Current Commen@S
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Current Commen@s Reflections on Learn@ Foreign Languages Part II: Electronic Translators dumber 38 September 17,1979 In Part I of thw essay I dkcussed some demonstrated last year with “Speak and of the many language-teachhg courses, Spell,” a “toy” that seUs for $50.00. This methods, and devices available to per- toy contains a complete alphabetical sons interested in language learning. I keyboard, a visual display, and a digi- also expressed the hope that modern tized speech synthesizer. electronic technology may someday Out of curiosity, and hope that they make language learning easier. The re- might prove useful, I eagerly bought the cen! appearance of several new elec- Lexicon and Craig models when they tronic translating devices on the market first appeared. These devices are pre- is a significant step in that direction. sumably designed to make the job of In a future essay I intend to review translation easier. Unfortunately, that is the field of mechanical translation. My debatable. Portable, hand-held devices interest in that field goes back to 1954 somewhat larger than the average mini- when I first contemplated working calculator, they “translate” words and under Leon Dostert at Georgetown Uni- phrases from one language to another. versity. I My first contact in the field of They are designed to accept various information retrieval was James W. modules (or capsules) which provide the Perry, the author of the first self-teach- “memory” needed for translation. It ing book on scientific Russian.z Subse- would be inaccurate to say they are quently, I studied linguistics and the “programmed, ” as they only store inf or- problem of machine-translation of mation. chemical nomenclature.J It is tempting to compare these de- It is only natural, therefore, that I was vices to a portable dictionary. It is also excited by the appearance of several relevant to mention that nobody new translating devices. Less than a bothers to publish dictionaries that are year ago, Lexicon Corporation of limited to 15(N words or phrases. If they Florida introduced the first model, the did then maybe you could make a prop- Lexicon LK3C00. Craig Corporation of er comparison. But the fact is that most Japan followed scmn after with the Craig people cannot look up words in a dic- M1OO. Most recently, Texas Instru- tionary as quickly as they can with a ments (TI) announced the development keyboard. Furthermore, if they have to of a pronouncing translator. This will look up many words in succession combine the technology they developed frustration sets in. This is similar to the for calculators with the new technology point I made in discussing the problem of digitized speech. This was fmt of Russian-English dictionaries. 4 275 So in critiquing these devices one sonal experience. In 1960 I was a guest must remember that for many people lecturer at the National University of they will be much better than an inex- Mexico Computing Center. The direc- pensive pocket dictionary because tor, Sergio Beltran ,was interested in the many people simply find the use of dic- then very active field of mechanical tionaries difficult. To use either the Lex- translation. He wanted to develop a icon or Craig you simply key in, letter computerized system for translating by letter, the word you want to trans- English scientific texts into Spanish. So late. As you do so each letter is dis- he asked me to lecture his students on played on the screen. When you hit the mechanical translation and information “translate” key the translation is retrieval. He also insisted that I lecture displayed—quickly, but not necessarily in Spanish even though I protested that instantly. Except for certain specialized I had not spoken Spanish for many functions, the Craig and Lexicon oper- years. ate similarly. Both have a keyboard in So I went to the library. The only dic- which the letters are arranged in alpha- tionaries available were rather old. But I betical order. Other keys perform spac- managed and created technical words ing, backspacing, clearing, translation, whenever necessary. I wrote out my lec- and other functions. Unfortunately, ture and read it to the class. In it I sug- many translation requests result in the gested that the use of mechanical trans- display: “NOT FOUND,” (Lexicon) or lation as a substitute for learning ????? (Craig). Since the dictionaries only English was somewhat impractical. store between one and two thousand When my lecture was over, the students words you are bound to ask for words applauded politely. Then Sergio arose, that they do not contain. Before these thanked me for my lecture and said to devices can effectively compete with or- the audience, “YOU see my friends, dinary printed dictionaries they will mechanical translation does work. ” need to store at least 5,000 to 10,000 Electronic translators in their present words. There is every reason to believe stage of development would not have that as chip technology advances this aided me in my lecture. Nor will they will be achieved. In the meantime, un- enable you to engage in meaningful con- less it is a language you have never versations unless you have a lot of time studied, you are apt to be disappointed. and energy. Undoubtedly, under cer- In a recent review, Consumer Reports tain circumstances they will facilitate shared my opinion. They tested the Lex- communication. If you are trying to say icon, and although they felt that the something to a person who doesn’t translator was a promising beginning, in know your language, the visual display its present stage of development they of a phrase or sentence will have more felt it “would not be of much practical impact than pointing to the individual use for innocents abroad. ” They advised words in a dictionary. The device will the traveler to “take a good pocket dic- usually impress a person more than a tionary or foreign-language phrase book few scribbled words on a piece of paper instead. ”5 or some mispronounced words. Using one of these electronic transla- I pulled out my Craig translator in a tors will give you first-hand experience posh Paris hotel recently. The service of the limitations of word-for-word was disrupted for the next fifteen translation. Thk reminds me of a per- minutes. I had to lend it to the head 276 waiter so that we could continue our words, while it contains other words meal. Buthewas much more impressed, whose usefulness is questionable. as were my friends, by TI’s’’Speak and Neither the French nor German mod- Spell.” The impact of the spoken word ules, which I have, contains, for exam- is enormous. That’s why I suggest you ple, “have, ” “are,” “am,” or “hungry,” wait until TI comes out with its transla- although they do have “bourbon, ” tor. “scotch, ” and “rum. ” The manufacturer If you can live with such translations apparently never heard of the Thorn- as “the meat is able but the alcohol is dike word Iist,b a compilation of 30,G00 feeble” (the flesh is willing but the spirit English words ranked by frequency of is weak), then you can manage to create appearance in newspaper and other some useful sentences. When I showed commonly read texts. the device to a French neurologist she Many other words, such as “watch,” said it would be extremely useful for which have more than one meaning, are certain types of patients who could not programmed in the Lexicon with only speak. But apart from this, playing with one of their meanings. So when I tried the translator can bean enjoyable lear- to translate into French the phrase ningexperience. For example, by keying “Watch the movie” I got the equivalent in one, or several letters, such as “EV, ” of “Wristwatch the movie “ (Montre le you can easily display all the words that tine’ma). Or, when I tried to say, “Her begin with those letters. Certain phrases coat is there,” I got “Elle manteau est can also be accessed. If you first key in 12’—” She coat is there.” These par- “how,” a set of phrases such as “how are ticular difficulties, however, can be you, “ “how many,” and “how much, ” reduced if multiple meanings for hom- are successively dkplayed. To translate onyms are stored. any of these phrases, you press the The Craig translator does just that. It translation key. seems to have a wider, more complete The Craig has also stored 52 special vocabulary than the Lexicon. It includes phrases that can be retrieved by such common words as “have, ” “has,” touching a specified key and the “be,” “are,” and “am.” Words with two “Phrase” key. For example, “Do you meanings, like watch, are stored with change traveler’s checks?” can be ob- both meanings. When you key in such tained simply by pressing the “Phrase” words, they are “questioned” immedia- key followed by the letter V. The list of tely. You select the proper meaning common phrases is printed on the back before continuing. of the translator. The Craig also con- Neither translator, unfortunately, has tains categories of words, such as much grammatical sophistication. One “clothing, ” and “transportation. ” example of this problem in both devices Beyond their basic operational simi- is the treatment of verbs. The transla- larities, however, the Craig and Lexicon tors cannot conjugate. Most verbs are differ in many features. And, despite stored in their infinitive forms. So “I the fact that both are promoted as a want” becomes “Je dt%.irer” (Lexicon) or combination “dictionary, phrase book, “Je vouloir” (Craig)-in French, literal- teaching aid, and interpreter,” neither ly, “1 to want.” Try to say, for example, quite equals that blllkg.