Thread: Mapping a language?

Hi, I was wondering how accurate a mapping file would be for Russian to English. What I mean by 'mapping file' is basicly a list of words in English with the Russian equivilent next to them.

That way a simple program could be used to look-up the word quickly. Grammar might not be too hard to add either if there were the main gramatical rules shown in use in a sentence. I'm not sure exactly how this would work but I think a very basic mapping of one language onto another would work well enough for even a complete newbie in a language to understand.

Any thoughts on this or care to offer some common words in English & Russian or perhaps example and explanaition of very common grammar rules?

Isn't that called a dictionary?

And, no, it is not as easy as a word for word translation. For example, English has 2 words for "and" and "but". However in russian, you have 3 of these words. Which one of these to pick is something decided with context. In English, "with" means one thing. In Russian, the word can be used for many meanings, only one being the same as english. The English word "just" can be expressed 4 different ways in Russian. So no, you can't just make a list and match equivilents.

Simmillar to a dictionary, but a dictionary gives a definition instead of a word to word link.

Would those multiple ways of saying the same thing make this kind of porject impossible? Surely some must map to English words and some must be more common than others.

I'm thinking of this as a very basic way to translate English to Russian. Would not, and isn't intended, to be perfect but should help get started IMO.

This is just a thought I've had for some time about how learning languages could be simplified.

I'm sure if it was that simple it would have been done by now. And a bilingual dictionary does exactly what you said. It gives the word, then the word(s) in the other language. Obviously some words could be mapped, but a good ammount of them are completly different like I explained in my last post. In short, if you want that, buy a bilingual dictionary, but it's not going to teach you a language.

Pidgeon, if it were that simple, computer assisted translation wouldn't be infamous for its many blunders. I suggest you start by reading up on your Chomsky.

P.S. If I were you, I'd wait for a real breakthrough in artificial intelligence. Until then it would be naive to expect translation software to do much better than it does today.

I tried to make translation software for a dog once, but it turns out that "Bark" can mean any one of:

"I'm going to bite you now"
"You're my friend. Pet me."
"I pooped in the fridge."
"We're taking over the world, and you're too stupid to notice"
"Hey, that poodle is hot. "
"I can kill you in your sleep, you know"
"It's bacon!"
"Throw the ball, throw the ball, throw the ball..."
"I got the ball, I got the ball, I got the ball..."
"You'd better protect your nuts immediately."
...and many more. I gave up. True story.

-Fantom

Here is an English example that shows why mapping is not possible. In each example the first word is American and the second is English.

Underwear - Pants
Pants - Trousers

Car - Car
SUV - Car
Minivan - Car
Truck - Car
Truck - Lorry
Truck - Van

Tights - Tights
Pantyhose - Tights
Leotards - Tights

If English is this ambiguous, then imagine how hard it is to map it into a language spoken in hundreds of towns and cities spread across 11 timezones. Russians can often recognize which city another Russian grew up because of their choice of words when there is more than one way to express the same meaning.

If English is this ambiguous, then imagine how hard it is to map it into a language spoken in hundreds of towns and cities spread across 11 timezones. Russians can often recognize which city another Russian grew up because of their choice of words when there is more than one way to express the same meaning.

As if this wasn't possible in the UK. Believe you me, there's far far more linguistic diversity between Norwich and Dudley than there is between Moscow and Vladivostock.