Semantic transference for enriching multilingual biomedical knowledge resources

Biomedical knowledge resources (KRs) are mainly expressed in English, and many applications using them suffer from the scarcity of knowledge in non- English languages. The goal of the present work is to take maximum profit from existing multilingual biomedical KRs lexicons to enrich their non-English counterparts. We propose to combine different automatic methods to gener- ate pair-wise language alignments. More specifically, we use two well-known translation methods (GIZA++ and Moses), and we propose a new ad-hoc method specially devised for multilingual KRs. Then, resulting alignments are used to transfer semantics between KRs across their languages. Transfer- ence quality is ensured by checking the semantic coherence of the generated alignments. Experiments have been carried out over the Spanish, French and German UMLS Metathesaurus counterparts. As a result, the enriched Span- ish KR can grow up to 1,514,217 concepts (originally 286,659), the French KR up to 1,104,968 concepts (originally 83,119), and the German KR up to 1,136,020 concepts (originally 86,842)

Framework for collaborative knowledge management in organizations

Nowadays organizations have been pushed to speed up the rate of industrial transformation to high value products and services. The capability to agilely respond to new market demands became a strategic pillar for innovation, and knowledge management could support organizations to achieve that goal. However, current knowledge management approaches tend to be over complex or too academic, with interfaces difficult to manage, even more if cooperative handling is required. Nevertheless, in an ideal framework, both tacit and explicit knowledge management should be addressed to achieve knowledge handling with precise and semantically meaningful definitions. Moreover, with the increase of Internet usage, the amount of available information explodes. It leads to the observed progress in the creation of mechanisms to retrieve useful knowledge from the huge existent amount of information sources. However, a same knowledge representation of a thing could mean differently to different people and applications. Contributing towards this direction, this thesis proposes a framework capable of gathering the knowledge held by domain experts and domain sources through a knowledge management system and transform it into explicit ontologies. This enables to build tools with advanced reasoning capacities with the aim to support enterprises decision-making processes. The author also intends to address the problem of knowledge transference within an among organizations. This will be done through a module (part of the proposed framework) for domain’s lexicon establishment which purpose is to represent and unify the understanding of the domain’s used semantic

Term creation : an analysis of the strategies used in some selected Shona specialised terms dictionaries

This study is in the area of terminology activities in Zimbabwe and it analyses the term creation used in the following selected specialised terms dictionaries: Duramazwi Reurapi Neutano (Dictionary of Biomedical Terms), Duramazwi Remimhanzi (Dictionary of Shona Musical Terms), and Duramazwi Redudziramutauro NeUvaranomwe (Dictionary of Shona Linguistic and Literature Terms). The study specifically analyses and explores how terminographers together with health, music, language and literature specialists made use of their term creation skills and strategies in the creation of new specialised terms for the field of music, health and linguistics. In addition, this research takes into account the impact of factors such as culture, socio- economic, etymological purity, attitudes of the target users, language policy, as well as availability of resourceson term creation. Hence, term creation is an exercise that involves many aspects and interlinked factors. This research advances the argument that while some term creation strategies (compounding, coining and derivation) can be adequate and appropriate, however, at times; they are some which result in created terms that are rather cumbersome, vague, artificial, and difficult to master and remember. In addition, this study found out that some term creation strategies (semantic expansion and loan translations) are unproductive; that means they do not add any value on the Shona language vocabulary. Moreover, the borrowing term creation strategy was analysed on the basis of whether it is promoting and elevating the Shona language or is it undermining its value and vitality. This study emphasises the need for a collaborative approach to term creation, with terminologists, linguists, subject area specialists and target language users during the different phases of word formation processes for the collective ownership of the created term and their acceptability to the target users. This study highlights that, through good term creation strategies the Shona Language can significantly contribute to the promotion and development of Shona language in Zimbabwe. Overally, the research yields a substantial amount of information in the terminological formation processes as well as the identification of factors that can be used to improve term creation strategies in order to develop indigenous languages for use in all spheres of life.The major contribution of this study is the identification and highlighting of the major strength and weaknesses of term creation strategies as a way of developing indigenous languages. The useful findings in this study will benefit the indigenous language development and language policy planners and terminologists in Zimbabwe and other African languages in similar situations. The significant amount of information about term creation that was used in the analysis of term creation in the three dictionaries was solicited from questionnaires and interviews that were carried out with linguists, the specialised dictionary compilers, music students, medical students and high school students doing Shona language and literature subject in Zimbabwe. More information on the term creation was done through content analysis of the three specialised dictionaries and the present researcher’s own experiences as a former Shona high school teacher, linguist and above all as a Shona language speaker.African LanguagesD. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages

A critical analysis of the strategies of terminology creation in the context of a multilingual Namibia: the case of ruManyo

This study examines the strategies used to develop terms in the language ruManyo. The study focuses on existing strategies used by language practitioners to construct analogous key-concept terms in ruManyo for application in various fields. The sample was taken through purposive sampling, and the investigation was carried out in Namibia's Kavango East region, in domains such as education, radio, agriculture, law, hospital, bank, and church. The data for this report was collected using a case study, which included document analysis, participant observations and interviews with ruManyo language practitioners. The findings of the study indicate that ruManyo language practitioners lack the skills and information needed to build appropriate terminology solutions for specific domains. Furthermore, it appears that linguistic competence is not guiding word-generation efforts in certain disciplines. The study re-evaluated the evolution of multilingual word-generation techniques, and discovered that specific domains necessitate specific tactics, based on the context in which terms are employed. Based on the findings of this study, the recommendation is to design unambiguous wordinvention strategies for specific domains that are consistent with the terminology development guidelines for indigenous African languages. Due to the deficiencies in African indigenous language terminologies highlighted in this study, the researcher proposes the creation of a manual for ruManyo, detailing each method for application in different domains

The Fundamental Work of the Translator: The Steps for the Translation of a Specialised Medical Text about the Integumentary System

Medical journals and articles are translated into several languages so that they can be understood not only by other doctors around the world but also by non-experts. Hence, the work conducted by the translator is of vital importance, since otherwise only a small percentage of people would be able to comprehend these texts. One of the main objectives of this undergraduate dissertation is to highlight the importance and the complexity of the work of the translator in specialised medical translation. Furthermore, the difficulties of specialised medical translation have been analysed in depth, in particular those posed by an English medical text about a specific field such as ‘the integumentary system’ when translated into Spanish. The results and the solutions to these problems have been successfully obtained thanks to a documentation process and the consultation of different parallel texts in Spanish.Las revistas y artículos médicos se traducen a diversos idiomas para que puedan ser entendidos no solo por otros médicos de todo el mundo sino también por los no expertos. De ahí que el trabajo que realiza el traductor sea de vital importancia, ya que, de lo contrario, solo un pequeño porcentaje de personas sería capaz de comprender estos textos. Uno de los principales objetivos de este trabajo de fin de grado es destacar la importancia y la complejidad del trabajo del traductor en la traducción médica especializada. Así mismo, se han analizado en profundidad las dificultades de la traducción médica especializada, en particular las que plantea un texto médico en inglés sobre un campo tan específico como ‘el sistema tegumentario’ cuando se traduce a español. Los resultados y soluciones a estos problemas se han obtenido con éxito gracias a un proceso de documentación y a la consulta de diferentes textos paralelos en español.Departamento de Filología InglesaGrado en Estudios Inglese

Translating diabetes brochures: Challenges encountered

Masters of ArtThe aim of this study was to develop isiXhosa terminology for diabetes brochures written in English or in medical terms, to enable diabetes patients to access information on their disease. Lefevere (1992a: xi) describes translation as “rewriting of an original text”. This study re-evaluated Lefevere's concept of translation by examining English brochures and translating them into isiXhosa brochures. In order to demonstrate how the translator of the English brochures transported the source text messages to the target language, literature was reviewed. Translation theories or approaches are discussed to assess their impact on the researcher’s attempt in translating diabetes brochures into isiXhosa. Data was collected through questionnaires and interviews, and analysed to assess and answer the problem statement and hypothesis posed by the researcher that there will always be a high death rate of people with diabetes in South Africa, due to a lack of access to materials translated into indigenous languages on how to manage the disease. Since the available information is written in English or medical terms, it is difficult to reach a large sector of people who cannot read, write and/or speak English. Also, diabetes patients who speak the isiXhosa language lack knowledge on diabetes because they do not have access to information written in isiXhosa, or there is no written information at all. The study also aimed to translate English terminology including signs and symptoms, and causes and management of diabetes as these are crucial elements to be understood by diabetes patients in order to monitor their health. Furthermore, the researcher is of opinion that isiXhosa-speaking diabetes patients will be at less risk of dying if they are well informed by means of information in their mother tongue. Language is the soul of people. Without access to information, people are left in the dark and are prone to danger. On this backdrop the research was focused on translating diabetes brochures as a means of disseminating information to diabetes patients whose language is isiXhosa. Challenges encountered during the translation process are highlighted