Date: Mon, 11 Jul 1994 06:17:50 -0600
Subject: H-NET software review: Language Assistant (translated from
Italianby the program itself!)
From: IN%"H-ITALY@UICVM.BITNET" "Italian History List from H-NET" 11-JUL-1994
04:45:04.93
[Note from H-NET:
Professor Andreucci, the moderator of H-ITALY, is fluent in
Italian and English. H-NET asked him to review one of the
new automatic language translation programs. His review
appeared in Italian on H-ITALY. What follows is the
automatic machine translation into English of his review. It
gives a strikingly clear picture of the strengths and
weaknesses of the program.
H-NET welcomes comments. We also invite reviewers for the
English/Spanish, English/French and English/German modules.
--Richard Jensen
H-NET@uicvm.uic.edu]
From: Franco Andreucci <fran@vm.cnuce.cnr.it>
Subject: Italian Assistant Software - Automatic translation of my review
This is the automatic translation - done by the Italian
Assistant (MicroTac Software) - of the text I posted last week.
I didn't intervene in any word or phrase. Unfortunately, also the
texts intentionally written in Italian in order to be automatically
translated as examples in my review are translated. For instance,
if you don't control the original Italian text, you'll miss the
meaning of the sentence where "leader" is translated with
"leader". My criticism was that "leader" is translated with "duce".
Some words are not traslated because the accents are missing.
In this case, the responsibility is totally mine.
This is the last message I'm posting before my vacation.
Enjoy the funny text produced by the Italian Assistant and have a
happy holiday!
Franco A.
"Babele...[la'] the Mr. confused the tongue of all the
earth" (Genesis, 11)
[by] FRANCO ANDREUCCI
The old man dreams of returning to speak the universal
tongue of the Genesis and of annul the chastisement
of Babele, hard [e'] to die. In the XIX century he engages
the character of the artful idiom and then, in our
century, that of the automatic translator. Tied hope a
time to the legends of the [positivismo], contradicted
from the bankruptcy of the introduction of the
[esperanto], she becomes alive anchor in a fascinating and
modern way from the protection of the computer. Studied in
the Soviet Union in the years '30 and then, after
the Second world war, in the United States, the
[possibilita'] of the automatic tied translation to the
action of a computer has done in the last years of the footsteps from
giant. If you/he/she/it are thought that the dimension
of an electronic dictionary in line [e'] passed from the
250 words of the 1954 to the actual [centinaia] of
[migliaia], we one [puo'] make account that at least a
problem [e'] having faced in acceptable way.
Borne from the numerous experiences scientific [svoltesi]
in the linguistic field for the automatic translation,
the idea has found a recent commercial realization in the
programs "Language Assistant Series" of the
MicroTac Software. The programs- that they are called
Italian Assistant, German Assistant, French Assistant,
Spanish Assistant and they cost 99.95 $ each- they foresee
the translation in the two senses between the
English from a part and the Italian, the French, the
German and the Spanish from the other. They represent an
enormous footstep in ahead (respect to the by now "old"
dictionaries electronic [tascabili] or to the automatic
translators of phrases) for their [elasticita'] and their
[capacita'] of answer complex challenges. This critique
concerns the Italian part of the program in his release
for Windows entirely (MicroTac Software Assistant
Windows [for], [ver]. 1.00a).
.......