<center><font colour=red>Forbidden Inferences</font></center>

translation_articles_icon

ProZ.com Translation Article Knowledgebase

Articles about translation and interpreting
Article Categories
Search Articles


Advanced Search
About the Articles Knowledgebase
ProZ.com has created this section with the goals of:

Further enabling knowledge sharing among professionals
Providing resources for the education of clients and translators
Offering an additional channel for promotion of ProZ.com members (as authors)

We invite your participation and feedback concerning this new resource.

More info and discussion >

Article Options
Your Favorite Articles
You Recently Viewed...
Recommended Articles
  1. ProZ.com overview and action plan (#1 of 8): Sourcing (ie. jobs / directory)
  2. Réalité de la traduction automatique en 2014
  3. Getting the most out of ProZ.com: A guide for translators and interpreters
  4. Does Juliet's Rose, by Any Other Name, Smell as Sweet?
  5. The difference between editing and proofreading
No recommended articles found.

 »  Articles Overview  »  Art of Translation and Interpreting  »  Translation Theory  »  
Forbidden Inferences

Forbidden Inferences

By Marcia R Pinheiro | Published  09/8/2012 | Translation Theory | Recommendation:RateSecARateSecARateSecARateSecIRateSecI
Contact the author
Quicklink: http://vie.proz.com/doc/3631
Author:
Marcia R Pinheiro
Úc
English to Portuguese translator
 
View all articles by Marcia R Pinheiro

See this author's ProZ.com profile
In Mathematics, one counter-example proves that something is not true.

If there is a large number of examples that validate an hypothesis, a few allowed processes of generalisation may be used to make it become a theorem, that is, a rule or a way to generate valid mathematical assertions.

It may be possible to build a similar system in Language.

It is possible that the computer systems currently used to translate/interpret texts in place of human beings contain theorems in them.

How do systems analysts design systems: what reasoning makes them build a system that actually finds a perfect match - amongst so many that are possible - for a certain word, from the original text, in the English language?

Maybe they make use of theorems that deal with each, and every, one of the pieces of any given sigmatoid individually.

After thinking about the couple (English; Portuguese) for a time, we came up with quite a few possible theorems.

Proving that some of them are not true is a really hard task, so that it is difficult finding even one counter-example, but proving that some of them are one hundred per cent true is almost impossible.

Consider, as possible theorem, the following: whatever ends in ão in Portuguese will have an English language equivalent ending in ion.

Examples that support the hypothesis: (constellation; constelação), (prohibition; proibição), (castration; castração), (constipation; constipação), (lotion; loção); (notion; noção), (portion; porção), (condition; condição), (preparation; preparação), (continuation; continuação), (manipulation; manipulação), (prostration; prostração), and etc.

Counter-examples: (no; não); (pike; sapatão); (heart; coração), (solitude; solidão), (ledger; razão), (meal; refeição); (coat of arms; brasão), (pagan; pagão), (transport; condução), (pressure; pressão), (printing; impressão), (captain; capitão), (saint; são), (card; cartão), (sex drive; tesão), (reason; razão), and etc.

Now this: whatever ends in ia in Portuguese will have an English equivalent ending in y?

The initial list: (lethargy; letargia), (metallurgy; metalurgia), (iridology; iridologia), (geology; geologia), (geography; geografia), (musicology; musicologia), (theosophy; teosofia), (philosophy; filosofia), (anthroposophy ; antroposofia), (allergy ; alergia), (mastectomy; mastectomia), (sexology; sexologia), (ontology; ontologia), (allegory; alegoria), and etc.

Counter-examples: (apologia; apologia), (claustrophobia; claustrofobia), (haemorrhage; hemorragia), (merchandise; mercadoria), (aunt; tia), (stationery shop; papelaria), (bookshop; livraria), (rectorship; reitoria), (directorship; diretoria), (bitch/slut; vadia), (neighbourhood; periferia), (mania; mania), and etc.

This text proves that creating linguistic hypotheses, and testing them is good entertainment, and may someday lead to useful findings or actual theorems, which will meaningfully add to our Inner Reality rules, and that will help us reject wrong reasoning at an early stage, and therefore is something that help us save resources.









Copyright © ProZ.com, 1999-2024. All rights reserved.
Comments on this article

Knowledgebase Contributions Related to this Article
  • No contributions found.
     
Want to contribute to the article knowledgebase? Join ProZ.com.


Articles are copyright © ProZ.com, 1999-2024, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.
Content may not be republished without the consent of ProZ.com.