tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924773307171301256.post9024022073259818459..comments2024-03-28T08:13:03.545-04:00Comments on Just An Earth-Bound Misfit, I : Machine Translation Blows ChunksComrade Misfithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15404477636451308763noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924773307171301256.post-59308542416919124152016-10-18T00:56:54.464-04:002016-10-18T00:56:54.464-04:00And that's the problem here. Without the diacr...And that's the problem here. Without the diacritical markings, a majority of other languages can lose varying amounts of meaning. Why the author or the publisher decided to print it that way, I don't know. If you ask around, I bet some of the "better" translations relied upon context to interpolate the meaning in the absence of the accents.CenterPuke88https://www.blogger.com/profile/17770056621255249861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924773307171301256.post-25051085043027779022016-10-17T19:06:50.657-04:002016-10-17T19:06:50.657-04:00There weren't any accent marks in the original...There weren't any accent marks in the original text.Comrade Misfithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15404477636451308763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924773307171301256.post-53813540332071059702016-10-17T13:03:49.084-04:002016-10-17T13:03:49.084-04:00Probably, just the lack of accents in American Eng...Probably, just the lack of accents in American English preconditioned you to deem them unimportant? As shown above, adding the accents makes the problem go away. Maybe that restricion in American is why your car-cab company is called Uber, not Über?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924773307171301256.post-58187176345372428492016-10-17T12:14:26.709-04:002016-10-17T12:14:26.709-04:00 Google being what it is, it is also likely that ... Google being what it is, it is also likely that Google Translate offering up that EXACT alternative was the result of the googlemachine seeing multiple posts about the exact problem the post refers to. Note that forvo.com also offers translations - and in many cases, short recordings of native speakers actually pronouncing those words; <br /><br /> If googlemachine was able to figure out that most of the words were misspelled (lacking accent marks) all by itself, then it is a LOT smarter than we realized.Sikhandtakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13721425916899131649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7924773307171301256.post-31407292950738996332016-10-16T21:39:00.462-04:002016-10-16T21:39:00.462-04:00I tried the same thing, and got the same result. ...I tried the same thing, and got the same result. However, it asked underneath "did you mean" and offered "Cảm ơn cô em. Cô thật gan dạ và sự can đảm của cô đã cứu sinh mạng chúng tôi". It translated THAT as "Thank you brother. She was brave and courage she has saved our lives". Much closer, so I suspect the more serious flaw in translation was caused by the lack of accent marks.<br /><br />I have used Google Translate with moderate success on several documents in German I received when requesting records for geneological research. It saved me going to the local college and finding a German professor or Grad student to pay to translate everything. It's a useful idiot, if you respect it's simplicity and it's general inability to consider idiom, dialect and some context. For things such as a government or military forms, it is usually quite good to understand the entries, since they are very standardized. When you get to a free entry portion, it gets a bit more wobbly.CenterPuke88https://www.blogger.com/profile/17770056621255249861noreply@blogger.com