What you always wanted to know about semantic transfer

The transfer in Verbmobil is primarily semantic-based. To further move up the level of abstractness, it integrates a variety of interlingual elements that allow the generation of alternative translations. In this report, we present the treatment and implementation of translational phenomena on both levels. Concerning the conceptual mapping level, we focus on problems of lexical and structural abstraction by generalization and decomposition. With respect to the semantic mapping level, we give an insight into the treatment of a wide range of structural divergences. Another topic of this report is the resolution of translational ambiguities which is relevant on both mapping levels. A catalog of examples will provide an overview over the various types of contextual constraints used for disambiguation

Abstraction and underspecification in semantic transfer

This paper introduces the semantic transfer approach MinT (Minimal Transfer) that has been developed in the speech-to-speech MT system VERBMOBIL. As a unification-based and lexicalist semantic transfer model, it relies on some central ideas of the MRS-based transfer approach outlined in [Copestake et al., 1995]. It differs, however, from the latter in certain aspects: in MinT, the idea of abstraction and underspecification is worked out in much more detail and has been applied to a variety of translation phenomena. MinT relates SL and TL semantic descriptions on a maximally abstract level, which results in simultaneously decreasing the number of transfer rules and leaving a considerable amount of options for lexicalization and grammaticalization up to the generator. To preserve ambiguities that hold across the involved languages MinT processes underspecified semantic representations

Disentangling manual muscle testing and Applied Kinesiology: critique and reinterpretation of a literature review

Cuthbert and Goodheart recently published a narrative review on the reliability and validity of manual muscle testing (MMT) in the Journal. The authors should be recognized for their effort to synthesize this vast body of literature. However, the review contains critical errors in the search methods, inclusion criteria, quality assessment, validity definitions, study interpretation, literature synthesis, generalizability of study findings, and conclusion formulation that merit a reconsideration of the authors' findings. Most importantly, a misunderstanding of the review could easily arise because the authors did not distinguish the general use of muscle strength testing from the specific applications that distinguish the Applied Kinesiology (AK) chiropractic technique. The article makes the fundamental error of implying that the reliability and validity of manual muscle testing lends some degree of credibility to the unique diagnostic procedures of AK. The purpose of this commentary is to provide a critical appraisal of the review, suggest conclusions consistent with the literature both reviewed and omitted, and extricate conclusions that can be made about AK in particular from those that can be made about MMT. When AK is disentangled from standard orthopedic muscle testing, the few studies evaluating unique AK procedures either refute or cannot support the validity of AK procedures as diagnostic tests. The evidence to date does not support the use of MMT for the diagnosis of organic disease or pre/subclinical conditions

Semantic Transfer in Speech-to-Speech MT

This paper describes a semantic transfer approach called MinT (Minimal Transfer) that has been developed in the speech-to-speech MT system verbmobil. Being a unification-based and lexicalist semantic transfer model, it relies on some central ideas of the MRS-based transfer approach outlined in [Copestake et al., 1995]. It differs, however, from the latter in certain aspects. In MinT, the idea of abstraction and underspecification is worked out in much more detail and has been applied to a variety of translation phenomena. MinT relates SL and TL semantic descriptions on a maximally abstract level, without falling back into the well-known problems of the Interlingua approach. This results in simultaneously decreasing the number of transfer rules and leaving a considerable amount of options for lexicalization and grammaticalization up to the generator. To preserve ambiguities that hold across the languages involved MinT processes underspecified semantic representations. Semantic Transfe..