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Published Papers & Articles
on Linguistics,
Including Machine Translation,
NLP, AI, TGG, etc.
General Linguistics
Machine
Translation (MT)
& Natural
Language Processing (NLP)
General Linguistics
Is Evidence Based Linguistics the Solution? Is Voodoo Linguistics the Problem? The author's most recent paper, at the LACUS Conference, August, 2005, summarizing the faults of current linguistics and presenting a new overview for the future.
A Workshop in Evidence Based Linguistics. Also presented at LACUS as a continution of the above: the Six Laws of Language & Linguistics, differential diagnosis and a measuring unit for language, and much more.
Two German Books About Machine Translation, 1999. Have there truly been any new advances in MT? Or is the field merely marking time as a scholarly buzzword whose time has passed?
New Terminologies: Peaceful Immigrants or Invading Hordes? A Review of Three New Books, 2004. Contrasting Spanish and Chinese books on Internet terminology with a remarkable work by a young doctor about how Chinese truly handles language and creates its own terminology.
The Challenge of Translating Chinese Medicine. This interview with the author reveals much about both the Chinese language and Chinese medicine and shows how problems in translating this difficult subject have slowed down wider public understanding of its principles. Published by Language Monthly, April, 1987.
The Language Contest. A parable on all the languages of the world and which one is truly "best." Published by Language Monthly, December, 1987.
Suggested Minimal Requirements for the Advanced Study of Linguistics. Perhaps an idealistic set of goals set out for this field, for which the author seeks feedback and criticism. This selection should perhaps be examined last, after reading other selections on the website.
Hermes, God of Translators and Interpreters: The Origins of Language and the Prehistory of Interpreting . A historical inquiry into the earliest days of interpreting, demonstrating how they provide a window onto both the "prehistory" of translation and the origins of language. Paper presented on March 24 at the Translation2000 Conference, sponsored by the NYU Translation Studies Program.
Hermes, God of Translators and Interpreters: The Antiquity of InterpretingDistinguishing Fact from Speculation A "cleaned up" & more conventionally academic version of the Hermes essay presented at the NYU Translation2000 Conference.
<qwert>
QWERTYUIOP OR OUR TYPEWRITER TERRITORY. A Whorfian Picture Parable for Adults, entirely devoted to QWERT, the creatures who live in QWERTYUIOP and whose entire lives are limited to those words and concepts that can be spelled with the top row of letters on the keyboard. Illustrations by Ilene Astrahan Gross.
Machine Translation (MT)
& Natural Language
Processing (NLP)
Limitations of Computers as Translation Tools. a long published paper originally appearing in Computers in Translation: A Practical Approach, edited by John Newton, London, Routledge, 1992.
This paper is here presented in three separate sections:
Part 1, presenting an overview of MT techniques & problems.
Part 2, discussing possible deeper limitations in MT theory.
Part 3, translators & MT developers review each other's shortcomings, and Conclusion.
MT and Language: Conflicting Technologies? A view is presented by which both language and MT can be regarded as technologies that may not ever fully mesh. Published by Sci-Tech Translation Journal, October, 1993
Perfect MT: Logical Certainty or Recurrent Self-Delusion? A humorous and historical treatment of the many problems separating machine translation from final triumph over humans. Paper presented at the 1995 ATA National Conference and published in the Proceedings.
Two German Books about Machine Translation. Book Review published in June, 1999 edition of the on-line magazine Translation Journal.
Where Do Translators Fit into Machine Translation? A set of extended questions presented to the MT profession at the 1991 MT Summit III Conference in Washington. Published by Sci-Tech Translation Journal in April, 1993.
What Do Translators Do? And What Machines Can Not. An article by Paul F. Wood explaining this theme so clearly that even machine translation gurus ought to be able to understand it. From the October, 2000, issue of The Linguist, London.
BYTE Letter on Voice-Writers. A 1986 letter to the editor of BYTE about the still-unresolved limitations of "Voice-Writers."
Arguments over Operator Arguments. A piece criticizing a presentation on MT presented at the NY Academy of Science. Language International, 1990.
An Open letter on Glossaries. The author's first full length discussion of MT in 1987, when translators were first called upon to contribute their glossaries to advance the MT cause. Language Monthly, 1987.
The Next Wave of MT Publicity. An article discussing the "CYC" AI project and its prospects for hastening the advent of robots, automatic chauffeurs, and reliable language applications, such as voice-writers and machine translation. Published by the ATA Chronicle, July, 1994.
Japan: Taking Over or Just Catching Up? A Review of J. Marshall Unger's book The Fifth Generation Fallacy, showing how some Japanese feel about AI and the role their language may play in its development. Published in Language Technology, 1988.
Automatic Chauffeurs. An online debate between John McCarthy, the father of AI and inventor of the phrase, and the author.
AE: Artificial Eroticism. The straightforward account of experiments by a truly great AI Pioneer, in which the author played a small but important role.
The "Sci-Tech Creed." A new religion has swept over America and is reaching out to engulf the rest of the world. Find out if you might be a part of it.
(It should be perhaps be pointed out that "TGG" is a euphemism for this subject. It stands for the extremely unwieldy phrase "Transformational-Generative Grammar." Because it does not single out the name of any one individual, it is often preferred to its less reverential but perhaps more apt synomym "Chomskianism," the name given to the linguistic views of Noam Chomsky and his followers. Later offshoots of these theories,
known as G&B and P&P (Government and Binding and Principles and Parameters, respectively) are also open to many of the criticisms included in this section. For those who find the treatment of these views too one-sided, two distinctly pro-Chomskian websites can be accessed among the "Links" provided at the bottom of the home page.The Emperor's New Linguistics. A review of Steven Pinker's book The Language Instinct and also of a series of videotapes on Chomskianism. Published by the ATA Chronicle, August, 1995.
The Chinese Character for Big Bird. Another briefer notice on Pinker's book, concentrating on his knowledge of Chinese. ATA Chronicle, April, 1995. This is followed by the author's replies to two critics of his two critiques.
A Review of Steven Pinker's Words and Rules. Paul F. Wood, demonstrates the superficiality of Pinker's knowledge of language just as cuttingly as he exposed the limits of "machine translation" in the section above.
Part 2 of Limitations of Computers as Translation Tools. Also described above, concentrating in some detail on Chomsky's contribution to movement towards MT & other language applications. Routledge, London, 1992.
Forty-Four Reasons Why the Chomskians Are Mistaken. Single-File, Straight Text Version.
A straightforward refutationeven a debunkingof the theories of Noam Chomsky and his followers. Though written in a simple style, it is nonetheless quite detailed, and readers are more likely to enjoy this piece if they read the preceding three selections first. With additional sections by Sergio Navega and composed expressly for this website.
<nontgg>Non-TGG, Anti-TGG, & Post-TGG: A Bibliography and a "Webography"