Why Can't a Computer Translate More Like a Person?

Contents

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• Posters and Telescopes: an Introduction to Translation
• "Time flies like an arrow"
• "Fruit flies like a baseball"
• "Saturday the 24 June 1995 to 17 o'clock"
• "Saturday, the 24th of June at 5 p.m."
• "le samedi 24 juin 1995 vers 17h00" ... (translations)
• "L'atmosphère de la Terre rend un peu myopes mêmes les meilleurs de leur téléscopes." ... (translation)
• "The earth's atmosphere makes even the best of their telescopes a little near sighted"
• "The atmosphere of the Earth renders a same myopic bit best of their telescopes."
• Some Difficulties in Translation
• A haircut and the word "part"
• Two meanings of "bank" -- Figure 1
• Etymology of "treacle" -- Figure 2
• "fish" vs. pez/pescado
• "thank you" and Japanese
• nudiste vs. naturiste
• "run"
• Two meanings of "bus" -- Figure 3
• "We will bury you"
• "The box is in the pen." -- Figure 4
• "The pen is in the box." -- Figure 5
• Does Mainstream Linguistic Theory Come to the Rescue?
• A Key Factor That Is Missing from Current Theories
• Endnotes
• Annex: A Showcase Example of Machine Translation
• References