[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/alshawi-1991-translation-quasi-logical-form-transfer/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [docs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/) / [papers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/) / [Machine translation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/mtrans/) / Translation by Quasi Logical Form Transfer # Translation by Quasi Logical Form Transfer **Authors:** Hiyan Alshawi, [David Carter](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/david-carter/), Manny Rayner, Bjorn Gambäck · **Year:** 1991 · **Venue:** 29th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics **Link:** [aclanthology.org/P91-1021](https://aclanthology.org/P91-1021/) · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) — summary only [**43** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W2117519076) openalex · 2026-10-19[**11** citations in our library](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/cited-by/alshawi-1991-translation-quasi-logical-form-transfer/) of the 140673 papers whose bibliographies we read[29th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics](https://aclanthology.org/volumes/P91-1/)[licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) - [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/P91-1021/) - [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/P91-1021.pdf) - [DOI 10.3115/981344.981365](https://doi.org/10.3115/981344.981365) - [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2117519076) **Authors (4)** 1. [Hiyan Alshawi](https://openalex.org/A5029769372) [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/1767307) · h 24 · 1657 citations · 77 works 2. David Carter [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/35408831) 3. [Manny Rayner](https://openalex.org/A5076385236) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6002-2434) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/1761581) · h 21 · 1612 citations · 286 works 4. [Bjorn Gamback](https://openalex.org/A5057661726) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5252-707X) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/1887897) · h 24 · 2615 citations · 166 works Citations and author metrics from openalex (2026-10-19); authors with the same name are not always told apart. ## What it is about The paper applies a general natural language system, the Core Language Engine, to interactive translation between English and Swedish in a car hire domain. Analysis stops at Quasi Logical Form, a contextually sensitive logical representation that is deep enough for cross-language differences, and transfer rules work on it. The system asks the user to resolve ambiguities that the transfer cannot settle, by choosing between word-sense paraphrases or bracketings. The authors argue for modularity, compositionality, reversibility and monotonicity of the framework. The lexicons are about 2,000 and 1,000 words, with about 250 domain entries per language, and a corpus of about 400 sentences was tested. Median processing time is about ten seconds per sentence. Most transfer rules touch only top-level operators such as negation and tense; four failures all involve the verb be. ## Ideas - I1. Count how many author deltas touch only top-level features (tense, negation, aspect) and how many reach into a concept's content. If most rules are of the first kind, a short rule table covers most of the cases, as the paper finds. - I2. Ambiguity the delta cannot settle: when the reader keeps two meta trees for one verse, count such verses per author pair. This gives a diagnostic for the Hebrew reader without any user in the loop. - I3. The paper's failures all involve the verb *be*, and so does Mova's noisiest merge (*be* with *have*). Run a control that removes every merge of the copula with another verb, and report the reader and encoder bits with and without it. ## For Mova The code is `tools/translate` (`profile.rs` for the rules over features) and `tools/roundtrip` for the standard stack. The top-level-rule finding is a cheap measure for deltas; the failures with the verb be repeat the merge noise named in open problem 2. Topics: [Machine translation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/topics/machine-translation/) ## Cite The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.3115/981344.981365](https://doi.org/10.3115/981344.981365) ``` @inproceedings{alshawi1991translation, title = {{Translation by Quasi Logical Form Transfer}}, author = {Alshawi, Hiyan and Carter, David and Rayner, Manny and Gamback, Bjorn}, booktitle = {29th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics}, year = {1991}, doi = {10.3115/981344.981365}, url = {https://doi.org/10.3115/981344.981365} } ``` - [← previous The eBible Corpus: Data and Model Benchmarks for Bible Translation for Low-Resource Languages](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/akerman-2023-ebible-corpus-data-model-benchmarks/) - [next → Exploiting Task Reversibility of DRS Parsing and Generation: Challenges and Insights from a Multi-lingual Perspective](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/amin-2025-exploiting-task-reversibility-drs-parsing/) - [↑ back to Machine translation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/mtrans/) ## References 15 references, 2 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. Alldn, Sture (ed.) (1970) Frequency Dictionary of Present-Day Swedish, Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Alldn%2C+Sture+%28ed%2E%29+%281970%29+Frequency+Dictionary+of+Present%2DDay+Swedish%2C+Almqvist+%26+Wiksell%2C+Stockholm%2E) 2. Alshawi, Hiyan and Jan van Eijck (1989) "Logical Forms in the Core Language Engine". $Tth Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Vancouver, British Columbia, pp. 25-32. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Alshawi%2C+Hiyan+and+Jan+van+Eijck+%281989%29+%22Logical+Forms+in+the+Core+Language+Engine%22%2E+%24Tth+Annual+Meeting+of+the+Association+for+Computational+Linguistics%2C+Vancouver%2C+British+Columbia%2C+pp%2E+25%2D32%2E) 3. Alshawi, Hiyan (1990) "Resolving Quasi Logical Forms". Computational Linguistics, Vol. 16, pp. 133-144. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Alshawi%2C+Hiyan+%281990%29+%22Resolving+Quasi+Logical+Forms%22%2E+Computational+Linguistics%2C+Vol%2E+16%2C+pp%2E+133%2D144%2E) 4. Alshawi, Hiyan, ed. (to appear 1991). The Core Language Engine. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Alshawi%2C+Hiyan%2C+ed%2E+%28to+appear+1991%29%2E+The+Core+Language+Engine%2E+Cambridge%2C+Massachusetts%3A+The+MIT+Press%2E) 5. Kaplan, Ronald M., Klaus Netter, Jiirgen Wedekind and AnnieZaenen (1989) '¢l~ransla - tion by Structural Correspondences", Fourth Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Manchester, pp. 272-281. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Kaplan%2C+Ronald+M%2E%2C+Klaus+Netter%2C+Jiirgen+Wedekind+and+AnnieZaenen+%281989%29+%27%C2%A2l%7Eransla+%2D+tion+by+Structural+Correspondences%22%2C+Fourth+Conference+of+the+European+Chapter+of+the+Association+for+Computationa) 6. Isabelle, Pierre and Elliot Macklovitch (1986) "Transfer and MT Modularity", Eleventh International Conference o n Computational Linguistics (COLING-86), Bonn, pp. 115-117. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Isabelle%2C+Pierre+and+Elliot+Macklovitch+%281986%29+%22Transfer+and+MT+Modularity%22%2C+Eleventh+International+Conference+o+n+Computational+Linguistics+%28COLING%2D86%29%2C+Bonn%2C+pp%2E+115%2D117%2E) [our card](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/isabelle-1986-transfer-mt-modularity/) 7. Landsbergen, Jan (1986) '~lsomorphic grammars and their use in the Rosetta translation system", in M. King (ed), Machine Translation Today: the State of the Art, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Landsbergen%2C+Jan+%281986%29+%27%7Elsomorphic+grammars+and+their+use+in+the+Rosetta+translation+system%22%2C+in+M%2E+King+%28ed%29%2C+Machine+Translation+Today%3A+the+State+of+the+Art%2C+Edinburgh+University+Press%2C+Edinburgh%2E) 8. McCord, Michael C. (1988) '% Multi-Target Machine Translation System", Proceedings of the International Conference on Fifth Generation Computer Systems, Tokyo, pp. 1141-1149. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=McCord%2C+Michael+C%2E+%281988%29+%27%25+Multi%2DTarget+Machine+Translation+System%22%2C+Proceedings+of+the+International+Conference+on+Fifth+Generation+Computer+Systems%2C+Tokyo%2C+pp%2E+1141%2D1149%2E) 9. McCord, Michael C. (1989) "Design of LMT: a Prolog-based Machine Translation System", Computational Linguistics, Vol. 15, pp. 33-52. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=McCord%2C+Michael+C%2E+%281989%29+%22Design+of+LMT%3A+a+Prolog%2Dbased+Machine+Translation+System%22%2C+Computational+Linguistics%2C+Vol%2E+15%2C+pp%2E+33%2D52%2E) [our card](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/mccord-1989-design-lmt-prolog-based-machine/) 10. Miike, Seiji, Koichi Hasebe, Harold Somers, and Shin-ya Amano (1988) "Experiences with an on-line translating dialogue system", 26th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, pp. 155-162. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Miike%2C+Seiji%2C+Koichi+Hasebe%2C+Harold+Somers%2C+and+Shin%2Dya+Amano+%281988%29+%22Experiences+with+an+on%2Dline+translating+dialogue+system%22%2C+26th+Annual+Meeting+of+the+Association+for+Computational+Linguistics%2C+St) 11. Moran, Douglas B. (1988). "Quantifier Scoping in the SRI Core Language Engine", 26th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, State University of New York at Buffalo, New York, pp. 33-40. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Moran%2C+Douglas+B%2E+%281988%29%2E+%22Quantifier+Scoping+in+the+SRI+Core+Language+Engine%22%2C+26th+Annual+Meeting+of+the+Association+for+Computational+Linguistics%2C+State+University+of+New+York+at+Buffalo%2C+New+York%2C) 12. Nagao, Makoto, and Jun-ichi Tsujii (1986) "The Transfer Phase of the Mu Machine Translation System", Eleventh International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING-86), Bonn, pp. 97-103. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Nagao%2C+Makoto%2C+and+Jun%2Dichi+Tsujii+%281986%29+%22The+Transfer+Phase+of+the+Mu+Machine+Translation+System%22%2C+Eleventh+International+Conference+on+Computational+Linguistics+%28COLING%2D86%29%2C+Bonn%2C+pp%2E+97%2D103%2E) 13. Sadler, Louisa, Inn Crookston, Douglas Arnold and Andrew Way (1990) "LFG and Translation", Third International Conference on Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Ma. chine Translation, Linguistics Research Center, Austin, Texas. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Sadler%2C+Louisa%2C+Inn+Crookston%2C+Douglas+Arnold+and+Andrew+Way+%281990%29+%22LFG+and+Translation%22%2C+Third+International+Conference+on+Theoretical+and+Methodological+Issues+in+Ma%2E+chine+Translation%2C+Linguistics) 14. Shieber, Stuart M., Gertjan van Noord, Fernando C.N. Pereira and Robert C. Moore (1990) "Semantic-Head-Driven Generation", Computational Linguistics, Vol. 16, pp. 30-43. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Shieber%2C+Stuart+M%2E%2C+Gertjan+van+Noord%2C+Fernando+C%2EN%2E+Pereira+and+Robert+C%2E+Moore+%281990%29+%22Semantic%2DHead%2DDriven+Generation%22%2C+Computational+Linguistics%2C+Vol%2E+16%2C+pp%2E+30%2D43%2E) 15. Thurmair, Gregor (1990) "Complex lexical transfer in METAL", Third International Conference on Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Machine Translation, Linguistics Research Center, Austin, Texas. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Thurmair%2C+Gregor+%281990%29+%22Complex+lexical+transfer+in+METAL%22%2C+Third+International+Conference+on+Theoretical+and+Methodological+Issues+in+Machine+Translation%2C+Linguistics+Research+Center%2C+Austin%2C+Texas%2E)