Arwel Parry wrote:
In message 3FFD1664.3070803@moongate.ro, Gutza gutza-xe8bB7KpE7GhKNWrAYCRhA@public.gmane.org writes
Ray Saintonge wrote:
The last thing that Wiktionary needs is a listing of automated translation. [...] Still, to choose one example and say that there is a 1:1 correspondence between the words of two languages represnts a totally naïve view of language.
What would be wrong with this? What counter-examples do you have in mind?
Well, for example if you were translating to/from Welsh, the word "glas" is normally used to describe the colour of the sky, however it is also used to describe the colour of grass. "Llwyd" usually means "grey" but it also has "bluey" connotations...
Ok, maybe I didn't get the concept across really well. You are aware that we didn't get to that point in history where we humans all lay back and expect automatons to do all the work for us, right? Writing a parser to create the proper cross-links between definitions in the English Wiktionary and other languages' Wiktionaries would not be expected to result in complete dictionaries for all other languages.
But the same happens with human contributors: you happen to know that "glas" has those two meanings, but some other contributor may not. Some other contributor may write the "glas" article in the Welsh Wiktionary and only include the first definition. If you happened to come across that article, you might add the other definition as well.
I don't see why we need that human contributor at all if "glas" were to be found on the English Wiktionary article on "sky blue", for instance. Not to mention that if "glas" also showed up on "grass green" then both definitions would be available for the Welsh "glas", using a smart automated parser.
In any case, the point is not to expect the automated parser to result in a prefect any language to any language dictionary, but rather to do what automated things tend to do today: make our lives easier, as in creating a reasonable basis for other Wiktionaries, as well as keeping things in sync.
Just my 2c, Gutza