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<Paper uid="C82-2046">
  <Title>References Bruce: A Model for Temporal References and Its Application</Title>
  <Section position="1" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="metho">
    <SectionTitle>
THE TRANSFER OP FINITE VERB FORMS IN A MACHINE
TRANSLATION SYSTEM
Bente Maegaard
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> Institut for anvendt og matematlsk lingvlstik,</Paragraph>
  </Section>
  <Section position="2" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="metho">
    <SectionTitle>
K~benhsvns Universltet
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> NJalsgade 96, DK-2300 K~benhavn S, De:m~ark This paper is based on work done Jointly by Hanne Ruus, Ehbe Spang-Hanssen and the author, all of the University of Copen~ hagen. The work was done within the framework of EUROTRA and sponsored by the Commission of the European Community. Work on this paper was begun whilst the author was at ISSCO, Genev a.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> Throughout this paper we shall imagine a machine translation system which performs the following: correct analysis of source language, correct structure of target language sentence, correct choice of words in the target language. In this enviro~.ent we shall discuss some aspects of the problem of constructing the correct finite verbal form. The languages involved are the languages of the European Community. It is obvious that it is not possible simply to use the &amp;quot;same&amp;quot; morphological form in the target language as in the source language: verbal tenses are not the same in all languages (not even in languages as closely related as those considered) and even where the same tenses exist they do not necessarily have the same distribution. So a mapping has to be defined.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> AS EUROTRA is in its conception multilingual this mapping should not be defined on a binary basis (between pairs of languages), but should rather consist in a definition of some basic and global interpretations of the morphology of verbs in the languages considered.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3"> - 190 The study can.not be restricted to morphology proper.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="4"> Meanings that are expressed morphologically (by auxiliaries or flexives) in one language might be expressed lexically (by the use of particular lexical units) in other languages. As an example~ take the progressive aspect in English: En. they are ~it_~_i~_n~ -~ Fr. ils 4crivent / ils @ont en train d'4crire, --~ --~ Danish de skTiver / de sidder cg skriver / de er i f~rd wed at ~krlve.l.e. the progressive aspect which is expressed in English by morphological mesns, is in French and Danish either not expressed or expressed by certain lexical units.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="5"> It is very important to realize the impact of this, There is often a tendency to think that in the analysis of language a borderline can be drawn between morphological information and lexioal information. This is true to s large extent when only one language is considered, but it is certainly not true in a multilingual environment. Roughly speaking, the system should take into account all pieces of information which can be expressed morphologically in at least one language.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="6"> The propose~ e.yetem for the representation of verbal forms.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="7"> The system as such will contain the global information, i.e. the information which has to be transferred to other languages. In this paper only the transfer of active finite verb forms with respect to tense will be considered, i.e.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="8"> modality, voice, etc. is not taken into account.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="9"> Apart from this global information the system can for each language be expanded with all kinds of local information which is useful for analysis or for generation. Some morphological phenomena are only grammatically bound and do not carry any semantic meaning that should be coded for the use of other languages, e.g. the use of the subjonctif in French subordinate clauses following ll faut que. Information about this subjonctif can be regarded as internal to French and should not be expressed in the global system.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="10"> The variables proposed to describe the semantic content of tense and aspect are the following (Note that tens_...._ee is - 191 used in a very general meaning. Tense is determined by values of time and aspect. It should also be noted that the use of the concepts aspect and Aktionsart has been dePSindd with respect to the languages involved and consequently is not necessarily the traditional one):</Paragraph>
  </Section>
  <Section position="3" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="metho">
    <SectionTitle>
ACTIVITY VERB ~ PROCESS VERB I TRANSITIONAL
EVENT VERB
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> For adverbs a value TIMEWI~lq.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> In the paper the use of the variables and their values will be explained. Here only a few remarks can be made.  1. The system is viewed as operating in all languages on two time axes, one for the tenses that are anchored in the present, and a parallel one for the tenses that are anchored in the past (NUNC and TUNC, respectively), 2. The RETROSPECTIVE value CONTINUOUS is used for events that are still going on: F~. il demeure la depui~ un mois end En. He has l~.ved there fo r&amp;quot; a month will get the same values: (I~NC, PROSPECT-, CONTINUOUS, null, DURATIVE). 3. More values for the RETROSPECTIVE variable is to be foreseen.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> 4. In English it is not possible to have the prefect tense with an adverbial of the type TIMEWHEN. So a rule of the generation ~smmar of English will say that (~UNC, PROSPECT-, RETRO+ ..,..) + TI~WHEH -~ (TUNC, PROSPECT-, RETRO-,..,..) 5. Certain verbs in English tend to prefer the progressive - 192 aspect. Consequently the AKTIONSART must be expanded as to be able to express these facts:  A simulation of the system made on some Community texts shows good results.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3"> A text is shown in the appednix An French (source) and in English. Both versions are official Community texts. For each verbal form which is finite in French and has a finite equivalent in English is shown how the system works. a adopt ~ (NUNC, PROSPECT-, RETRO+, null, NON-DURATIVE) +  ~ont tombte a. (NUNC, PROSPECT-, RETRO+, ..., NCN-DURATiVE) -9 -~ have dropp@d to (NB. the English version in fact has dropped to, but as there is no TIMEWHEN this is not possible to obtain with the system. However it is possible to choose both translations from the French original.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="4"> Note furthermore, that tombe_.__~r in the meaning &amp;quot;decrease&amp;quot; is DURATIVE, while tomber~a is NON-DURATIVE).</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="5"> To our knowledge no other system has been proposed which works for more than one language. Reichenbach's system is made for English and shows deficiences even for English. Bruce &amp;quot;s system repairs these deficiences and works for English, but relies heavily on the structure of English verbal forms and cannot easily be brought to work for other languages as well. - 193 The system which we have proposed seems promising, but still a good deal of work is needed to define adequate values for the different variables.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="6">  2oi.96. La Commission a adopt6 le 19 avril 1979, apres consultation du Comit4 consul%atif OEOA (Bull. CE 3-1979, point 2.3.75), le rapport annuel sum le march~ charbonnier de la Commumaut4 en 1978 et see perspectives pour 1979 (JO C 120 du 14.5.1979).</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="7"> Avec quelque 287 millions de tonnes, la consommation de charbon a ~t~ environ la m~me en 1978 q~'en 1977, oependant q~e. la oo~atlon du charbon destin~ a la production d 61ectricit6 a au~nent~ de 5~ environ pour atteindre 159 millions de tonnes environ en 1978 contre 151 millions de tonnes 1 annie pr~c~dente. Avec 238 millions de tonnes environ la production d~ charbon de la Communaut~ en 1978 a 4t6 inf~rieume de l~ a cells de 1977; elle ee caract~rise surtout par une 16g~re augmentation de la production au Royaume-Uni et par de l~ger, reculs ailleurs.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="8"> Les hausses de prlx du charbon de la Communaut~ ont ~t~ modifies. Toutefois, comme les prix du march~ mo~xprlm~s dans la p~upart des monnaies de la Communaut~ ont balsa6 du falt de 1 affaiblissement du dollar am~rioqin, la position conourrentielle du charbon de la Communaut~ s est d~t~rior6e oonsid~rablement. N~amnoins, les importatfons de charbon en provenance de pays tiers ont dimlnu~ de 1,5~ et sont tomb~e~ a 45 millions de tonnes, dont plus de la moiti~ de charb6n vapeur. Coal 2.1.96. After consulting the ECSO Consultative Committee (Bull. EC 3-1979, point 2.3.75), on 19 April the Commission ~ the annual report on the Communi~ coal market in 1978 forecasts for 1979 (OJ C 120 of 14.5.1979).</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="9"> At around 287 million tonnes coal consumption was about the same in 1978 as in 1977, while consumption for-6Tectrlcity generation rose by about 58 to reach roughly 159 million t in 1978 as oom~-~d with 151 million t the previous year. Communwas ity coal production in 1978&amp;quot;I~ma about 238 million t or some 18 lower than in 1977, the features being a slight rise in production in the UK and slight drops elsewhere.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="10"> Price increases of Community coal have he qn moderate. However, as world market prices expressed ih most Community cttrrencles have been fallin~ because of the weakening of the US dollar, the competitiveness of Community coal has been deterioratin~ considerably. Nevertheless, coal imports from third countries ~o bY about 1.5% to 45 million t, of which over half was alo - 195 -</Paragraph>
  </Section>
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