164,391 research outputs found
Contextual Parameter Generation for Universal Neural Machine Translation
We propose a simple modification to existing neural machine translation (NMT)
models that enables using a single universal model to translate between
multiple languages while allowing for language specific parameterization, and
that can also be used for domain adaptation. Our approach requires no changes
to the model architecture of a standard NMT system, but instead introduces a
new component, the contextual parameter generator (CPG), that generates the
parameters of the system (e.g., weights in a neural network). This parameter
generator accepts source and target language embeddings as input, and generates
the parameters for the encoder and the decoder, respectively. The rest of the
model remains unchanged and is shared across all languages. We show how this
simple modification enables the system to use monolingual data for training and
also perform zero-shot translation. We further show it is able to surpass
state-of-the-art performance for both the IWSLT-15 and IWSLT-17 datasets and
that the learned language embeddings are able to uncover interesting
relationships between languages.Comment: Published in the proceedings of Empirical Methods in Natural Language
Processing (EMNLP), 201
An Exploratory Study of Forces and Frictions affecting Large-Scale Model-Driven Development
In this paper, we investigate model-driven engineering, reporting on an
exploratory case-study conducted at a large automotive company. The study
consisted of interviews with 20 engineers and managers working in different
roles. We found that, in the context of a large organization, contextual forces
dominate the cognitive issues of using model-driven technology. The four forces
we identified that are likely independent of the particular abstractions chosen
as the basis of software development are the need for diffing in software
product lines, the needs for problem-specific languages and types, the need for
live modeling in exploratory activities, and the need for point-to-point
traceability between artifacts. We also identified triggers of accidental
complexity, which we refer to as points of friction introduced by languages and
tools. Examples of the friction points identified are insufficient support for
model diffing, point-to-point traceability, and model changes at runtime.Comment: To appear in proceedings of MODELS 2012, LNCS Springe
A Multivariate Study of T/V Forms in European Languages Based on a Parallel Corpus of Film Subtitles
The present study investigates the cross-linguistic differences in the use of so-called T/V forms (e.g. French tu and vous, German du and Sie, Russian ty and vy) in ten European languages from different language families and genera. These constraints represent an elusive object of investigation because they depend on a large number of subtle contextual features and social distinctions, which should be cross-linguistically matched. Film subtitles in different languages offer a convenient solution because the situations of communication between film characters can serve as comparative concepts. I selected more than two hundred contexts that contain the pronouns you and yourself in the original English versions, which are then coded for fifteen contextual variables that describe the Speaker and the Hearer, their relationships and different situational properties. The creators of subtitles in the other languages have to choose between T and V when translating from English, where the T/V distinction is not expressed grammatically. On the basis of these situations translated in ten languages, I perform multivariate analyses using the method of conditional inference trees in order to identify the most relevant contextual variables that constrain the T/V variation in each language
Adequacy of compositional translations for observational semantics
We investigate methods and tools for analysing translations between programming languages with respect to observational semantics. The behaviour of programs is observed in terms of may- and must-convergence in arbitrary contexts, and adequacy of translations, i.e., the reflection of program equivalence, is taken to be the fundamental correctness condition. For compositional translations we propose a notion of convergence equivalence as a means for proving adequacy. This technique avoids explicit reasoning about contexts, and is able to deal with the subtle role of typing in implementations of language extension
On the Acoustic Characterization of Ejective Stops in Waima’a
We examine some acoustic properties of ejective stops in Waima’a (an Austronesian language spoken in East Timor), and compare them with other voiceless stop types that occur in the language. Previous studies of ejectives in other languages have suggested that they may fall into two classes, strong and weak. We compare our Waima’a results with some existing findings in the literature, and suggest that while Waima’a ejectives might appear to be more appropriately characterized as strong on some criteria, they do not sit squarely in either category
- …