tailieunhanh - Báo cáo khoa học: " Semantic Ambiguity"

The extent of the problem of multiple meaning in translation is illustrated in this analysis of a sample page of Russian scientific text. The use of an idioglossary represents only a partial solution to the problem. AN ANALYSIS of a sample page of Russian scientific text 1 revealed the following distribution of words, with respect to semantic clarity or ambiguity: | Mechanical Translation December 1957 pp. 68-69 Semantic Ambiguity Kenneth E. Harper University of California Los Angeles California The extent of the problem of multiple meaning in translation is illustrated in this analysis of a sample page of Russian scientific text. The use of an idio-glossary represents only a partial solution to the problem. AN ANALYSIS of a sample page of Russian scientific text1 revealed the following distribution of words with respect to semantic clarity or ambiguity Single Value Idioms Multiple Values Word-for-word MT Clarified by structural analysis Words 77 7 24 46 30 of total Running 40 24 75 28 of total words Total number of words 151 Total number of running words 266 Figure 1 Callaham s Russian-English Technical and Scientific Dictionary was consulted for English equivalents of the multiple-valued words. The average number of equivalents for these words was . Many of these equivalents may be considered as synonyms when there is a fairly distinct change in meaning the listing is divided into groups separated by a semicolon. The average number of such groups representing distinct meanings is 3. 0 see Fig. II . Conclusion 30 of the total words in the passage analyzed should be represented by three English equivalents. This figure has no meaning as applied to any given word it is perhaps an indication of the extent of the problem of multiple meaning. The problem can be partially solved by an arbitrary selection of a given equivalent for certain fields the Idio-glossary . Even here there are definite limits as the list of typical multiple meaning words in Fig. II shows. 1. F. M. Gol tsman and SH. SH. Raskin O dielectricheskikh svoistvakh nekotorykh polimorfnykh organicheskikh soedinenii Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR vol. LXXIX no. 5. 1953. p. 187. Of this number 22 words 42 runnings words were technical words of one value such as polymorphic dielectric etc. These words composed 15 of the total. Semantic Ambiguity 69 Multiple .