Difference between revisions of "Lingala and Kikuyu/Lexical Selection"

Revision as of 15:12, 28 March 2017

This page details the lexical selection process for machine translation between Lingala and Kikuyu for one-to-many mappings.

lin → kik

Solved Ambiguities

We have implemented rules to solve two ambiguous translations from Lingala to Kikuyu.

Mabele

The Lingala noun mabele can be translated as follows:

• (lin) mabele → (kik) thanga (sand); ria (milk)

To (mostly) solve this, we made generalizations based on the meaning of the preceding rule. We chose a default translation of thanga since this is the only way mabele is used in our parallel corpus. We override the default translation when mabele is preceded by "bololo" (sour), "kotoka" (pour), or "komela" (drink), since these are the most likely contexts in which mabele would refer to milk. Obviously this misses a couple of cases, but it helps. The following sentences can be used to test both rules:

• na mabele ("from the earth/sand," should be translated thanga) (it's a bit odd to use mabele here, but this example is taken verbatim from our corpus)
• nabuákí mabele ("I throw sand," should be translated thanga)
• bololo mabele ("sour milk," should be translated ria)
• atokí mabele ("He pours milk," should be translated ria)
• tomelí mabele ("We drink milk," should be translated ria)

Kobéta

The Lingala verb kobéta can be translated as follows:

• (lin) kobéta → (kik) hũr (to beat (as in hit)); ur (to rain)

Unsolved Ambiguities

Kokíma

The Lingala verb kokíma can be translated as follows:

• (lin) kokíma → (kik) hanyũk (to run); ũr (to run away)

Kofánda

The Lingala verb kofánda can be translated as follows:

• (lin) kofánda → (kik) ikar (to sit); tũũr (to live (as in reside))

kobánza

The Lingala verb kobánza can be translated as follows:

• (lin) kobánza → (kik) ĩcir (to think); ririkan (to remember)

kik → lin

Solved Ambiguities

We have implemented rules to solve one ambiguous translation from Kikuyu to Lingala.

Ria

The Kikuyu noun ria can be translated as follows:

• (kik) ria → (lin) mabele (milk); etimá (pond)

To (mostly) solve this, we made generalizations based on the meaning of the preceding rule. We chose a default translation of etimá because it is easier to isolate situations where mabele is used than where etimá is used. We override the default translation when ria is followed by mata (thick/creamy), preceded or followed by it (pour/spill), preceded by (drink), or preceded by na (with)since these are likely contexts in which ria would refer to milk. As with the similar ambiguity in the other direction, this misses quite a few cases. The following phrases can be used to test the rules

• iria imata ("thick milk", should be translated mabele)
• nĩnyuire iria ("I drank milk", should be translated mabele)
• nĩnjitire iria ("I poured the milk", should be translated mabele)
• iria nĩrĩitĩkire ("The milk poured", should be translated mabele -- note this translation will not actually work yet because the Kikuyu transducer is not yet equipped to analyse the middle voice)
• iria-inĩ ("in the lake", should be translated etimá)

Unsolved Ambiguities

Igu

The Kikuyu verb igu can be translated as follows:

• (kik) igu → (lin) kotosa (to obey); koyoka (to hear)

Rut

The Kikukyu verb rut can be translated as follows:

• (kik) rut → (lin) koyekola (to learn); kokukula (to remove)