[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/pierre-isabelle/)

[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/) / [authors](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/) / Pierre Isabelle

# Pierre Isabelle

3 paper cards in Mova's library · 1986–2017

Pierre Isabelle wrote 3 of the papers Mova reads, in 1986–2017, most of them on [Machine translation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/topics/machine-translation/); often with [Colin Cherry](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/colin-cherry/), Elliott Macklovitch, [George Foster](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/george-foster/).

[OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/A5109464669) · [**h-index 19**](https://openalex.org/authors/A5109464669) · [3543 citations](https://openalex.org/authors/A5109464669) · [62 works](https://openalex.org/works?filter=author.id:A5109464669) — openalex, 2026-10-18

The profile is the library's match of the name; two people with one name are not always told apart.

Elsewhere: [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=search_authors&mauthors=Pierre+Isabelle) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/search?q=Pierre+Isabelle) · [dblp](https://dblp.org/search?q=Pierre+Isabelle) · [ACL Anthology](https://aclanthology.org/search/?q=Pierre+Isabelle) · [ORCID](https://orcid.org/orcid-search/search?searchQuery=Pierre+Isabelle)

Topics: [Machine translation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/topics/machine-translation/) 3

## Papers

1. **[A Challenge Set Approach to Evaluating Machine Translation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/isabelle-2017-challenge-set-approach-evaluating-machine/)** *(2017)* The paper proposes challenge sets: small, hand-written sets of English to French sentences, each built to test one structural divergence between the two languages, for example morphology that exposes agreement, stranded prepositions, double-object verbs, subcategorisation frames, idioms and WH-movement.
2. **[Towards Reversible MT Systems](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/isabelle-1989-reversible-mt-systems/)** *(1989)* The paper argues that translation competence is a relation between sets of source and target texts, and that most MT systems define only a one-way procedure, which hides the conditions of the relation.
3. **[Transfer and MT Modularity](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/isabelle-1986-transfer-mt-modularity/)** *(1986)* The authors argue that second-generation rule-based MT systems break their own modularity rule: their transfer components hold target-language facts, such as the strict subcategorisation of the French verbs savoir and connaître, and their synthesis components are weak because transfer has already done the work.

## Co-authors (3)

- [Colin Cherry](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/colin-cherry/)
- Elliott Macklovitch
- [George Foster](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/george-foster/)
- [← previous Philippe Muller](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/philippe-muller/)
- [next → Pierre Nugues](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/pierre-nugues/)
- [↑ back to Authors](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/)