Ubiquity i18n: questions to ask
I recently have traveled a fair deal and have met many people excited about the Ubiquity project and its localization efforts. “I want to help,” say the people, but many are unsure where to start.
As a linguist, studying a language involves looking at instances of that language as data. To this end, we as Ubiquity internationalizers need to get at some examples of target utterances. Here’s an example survey which could be a good starting point for native speakers who want to contribute information on their language, based on Blair’s list of common Ubiquity verbs.
A survey for Ubiquity localization
Instructions
How would you express the following commands in your language? The words in CAPITAL LETTERS do not need to be translated. Feel free to give multiple possible answers for each command.
Try to express the same command rather than forcing a “literal translation”; for example, if there’s no “map” verb in your language, you could translate example (8) as lookup a map of PLACE. Please keep in mind that the addressee is a computer.
Basic word order / argument structure
search HELLOsearch HELLO with googletranslate HELLO from English to Frenchlookup the weather for PLACEshop for SHOES with Amazonemail HELLO to Billemail HELLO to ADDRESSmap PLACEfind HELLOtab to HELLOorswitch to HELLO tab
…
Pronominal/deictic arguments (aka “magic words”)
search this with googletranslate this to Frenchbookmark this tab
…
How this data is used
Responses to these surveys would be used to identify certain salient features of the language, such as how the language codes for its arguments (for example using adpositions, case marking, or word order), whether the commands tend to be verb-inital or -final. Individual case markings, for example, can be identified by comparing minimal pairs—for example, by comparing item (1) and (2), we can learn how google in an instrumental role is marked, or by comparing example (2) and the “magic word” example (1), we can identify the appropriate “magic word” and determine whether the language uses any clitics or not.
Data collection
In the future we ideally could build a web-based system to collect these “utterances.” We could also use such a system to automatically test our parsers in different languages against the sentences in the command-bank, or ultimately even generate parser parameters based on those sentences. That would essentially reduce the parser-construction process to a more run-of-the-mill string translation process.
Related posts:
- Contribute: how your language identifies its arguments
- Exploring Command Chaining in Ubiquity: Part 1
- The
AliensAliases Have Landed - Where’s The Verb?
- Automating the Linguist’s Job
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Tags: collaboration, commands, contribute, data, linguistics, Mozilla Planet, parser, survey, ubiquity
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March 23rd, 2009 at 2:02 pm
For Dutch (nl):
Basic word order / argument structure 1. zoek HELLO 1. zoek naar HELLO 2. zoek HELLO met Google 2. zoek naar HELLO met Google 3. vertaal HELLO van Engels naar Frans 3. vertaal HELLO van het Engels naar het Frans 4. toon het weer voor PLACE 5. koop SHOES bij Amazon 6. e-mail HELLO naar Bill 6. email HELLO naar Bill 6. mail HELLO naar Bill 7. e-mail HELLO naar ADDRESS 7. email HELLO naar ADDRESS 7. mail HELLO naar ADDRESS 8. toon kaart van PLACE 8. toon kaart voor PLACE 8. toon map van PLACE 8. toon map voor PLACE 9. zoek HELLO 9. vind HELLO 10. tab naar HELLO 10. verander naar tab HELLO 10. verander naar HELLO tab
Prepositional arguments 1. zoek dit met Google 2. vertaal dit naar het Frans 2. vertaal dit naar Frans 3. bookmark deze tab 3. plaats een bladwijzer op deze tab 3. plaats een bladwijzer voor deze tab
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Italian version.
trova HELLO
cerca HELLO con google
trova HELLO con google
traduci HELLO dall'inglese al francese
traduci HELLO da inglese a francese
guarda il tempo per PLACE
dimmi le previsioni per PLACE
compra le scarpe con Amazon
compra le scarpe attraverso Amazon
invia HELLO a Bill
spedisci HELLO a Bill
invia HELLO a ADDRESS
spedisci HELLO a ADDRESS
trova PLACE
indica PLACE
definisci HELLO
ricerca HELLO
cambia a HELLO tab
vai a HELLO tab
cerca this con google
traduci this in francese
segna this tab
March 23rd, 2009 at 3:45 pm
In Vietnamese:
Basic: 1. tìm HELLO 2. tìm HELLO với google 3. dịch HELLO từ tiếng Anh sang tiếng Pháp 4. tra cứu thời tiết cho PLACE 5. mua sắm SHOES với Amazon 6. email HELLO tới Bill 7. email HELLO tới ADDRESS 8. bản đồ PLACE 9. tìm HELLO 10. thẻ sang HELLO or chuyển sang thẻ HELLO
Prepositional: 1. tìm cụm này với google 2. dịch cụm này sang tiếng Pháp 3. đánh dấu thẻ này
March 23rd, 2009 at 4:24 pm
One thing that still trips me up with Ubiquity is its verb-object philosophy. More than often I tend to think about something, type it in and then realize I forgot to tell Ubiquity what to do with it. So now I have to go to the beginning of the line and add a command. In these instances, I wish Ubiquity was object-verb. In fact, I believe Jef Raskin recommends this philosophy in his book
. I do realize that Ubiquity can be object-verb, viz. when you select a text in the web page and then enter a command.
What this has to do with i18n: In German for instance, one could translate "search HELLO" as an imperative ("suche HELLO") or as an infinitive ("HELLO suchen"). The latter seems more natural to me because it'd be the answer to "What do you want to do?" — "HELLO suchen" or "HELLO an Bill mailen". German (and other Germanic languages) might be unique in this respect, though as I've tried to point out above, I don't think my preference for object-verb isn't just language-related. It happens to match my train of thought much better.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:48 pm
[…] can we localize this set of commands in Italian (see Mitcho’s post)? 1. search HELLO 2. search HELLO with google 3. translate HELLO from English to French 4. lookup […]
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:02 pm
German computer commands (like in menus, etc.) are usually put in passive voice, but some people might want to enter them in active voice in a command-line interface, so I'll list passive first, then active.
Basic word order / argument structure
HELLO suchen
Suche HELLO
HELLO mit Google suchen
Suche HELLO mit Google
HELLO von Englisch auf Französisch übersetzen
Übersetze HELLO von Englisch auf Französisch
Wetter in PLACE anzeigen
Zeige Wetter in PLACE an
("anzeigen" is "show", could use lots of different verbs here, intuitively I probably would try it even without a verb and enter just "Wetter in PLACE")
SHOES bei Amazon kaufen
Kaufe SHOES bei Amazon
HELLO per E-Mail an Bill senden
Sende HELLO per E-Mail an Bill
(those are "send via email", the "to email" Variant is a Germanized English word and not that popular, but would be as follows:)
HELLO an Bill mailen
Maile HELLO an Bill
HELLO per E-Mail an ADDRESS senden
Sende HELLO per E-Mail an ADDRESS
(same as above)
Karte von PLACE anzeigen
Zeige Karte von PLACE an
(as with weather, I've used "show map" here but intuitively I'd also probably leave out the verb completely and go for "Karte von PLACE")
HELLO suchen
Suche HELLO
(note that we usually use the same word for search and find, though "finden" would exist)
Auf HELLO-Tab umschalten /or/ Auf Tab "HELLO" umschalten
Schalte auf HELLO-Tab um /or/ Schalte auf Tab "HELLO" um
…
Prepositional arguments (aka “magic words”)
Dies mit Google suchen
Suche dies mit Google
(instead of "Dies"/"dies" a probably equal number of people would use "Das"/"das")
Dies auf Französisch übersetzen
Übersetze dies auf Französisch
(same as above)
Dieses Tab als Lesezeichen ablegen
Lege dieses Tab als Lesezeichen ab
(uses "file as bookmark" as there is no "to bookmark" word in German, there are also discussions if "Tab" has male or neutral gender, I used neutral, if male is used, it's "Diesen Tab"/"diesen Tab")
…
note also that in some cases, multiple different prepositions should be accepted, as some people would probably enter "Wetter für PLACE" or even "Wetter auf PLACE" if it's an island, similar things for maps, and the services to shop and search with.
March 24th, 2009 at 9:09 am
[…] blog blog « Ubiquity i18n: questions to ask […]
March 24th, 2009 at 9:29 am
@philiKON - thanks for the reply. We're definitely looking at supporting verb-final languages (including optionally verb-final ones, like German) and also applying these innovations to other languages as well, in case the verb is not entered first. I have some initial thoughts on verb-final languages and their advantages here on an article about Japanese. This design has been incorporated into the latest parser design proposal as well, and you can play around with a demo of the upcoming parser here.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:29 am
In Korean.
search HELLO HELLO 검색하기
search HELLO with google HELLO를 구글로(에서) 검색하기 구글로(에서) HELLO 검색하기
translate HELLO from English to French HELLO를 영어에서 프랑스어로 번역하기
lookup the weather for PLACE PLACE 날씨 알아보기
shop for SHOES with Amazon Amazon에서 SHOES를 구매하기
email HELLO to Bill Bill에게 HELLO 이메일을 보내기
email HELLO to ADDRESS HELLO 이메일을 ADDRESS로 보내기
map PLACE 지도에서 PLACE 위치 찾기 지도에 PLACE 위치 출력하기
find HELLO HELLO를 찾기
March 24th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
(explanation here)
List of commands in Italian.
March 24th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Finnish here:
Pronominal/deictic arguments (aka “magic words”)
March 25th, 2009 at 1:28 am
Translations to Portuguese:
buscar HELLO
buscar HELLO com Google
traduzir HELL do Inglês para Francês
Procurar a previsão do tempo para PLACE
comprar SHOES com Amazon
enviar email* HELLO para Bill
enviar email* HELL para ADDRESS
mapear PLACE
encontrar HELLO
guiar/mudar* para ou trocar para aba HELLO
procurar isto/isso** com google
traduzir isto/isso** para Francês
favoritar* esta/essa** aba
March 25th, 2009 at 7:17 am
[…] I received a great comment by PhiliKON on German and associated data by Robert Kaiser on my blog post […]
March 25th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Here it is for French. Like I said in your other post, mostly infinitive forms:
Basic word order / argument structure
chercher HELLO /
rechercher HELLO
(re)chercher HELLO avec/dans google (infinitive form) maybe: recherche google de HELLO (no verb!)
traduire HELLO de l'anglais vers le français maybe: traduire HELLO d'anglais en français (not really correct but shorter and still understandable)
trouver la météo pour PLACE maybe: météo à PLACE (no verb!)
acheter des SHOES sur Amazon
There is no verb to say "send an email". This could work but there would be an ambiguity with IM/SMS: écrire HELLO à Bill ( =write to) / envoyer HELLO à Bill ( =send to)
Longer but not ambiguous:
envoyer HELLO par email/courriel à Bill
Probably less ambiguous due to "ADDRESS" envoyer HELLO à ADDRESS / écrire HELLO à ADDRESS
trouver la carte/le plan de PLACE / carte/plan de PLACE (no verb)
trouver HELLO / rechercher HELLO dans la page (same as "search HELLO")
passer à l'onglet HELLO
… Pronominal/deictic arguments (aka “magic words”)
[1 and 2 don't feel natural but would work, 3 is good because "this" is qualified: you kow it is a tab.]
(re)chercher ceci/ça avec/dans google
Would work better with:
- (re)chercher cette phrase avec/dans google (search for this sentence…) - (re)chercher ce mot avec/dans google (search for this word…)
Traduire ceci/ça en français
Would work better with:
- traduire cette phrase en français (translate this sentence…) - traduire ce mot en français (translate this word…)
Marquer cet onglet also: Ajouter cet onglet aux marque-pages (for people not familiar with "mark" as a verb to add a bookmark)
March 30th, 2009 at 4:55 am
Alberto, is there an Italian translation for "this" in the last three examples?
March 30th, 2009 at 7:12 am
I didn't translate "this" because it is replaced with the selection. Literally I would translate it with "questo".
For instance, cerca questo con Google
March 30th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
SPANISH.
I toyed with translating the verbs in the imperative form, but infitive is much cleaner ("make a map" in imperative could be "haz un mapa" or "hazme un mapa", literally, "make a map for me", but quite common in speech). So here goes:
pestaña HELLO / ir a pestaña HELLO
buscar esto con google
Unfotunately, not one of my suggestions for magic words #3 seems better than the other. At least to me. Other spanish speakers, opine!
April 11th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Translating these commands into Simplified Chinese is quite an exercise in itself, and highlighted the differences between the two language. I'm can't claim to be a linguist, but I am bilingual, so although these may not be perfect they should be natural, at least.
1.（找，搜索，寻找） —- / 寻找有关 —- 的讯息 （找，搜索，寻找） = Search/Find
2.用（谷歌/百度）搜索 —- 百度 (Baidu) is the most popular search engine in mainland China 3.将 —- 从英文翻译成法文 4.找 —- [地区]的天气
5.在卓越网上找 —- 买 This one is very awkward - Direct trans. : "On Amazon.com find —- to buy"
Maybe this would be better: 在卓越网上买 —- But it could be misunderstood: "shop" in English in this case means to look up at a e-store, while 买 simply means buy. Therefore, the sentence above could be read as "On Amazon.com buy (things)"
6.电邮 —- 给比尔，寄 —- 给比尔，将 —- 发给比尔 Lit. Trans. : "Email (this) to Bill" / "Send (this) to Bill"
7.电邮 —- 给 —-，寄 —- 给 —-，将 —- 发给 —-
8.找 —- 的地图 Lit. Trans. : "Search for/Find (place)'s map"
9.（找，搜索，寻找）—- 10.换到 —- 的分页 Lit Trans. : "Switch to (tab name)'s tab"
1.用（谷歌）搜索(这个) 2.将（这个）翻译成法文 3.将（此页）加入书签 此页=This page
Some of these would literally not be directly translatable to English, or sound extremely awkward in English because some of the words have no English counterparts. Also, certain word would vary a lot based on context, words like "this" in commands, would have these variations in Chinese:
这个 - This, almost meaningless even with context 这[段/句][话/字] - This sentence/paragraph 这个字 - This word 这个[object]
And so on… Some of these are more natural than others in many contexts.
April 17th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
In spanish we are somewhat used to adopt international words, and make them our own. So, in a very informal scenario, one could translate "email this to John" as "mailear esto a John", as the ending "ar" (as well as "ir" and "er") most of the times denotates the word is a verb. A more formal situation would be to translate the action, rather than the protocol, so one could type "escribir esto a John", wich in turns, tranlsates to "Write this to John"
September 5th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
It really depends whether you want correct sentences or something that passes for correct sentences in "daily computer life". Some examples:
HELLO aus dem Englischen ins Französische übersetzen
or
Übersetze HELLO aus dem Englischen ins Französische
(( or maybe ))
HELLO vom Englischen ins Französische übersetzen
Übersetze HELLO vom Englischen ins Französische
However, computer users (especially in countries where translated software is common) are used to horrible mistreatment of their language, and do not even notice. One of the reasons is that, while a lot of software and localization libraries are written in english, most european languages are more complicated than english. Allow me to demonstrate:
Übersetze HELLO vom Französischen ins Englische
Note how the language names changed this way around, and remember the discussion about romanian in one of your last posts. The from-language is in the dative case, while the to-language is in the accusative case. The english-based localisation templates are not case-aware, so both language names would come from the same list, which is generally consists of unmodified (nominative) language names, so it would end up being "vom Französisch ins Englisch" which is relatively jarring. The end result might look like the examples from Robert Kaiser above.
Another example that demonstrates "computerized natural language", this time in english:
If you think about it, search and find are not actually synonymous in english. You do not search Hello, you search (the Web) for hello, unless of course you search Hello for Ls, or search your apartement for beer. A similar thing applies to "map": "to map London" does not actually mean "to show a map of London" but instead "to explore London and draw a map of it".
So in effect, both commands in ubiquity are not actually natural language commands, but rather a short-hand that stands for something else.
Therefore if you actually want to translate
search for HELLO
into german it would be
nach HELLO suchen
or
suche nach HELLO
BUT since "suche" is actually "seek" or "find" rather then search, you also can say "suche HELLO [auf http://example.com". Unless I fell victim to the same computerized-language-blindness as my predecessor. To misquote Bones — "I am a programmer, not a linguist!".
October 14th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I must say this article "Exploring Command Chaining in Ubiquity: Part 1" helped me a week ago with writing my research paper. Thanks for a link.