[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/neumann-1999-interlingual-treatment-modality/) [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/) / Towards an interlingual treatment of modality # Towards an interlingual treatment of modality **Authors:** Christoph Neumann · **Year:** 1999 · **Venue:** Proceedings of Machine Translation Summit VII **Link:** [aclanthology.org/1999.mtsummit-1.93](https://aclanthology.org/1999.mtsummit-1.93/) · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) — summary only [Proceedings of Machine Translation Summit VII](https://aclanthology.org/volumes/1999.mtsummit-1/)[licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) - [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/1999.mtsummit-1.93/) - [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/1999.mtsummit-1.93.pdf) **Authors (1)** 1. Neumann, Christoph Citations and author metrics from OpenAlex (); authors with the same name are not always told apart. ## What it is about The paper argues that modality, the speaker's comment on how valid a statement is, needs its own interlingual module, because many errors in machine translation come from its absence. The author counts modal elements in the EDR corpus of 195,000 Japanese sentences: for example "tai" (2,777 cases), "noda" or "nodesu" (3,119) and "kudasai" (245). Modality is shown to be carried by many categories, among them discourse particles, which verb-mode accounts miss. The proposed Module of Modality has three dimensions: a world (a modal subtype such as belief, duty or plan), a remoteness flag, and the proposition. A world is fired by a combination of trigger elements, not by one element, and a proposition can have only one world. Some elements exclude a world, for example past tense excludes a directive duty. Belief has five strengths. The module was first added to the ALT-J/E Japanese-English system for the belief world, where it stopped stacks of sentence-initial adverbs like "probably surely perhaps" from reaching the output. ## Ideas - I1. Count modal triggers in the verse-aligned pairs, in the same way as the paper's frequency table (shall, will, must, may, and the archaic forms), and report where the meta-world loses modality. Measure first, change second. - I2. Store trigger combinations as a table in a BTreeMap: a set of meta features fires a modal world, and negative triggers exclude one. The encoder then picks, for example, "thou shalt" or "you will" from the author delta. This makes the modal choice an author feature. - I3. Singularity for modal adverbs: merge stacked modal adverbs on one meta token, as the paper does for sentence-initial opinion words. Keep the merge only if it lowers the residual bits. - I4. Give a modal concept a strength index taken from counted strength markers, as the belief world does. ## For Mova The places are `tools/translate/meta.rs` (the reader's triggers) and `profile.rs` (the encoder's choice of form). I1 to I4 touch open problem 4 (function words as features) and open problem 5 (number and person from FEATS). The archaic modal forms in the Bible pairs are a real candidate for an author delta, which is open problem 6. 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. ``` @inproceedings{neumann1999interlingual, title = {{Towards an interlingual treatment of modality}}, author = {Neumann, Christoph}, booktitle = {Proceedings of Machine Translation Summit VII}, year = {1999}, url = {https://aclanthology.org/1999.mtsummit-1.93/} } ``` - [← previous Enriching lexical transfer with cross-linguistic semantic features or how to do interlingua without interlingua](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/nasr-1997-enriching-lexical-transfer-cross-linguistic/) - [next → Expanding the JHU Bible Corpus for Machine Translation of the Indigenous Languages of North America](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/nicolai-2021-expanding-jhu-bible-corpus-machine/) - [↑ back to Machine translation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/mtrans/) ## References 8 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. Aijmer K. (in press), “Epistemic Possibility in An English-Swedish Contrastive Perspective” in Proceedings of the Colloque International, 10.-12.12.1998 Anvers, Les verbes modaux dans les langues germaniques et romanes Bond F., Ogura K. and Uchino H., (1997), “Temporal expressions in Japanese-to-English Machine Translation” in: Seventh International Conference on Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Machine Translation: TMI-97, 55-62 [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Aijmer+K%2E+%28in+press%29%2C+%E2%80%9CEpistemic+Possibility+in+An+English%2DSwedish+Contrastive+Perspective%E2%80%9D+in+Proceedings+of+the+Colloque+International%2C+10%2E%2D12%2E12%2E1998+Anvers%2C+Les+verbes+modaux+dans+les+langues+germ) 2. Calbert Joseph P. (1975), “Towards the Semantics of Modality” in: Calbert J.P./ Vater H. (1975), Aspekte der Modalität, Tübingen, Gunter Narr Verlag, 1 -70 [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Calbert+Joseph+P%2E+%281975%29%2C+%E2%80%9CTowards+the+Semantics+of+Modality%E2%80%9D+in%3A+Calbert+J%2EP%2E%2F+Vater+H%2E+%281975%29%2C+Aspekte+der+Modalit%C3%A4t%2C+T%C3%BCbingen%2C+Gunter+Narr+Verlag%2C+1+%2D70) 3. EDR (1995), Electronic Dictionary Technical Guide (In Japanese), Tokyo, Japan Electronic Dictionary Research Institute, Ltd. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=EDR+%281995%29%2C+Electronic+Dictionary+Technical+Guide+%28In+Japanese%29%2C+Tokyo%2C+Japan+Electronic+Dictionary+Research+Institute%2C+Ltd%2E) 4. Ikehara S., Shirai S., Akio Y. and Nakaiwa H. (1991), “Toward an MT system without pre-editing – effects of new methods in ALT-J/E” in Proceedings of MT Summit III, 101-106 [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Ikehara+S%2E%2C+Shirai+S%2E%2C+Akio+Y%2E+and+Nakaiwa+H%2E+%281991%29%2C+%E2%80%9CToward+an+MT+system+without+pre%2Dediting+%E2%80%93+effects+of+new+methods+in+ALT%2DJ%2FE%E2%80%9D+in+Proceedings+of+MT+Summit+III%2C+101%2D106) 5. Lyons J. (1977), Semantics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press [Chapter 17: “Modality”] [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Lyons+J%2E+%281977%29%2C+Semantics%2C+Cambridge%2C+Cambridge+University+Press+%5BChapter+17%3A+%E2%80%9CModality%E2%80%9D%5D) 6. Masuoka T. (1991): Modariti-no bunpo [Grammar of modality], Tokyo, Kuroshio Neumann C. (1998), “Modality Expressions in Japanese” in: IEICE Technical Report Vol. 98 No. 209, 9-16 (Natural Language Understanding and Models of Communication - NLC 98-8) [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Masuoka+T%2E+%281991%29%3A+Modariti%2Dno+bunpo+%5BGrammar+of+modality%5D%2C+Tokyo%2C+Kuroshio+Neumann+C%2E+%281998%29%2C+%E2%80%9CModality+Expressions+in+Japanese%E2%80%9D+in%3A+IEICE+Technical+Report+Vol%2E+98+No%2E+209%2C+9%2D16+%28Natural+Language+Und) 7. Neumann C. and Bond F. (in press), “Problems in Translating Modal Expressions” in: Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Meeting of The Association for Natural Language Processing (Tokyo) Murata Masaki, Ma Qing, Uchimoto Kiyotaka and Isahara Hitoshi (1999), “Yourei-beesu-ni-yoru modariti-no-nichiei-hon'yaku” (The Example-Based Approach to Japanese-to-English Modality Translation) in IPSG SIG Notes Vol. 99 No. 22, 121-128 Nirenburg S., Carbonell J., Tomita M. and Goodman K. (1992), Machine Translation. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Neumann+C%2E+and+Bond+F%2E+%28in+press%29%2C+%E2%80%9CProblems+in+Translating+Modal+Expressions%E2%80%9D+in%3A+Proceedings+of+the+Fifth+Annual+Meeting+of+The+Association+for+Natural+Language+Processing+%28Tokyo%29+Murata+Masaki%2C+Ma+) 8. A Knowledge-Based Approach, San Mateo, Morgan Kaufman Palmer F.R. (1986), Mood and modality, Cambridge. Cambridge University Press [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=A+Knowledge%2DBased+Approach%2C+San+Mateo%2C+Morgan+Kaufman+Palmer+F%2ER%2E+%281986%29%2C+Mood+and+modality%2C+Cambridge%2E+Cambridge+University+Press)