxonomy: an Outline of a \"Tbermostatistical\" Theory of ~ystems of Cate- gories with ,Villis ~i~atural/ Stz~uotureo Information Theory, ed. G.Cherry,London 1956", "links": null }, "BIBREF4": { "ref_id": "b4", "title": "Derivation lexicale et derivation syntoxique", "authors": [], "year": null, "venue": "", "volume": "", "issue": "", "pages": "", "other_ids": {}, "num": null, "urls": [], "raw_text": "/9/ ~ury~ovloz J. -Derivation lexicale et derivation syntoxique. /Contribution \"~ I~ theorie des parties du'disoours/.", "links": null }, "BIBREF5": { "ref_id": "b5", "title": "de Linguistique de Paris~ VoI", "authors": [ { "first": "", "middle": [], "last": "Dull", "suffix": "" } ], "year": null, "venue": "", "volume": "", "issue": "", "pages": "", "other_ids": {}, "num": null, "urls": [], "raw_text": "Dull. de la Soc. de Linguistique de Paris~ VoI.lYLiVII ~ 1936", "links": null }, "BIBREF6": { "ref_id": "b6", "title": "/10/ kurylowioz J. -Zai~etki o zna~enii slova. 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Oxford Unv. fress 1964", "links": null }, "BIBREF10": { "ref_id": "b10", "title": "/15/ i~Ioholson R.A. -A Literary F~istor$ of the Arabs", "authors": [], "year": 1907, "venue": "", "volume": "", "issue": "", "pages": "", "other_ids": {}, "num": null, "urls": [], "raw_text": "/15/ i~Ioholson R.A. -A Literary F~istor$ of the Arabs. The Cambridge Unv. Press 1907", "links": null } }, "ref_entries": { "FIGREF0": { "num": null, "uris": null, "text": "s", "type_str": "figure" }, "FIGREF1": { "num": null, "uris": null, "text": "tiple meaning. The \"contextual\" multiple ~nea~Jin.~ inay be resolved -in l)rinciple~ at least -by extending the notion of concepts both \"in the source and i~ the tarfet languages to ,:holt sentences or even lar&~er utterances) this is allowed by our :' broad:' treatment of this notion, not s!',eoifyin S the maximal size of the n-tu/~les of symbols. By this extension the inner structure of concepts makes the relations defining the isomorphism of the \"concept -systems\" more apparent i thus even such cases as theadequate translation of the ~[ussian ~@M\u00a3~eas the English ':ohangin~ /the order of intezration/\"and \"varying /argument/\" are theoretically resolvable. Yet there exist instances w?,ere the extension of concept would have to go beyond limits and to involve the whole !un.~fuage: these are c6~ses of :'stylistic' difference in v;hich there are not ai)parent reasons for choosin:i one o.\u00a3 the fossible s$,nonyms instead of the ct~]er but \\';ilere t~e difference ia distinctly felt by competent bilingual speakers. ri'he !)z-oblem is important for the translation of literary pieces, especially i)oetr~:) b$' the ])resent stal]d of .,iT it is still an;'acade~:]ic\" p~oiJlem, of course~ but it exists after all. it ~.lay be best illustrated by the question whether t~ere are \"better;:", "type_str": "figure" }, "FIGREF2": { "num": null, "uris": null, "text": "The ipresent Daper gives some results of an invest':.S,,':'tion undertaken in order to test this hy;?o,-,eses.~ Because of the marvelous clarity of the grai-,Imatical structure ~rabic has been chosen as a \"laboratory exar,])7~le ~'. ~,bout 90',~ of Arabic semantemes are verbal roots~ with very fev~ exceft!o:~s consisting of three consonants CI-C>-CD; the usual dictionary form is the 3 d i~ers, as. masc. Derf of the form '~ ~ ~ ~ \u2022 ~ la\"',cuCDa ' s. ,\"kasara \"to break\" /lit. '~he has broken\"/. There are more than ten different verbal stem-patterns i.e. word formation rules~ modyfying the basic meaning of the root in a s~,eoif!c way;thus the stem-pattern Ii: C la~2~zaC3a adds to ti~e ~)ssio meaning the shade of intensity, e.E. kasara ~to breei: t~ ~ .....~u~sar& ~ ~.~u iV-causative~ \"to smash\"; the stem-pattern ~i~ is conative~ t '-~ etc. i~ll the trilit~,~l veto-' al roots ir~ ~-'une ~rab:Lc vocabul~,--~,zo have bee~l div\u00b1ded into se\"arate, classos_ according to their ability to forn s = I~,, ~...~ n d.i.i.feren s te,,:s c onlj I the number of stem-patterns was considered and further ai<'licab!e word formation rules /substantivisations~ adjeotivisations etc./ were disregarded this classification is a ver~, rough approximation to the h~i~othetical underlying hierarci~. It ha~ been assumecL that the number of stem-l~atterns definin,~ a given class al.pro~m~tely viewed as an exponent of the '\"oo~Itent ~ or ~'semantio value\" of the semantic units belongin~ to tkis class and that -if the hypothetical hierarchy was really based on this principle -the number of roots with greater s should be smaller than that with smaller s. 3aranov's Arabic-Russian Diotionar~ /7/ has been used for countin& the roots and it has been found that the relation between s /the number of stem--patterns oharacterlzln~ the given class/ and r /the number of roots belonging to this class/ was not only inversly proportional but also nearly functional and that the distribution of roots in the Arabic vocabulary may be described as a simple function r/s/ = i'~/As ~ +De +C/~ where [~ is the sum-total of roots and . c odness of fit has been ~ B and C are specific constants ~q~e ~o tested by the ohi-square distribution and it has been found that the differences between the empirical data a~d the theoretical distribution -except for one value -do not exceed 0.3 significance level. In order to estimate the possible differences between ~,artioular diotionarir~s -wilioh could arise from differences between the materials used for their compilationtwo samples of ca. 700 items each have been taken from two different diotionarles /7~8/ and the distribution of roots in them compared with each other and with the over-all distribution. All the distributions show a striking similarity, renderin~ nearly identical chl-square values, x/ This result is a strong argument for the general validity of tue discussed distribution in Arabic -and this fact in its turn speaks in favour of the existence of \"natural hierarchies\" of the semantic units in general. Baranov's Dictionary are: A = 0.004419 ~ B = 0.082 , C = 0.3812 It seems very probable that similar regular distributions might be found in other languages, too -perhaps the ensemble of the \"semantic parameters\" would have to be much wider and the \"trial and error\" investigations would require more time but the whole work can be easily mechanised. The idea of interconnections between the syntactic and semantic structures of language is not new in structural linguistics /s.9 and 10/ and investigations alon~ these lines have already been led in the domain of computational linguistics under direction of P.Garvin /11/. My suggestions go towards discovering such regular distributions which would facilitate the task of finding more strict correlations between the synonyms within [)articular concepts on computational basis. The underlying assumption is that the \"universes of disoours\" in various languages are of about the same \"size\" /whatever it would mean -but such an assumption is tacitely made in every translation/~ and that the semantic units underlying the components of concepts are ordered aocordin~ to their \"content\"~ so that the problem of \"true\" multiple meaning in certain oases ;nay be solved by means of matching the components of concepts of the source and target languages on the basis of their ':semantic value\". As an illustration let us consider a fev: equivalent .... \" ~a~ions /A. -12~ ~. -13/ of ~n~!ish verbs in two different tz'ens ~ ~ the Koranio Sura 84, being translations of ~'~r~bic verba derived / from roots all belonging to the ss.le class ,/5 stem -Datterns~, i.e. according to our assumi)tion kavin L about the sa,le 'Tsemantio value\". The \"value\" of corresponding ~nglish verbs has been tentativelj estimated by the number of different sub-entries ~entury l]ictiona. .... /numbers in brac