Atlanta, Georgia
Toll Free: 1-800-270-7674
Outside US: 678-367-3781

Articles and Stories

Polish Autotranslation

Blog post written by our Polish team leader, Albin W, PhD., Poland

Both: Machine Translation and the ‘Twin Peaks’ TV series

What a strange title, you may think. Yes, it is a bit weird, but we will dive into the complicated Polish grammar here and you will see the connection.

In Polish you will find plurality of words for ‘both’. To choose a proper one you need to know what genders both subjects have. The form of ‘both’ depends also on the grammatical case used. I have counted eight basic forms of ‘both’ in Polish (obaj, obie, oboje, obu, obiema, oboma, obojgu, obojgiem) and even more longer synonyms (obydwie, obydwu, and so on).

Yet another difficulty is that in Polish the words ‘obaj, obie’ are used as adjectives or pronouns but never as a conjunction. Then, if you had to translate this title into Polish, you would need to reword it, for example, into ‘Two things:…’.

It can be one of many illustrations why an accurate machine translation could be considered only a dream in the near future. Machine translation may be an effective tool for acceleration translator’s work especially for schematic texts. I have personally written a macro in Microsoft Word, which gives me suggestions for English phrases containing from 1 to 5 words (the higher number of words having higher priority). It makes sense, because often few words constitute a meaningful phrase, while single words are meaningless. This macro used by me while translating patent documents (with many words or short phrases repeating) allows me to accelerate work as well as preserve consistency (the last being especially important in patents). My dictionary gets larger with every new document. So, in my opinion there are great possibilities to improve machine translation, but still I am very skeptical about ever seeing a high quality output even using my macro or any similar approach.

If you remember the ‘Twin Peaks’ series there is a shot (Episode 1, the first episode after pilot) with Bobby Briggs having dinner with his parents. At the end of his monologue major Briggs says: ‘To have his path made clear is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence. Robert, you and I are going to work to make yours real clear.’ In the Polish version of the script the last sentence reads: ‘Obaj dołożymy starań, by twoje ścieżki były naprawdę proste’ which translates to: ‘We will both make efforts for your paths to be really clear.’ In this situation using ‘both’ in English could lead to ambiguity (maybe major Briggs will make efforts together with his wife?) while in Polish it is unambiguous (because ‘obaj’ is used only when two subjects have masculine gender).

Translation in this form is more attractive for a movie than for literal translation, because it is shorter and less complicated. But it is improbable to be a result of a machine translation, as it requires the knowledge of the gender of both persons involved and while this knowledge may be readily available for a human it may be not so easily accessible for a machine. If the computer does not understand all the context related to culture, human interactions, laws of physics and so on, it probably cannot produce superior results. And such an understanding requires the computer to think like a human, which is an idea put forward many years ago with actually no essential progress until now, despite the fact that we have lots of so-called artificial intelligence systems, but we are still a long way away from creating a perfect machine translation, and we might never get there when a translation like Polish has such complicated grammatical structure.

 

|
Languages
Acadian French | Acateco | Accented English | Accented French | Achi | Acholi | Afar | African French | Afrikaans | Aguacateco | Akan | Albanian | Alur | Alutiiq | Amharic | Amish German | Amuzgo | Angolan French | Angolan Portuguese | Algerian Arabic | Arabic Bahrain | Arabic | Egyptian Arabic | Jordanian Arabic | Arabic Kuwait | Arabic Lebanon | Arabic Modern | Moroccan Arabic | Arabic Oman | Palestinian Arabic | Arabic Qatar | Saudi Arabian Arabic | Syrian Arabic | Tunisian Arabic | Arabic (UAE) | Arabic Yemen | Armenian | Assamese | Awakatek | Aymara | Azerbaijani | Azeri | Bambara | Basque | Belarusian | Bemba | Bengali | Berber | Bikol | Bislama | Bodo | Bosnian | Bulgarian | Burmese | Burundi | Cajun French | Cambodian | Cantonese (Guangdong) | Cape Verdian | Carolinian... | Catalan | Cebuano | Chalchiteko | Chamorro | Chatino | Ch’orti’ | Chechua | Cherokee | Chin | Cantonese (China) | Mandarin | Traditional Mandarin | Chinese (Singapore) | Chinese (Taiwan) | Chol | Chuj | Chuukese | Cree | Croatian | Czech | Dagbani | Danish | Dari | Darija | Dinka | Dutch | Dzongkha | English | African English | Australian English | British English | Canadian English | Indian English | Irish English | New Zealand English | Scottish English | South African English | American English | Estonian | Ewe | Fante | Faroese | Farsi | Fijian | Finnish | Flemish | French Belgian | Canadian French | French Congo | French | Moroccan French | Swiss French | Tunisian French | Frisian | Fukienese | Fula | Futunan | Ga | Galician | Garifuna | Garo | Georgian | Austrian German | German | Swiss German | Greek | Greek Cyprus | Guarani | Gujarati | Haitian Creole | Hakka Chin | Hausa | Hawaiian | Hawaiian | Hazaragi | Hebrew | Hiligaynon | Hindi | Hmong | Hopi | Huichol | Hungarian | Icelandic | Igbo | Ilocano | Indonesian | Inuit | Inuktitut | Italian | Swiss Italian | Ixil | Jakalteco | Jamaican Creole | Japanese | Javanese | Kanjobal | Kannada | Kapampangan | Kaqchikel | Kaqchikel | Karen | Kashmiri | Kasmiri | Kazakh | Khasi | Khmer | Kiche | Kinyarwanda | Kiribatese | Kirundi | Konkani | Korean | Kosraean | Krio | Kurdish | Kyrgyz | Laotian | Latvian | Lebanese | Lingala Congo | Lithuanian | Lu Mien | Luganda | Luxembourgish | Maasai | Maay Maay | Macedonian | Malagasy | Malay | Malayalam | Maltese | Mam | Mandinka | Manipuri | Maori | Marathi | Marshallese | Maya | Mende | Miskito | Mixteco | Mizo | Mongolian | Montenegrin | Mopan | Nagamese | Nahuatl | Navajo | Ndebele | Nepali | Nigerian Pidgin | Niuean | Norwegian | Nuer | Ojibway | Ojibwe | Oriya | Oromo | Otomí | Palauan | Papiamento | Papiamentu | Pashto | Pohnpeian | Pokot | Polish | Popti | Poqomam | Poqomchi | Angolan Portuguese | Brazilian Portuguese | Portuguese Creole | European Portuguese | Portuguese Mozambique | Punjabi | Purépecha | Q'eqchi | Qeqchi | Quechua | Quiche | Rapa Nui | Rarotongan | Rohingya | Romanian | Rotooro | Rundi | Russian | Sakapulteco | Samoan | Sanskrit | Sámi | Scottish Gaelic | Sepedi | Serbian | Sesotho | Setswana | Shona | Sinhala | Sipakapense | Siswati | Slovak | Slovenian | Soloman Islands Pidgin | Somali | Soninke | Soninke | Sotho | Spanish | Argentinian Spanish | Chilean Spanish | Colombian Spanish | Costa Rican Spanish | Cuban Spanish | Dominican Republic Spanish | Ecuadorian Spanish | Salvadorian Spanish | Guatemalan Spanish | Spanish Honduras | Mexican Spanish | Neutral Spanish | Panamanian Spanish | Paraguayan Spanish | Peruvian Spanish | Puerto Rican Spanish | Spanish (Spain) | Uruguayan Spanish | Venezuelan Spanish | Swahili | Swazi | Swedish | Tachaouit | Tagalog | Tahitian | Taiwanese | Tajik | Takbalit | Tamazight | Tamil | Tarasco | Tartarian | Tatar | Tektiteko | Telugu | Temne | Thai | Tibetan | Tigrinya | Tojolobal | Tok Pisan | Tongan | Trique | Tshivenda | Tsonga | Tswana | Tulu | Turkana | Turkish | Turkish Cyprus | Turkmen | Tuvaluan | Twi | Tzeltal | Tzotzil | Tzutujil | Ukrainian | Urdu | Uspanteko | Uzbek | Valencian | North Vietnamese | South Vietnamese | Wallisian | Waray | Welsh | Wolof | Xhosa | Yapese | Yiddish | Yoruba | Yupik | Zapoteco | Zoque | Zulu
Voice Talents
Acadian French Speakers | Accented English Speakers | Accented French Speakers | African French Speakers | Afrikaans Speakers | Albanian Speakers | Amharic Speakers | Angolan Portuguese Speakers | Algerian Arabic Speakers | Arabic Bahrain Speakers | Arabic Speakers | Egyptian Arabic Speakers | Jordanian Arabic Speakers | Arabic Kuwait Speakers | Arabic Lebanon Speakers | Arabic Modern Speakers | Moroccan Arabic Speakers | Arabic Oman Speakers | Palestinian Arabic Speakers | Arabic Qatar Speakers | Saudi Arabian Arabic Speakers | Syrian Arabic Speakers | Tunisian Arabic Speakers | Arabic (UAE) Speakers | Arabic Yemen Speakers | Armenian Speakers | Assamese Speakers | Azerbaijani Speakers | Azeri Speakers | Bambara Speakers | Basque Speakers | Belarusian Speakers | Bemba Speakers | Bengali Speakers | Bislama Speakers | Bosnian Speakers | Bulgarian Speakers | Burmese Speakers | Cajun French Speakers | Cambodian Speakers... | Cantonese (Guangdong) Speakers | Catalan Speakers | Chin Speakers | Cantonese (China) Speakers | Mandarin Speakers | Traditional Mandarin Speakers | Chinese (Singapore) Speakers | Chinese (Taiwan) Speakers | Chuukese Speakers | Croatian Speakers | Czech Speakers | Dagbani Speakers | Danish Speakers | Dari Speakers | Dinka Speakers | Dutch Speakers | Dzongkha Speakers | English Speakers | African English Speakers | Australian English Speakers | British English Speakers | Canadian English Speakers | Indian English Speakers | Irish English Speakers | New Zealand English Speakers | Scottish English Speakers | South African English Speakers | American English Speakers | Estonian Speakers | Ewe Speakers | Farsi Speakers | Finnish Speakers | Flemish Speakers | French Belgian Speakers | Canadian French Speakers | French Congo Speakers | French Speakers | Moroccan French Speakers | Swiss French Speakers | Tunisian French Speakers | Ga Speakers | Galician Speakers | Georgian Speakers | Austrian German Speakers | German Speakers | Swiss German Speakers | Greek Speakers | Greek Cyprus Speakers | Guarani Speakers | Gujarati Speakers | Haitian Creole Speakers | Hausa Speakers | Hawaiian Speakers | Hazaragi Speakers | Hebrew Speakers | Hindi Speakers | Hmong Speakers | Hungarian Speakers | Icelandic Speakers | Igbo Speakers | Ilocano Speakers | Indonesian Speakers | Inuktitut Speakers | Italian Speakers | Swiss Italian Speakers | Jamaican Creole Speakers | Japanese Speakers | Kannada Speakers | Karen Speakers | Kashmiri Speakers | Kazakh Speakers | Khasi Speakers | Khmer Speakers | Kiche Speakers | Kinyarwanda Speakers | Kirundi Speakers | Konkani Speakers | Korean Speakers | Krio Speakers | Kurdish Speakers | Kyrgyz Speakers | Laotian Speakers | Latvian Speakers | Lebanese Speakers | Lingala Congo Speakers | Lithuanian Speakers | Lu Mien Speakers | Luganda Speakers | Luxembourgish Speakers | Maay Maay Speakers | Macedonian Speakers | Malagasy Speakers | Malay Speakers | Malayalam Speakers | Maltese Speakers | Mam Speakers | Mandinka Speakers | Manipuri Speakers | Maori Speakers | Marathi Speakers | Marshallese Speakers | Mizo Speakers | Mongolian Speakers | Montenegrin Speakers | Nagamese Speakers | Navajo Speakers | Nepali Speakers | Nigerian Pidgin Speakers | Norwegian Speakers | Nuer Speakers | Oriya Speakers | Oromo Speakers | Papiamento Speakers | Pashto Speakers | Polish Speakers | Angolan Portuguese Speakers | Brazilian Portuguese Speakers | European Portuguese Speakers | Portuguese Mozambique Speakers | Punjabi Speakers | Qeqchi Speakers | Rohingya Speakers | Romanian Speakers | Russian Speakers | Samoan Speakers | Serbian Speakers | Sesotho Speakers | Shona Speakers | Sinhala Speakers | Slovak Speakers | Slovenian Speakers | Somali Speakers | Sotho Speakers | Argentinian Spanish Speakers | Chilean Spanish Speakers | Colombian Spanish Speakers | Costa Rican Spanish Speakers | Cuban Spanish Speakers | Dominican Republic Spanish Speakers | Ecuadorian Spanish Speakers | Salvadorian Spanish Speakers | Guatemalan Spanish Speakers | Mexican Spanish Speakers | Neutral Spanish Speakers | Panamanian Spanish Speakers | Paraguayan Spanish Speakers | Puerto Rican Spanish Speakers | Spanish (Spain) Speakers | Uruguayan Spanish Speakers | Venezuelan Spanish Speakers | Swahili Speakers | Swedish Speakers | Tagalog Speakers | Taiwanese Speakers | Tajik Speakers | Tamazight Speakers | Tamil Speakers | Tartarian Speakers | Telugu Speakers | Thai Speakers | Tibetan Speakers | Tigrinya Speakers | Tongan Speakers | Tswana Speakers | Turkana Speakers | Turkish Speakers | Twi Speakers | Tzutujil Speakers | Ukrainian Speakers | Urdu Speakers | Uzbek Speakers | North Vietnamese Speakers | South Vietnamese Speakers | Welsh Speakers | Xhosa Speakers | Yoruba Speakers | Yupik Speakers | Zulu Speakers