Uyghur and English/Ambiguity resolution

Uyghur

Morphological Ambiguity

These are the ambiguities from coverage-hfst Parallel Corpus

• coverage: 206 / 215 (~0.95813953488372093023)
• remaining unknown forms: 9
• ambiguity: 254 / 215 (~1.18139534883720930233)
• uig.sentences.txt Wed May 7 06:01:48 PM EDT 2025 206/215 ~0.95813953488372093023 \| 254/215 ~1.18139534883720930233

Large Corpus (wikipedia)

• coverage: 865241 / 3260897 (~0.26533834095342477852)
• remaining unknown forms: 2395656
• ambiguity: 3443129 / 3260897 (~1.05588400982919730369)
• uig.wikipedia Wed May 7 09:24:25 PM EDT 2025 865241/3260897 ~0.26533834095342477852 \| 3443129/3260897 ~1.05588400982919730369

These are the ambiguities from the shell commands in the assignment:

• 284 / 270 (~1.05185185185)
• 3542197 / 3453398 (~1.02571351463)

Identified Ambiguity

• ^خۇدا/خۇدا<n><nom>$ ^بۇ/بۇ<det>/بۇ<prn><dem><nom>$ ^پاسىلنى/پاسىل<n><acc>$ ^«/«<lquot>$^ئاسمان/ئاسمان<n><nom>$^»/»<rquot>$ ^دەپ/دە<cnjadv>$ ^ئاتىدى/ئاتى<vblex><pas><p3>$^../..<sent>$

• ^كېچە/كېچە<n><nom>$ ^ۋە/ۋە<cnjcoo>$ ^كۈندۈز/كۈندۈز<n><nom>$ ^ئۆتتى/ئۆت<vblex><pas><p3>$ ^بۇ/بۇ<det>/بۇ<prn><dem><nom>$ ^تۇنجى/تۇنجى<adj>$ ^كۈن/كۈن<n><nom>$ ^بولدى/بول<vblex><pas><p3>$^../..<sent>$

How to resolve ambiguity

The distinction between بۇ ('bu') the pronoun and 'bu' the determiner is defined by whether a noun phrase follows it. We remove the determiner analysis when bu is not followed by a noun phrase. However, since Ugyhur is in SOV order, it is possible that 'bu' as a pronoun subject is followed by a noun phrase. We can select the pronoun 'bu' when it is followed by a noun phrase which is itself followed by a verb phrase. Commonly, this is "'bu' noun verb" or 'bu' adj noun verb.

uig-transducer

Final Ambiguities

These are the ambiguities from the shell commands in the assignment:

Parallel Sentences

• 283 / 270 (~1.04814814815)

Large Corpus

• 3542195 / 3453398 (~1.02571293549)

Note: Running the tagger on the two example sentences, both in the parallel corpus yields:

• ^خۇدا<n><nom>$ ^بۇ<det>$ ^پاسىل<n><acc>$ ^«<lquot>$^ئاسمان<n><nom>$^»<rquot>$ ^دە<cnjadv>$ ^ئاتى<vblex><pas><p3>$^..<sent>$
• ^كېچە<n><nom>$ ^ۋە<cnjcoo>$ ^كۈندۈز<n><nom>$ ^ئۆت<vblex><pas><p3>$ ^بۇ<prn><dem><nom>$ ^تۇنجى<adj>$ ^كۈن<n><nom>$ ^بول<vblex><pas><p3>$^..<sent>$

Uyghur and English

Lexical Selection

Initial Ambiguity

We selected the word (uig) نۇر (nur) → (eng) light; ray. This word can either mean 'light' as in illumination (not lightbulb or desk light) or 'ray' as in "gamma rays". There are several ways to resolve this ambiguity. First, we set the default translation to be 'light' as that is far more common. The key point of distinction comes from the fact the 'light' translation of the word cannot take on the plural affix -lAr, this is because the idea of 'lights' when 'lights' refers to 'sources of light' rather than the illumination itself.

Here are two example sentences:

بۇ جىسىملار نۇر چېچىپ, يەر يۈزىنى يورۇتۇپ تۇرسۇن!" دېدى".

These / objects / light / shine, and (converb) / earth / surface / illuminate / let __ continuously (auxverb) / said<p3>

"Let these objects shine light continuously and illuminate the surface of the earth!" he said. (Genesis 1:15)

نۇرلار ئەينەككە قاڭقىدى.

Rays / on the mirrors / bounced.

The rays bounced on the mirrors. (Our own example sentence)

Here, only the second sentence will have the plural suffix and the <pl> tag, so we can use that to resolve the ambiguity.

Resolved Ambiguity

Here are the partial translations of the two example sentences:

$ echo "بۇ جىسىملار نۇر چېچىپ يەر يۈزىنى يورۇتۇپ تۇرسۇن دېدى." | apertium -d . uig-eng

#this #object #light *چېچىپ #land *يۈزىنى *يورۇتۇپ *تۇرسۇن #say.

$ echo "نۇرلار ئەينەككە قاڭقىدى. " | apertium -d . uig-eng

#ray *ئەينەككە *قاڭقىدى.