Thesis (M. A.) -- University of Limpopo, 2005 / Refer to document

This thesis deals with the detection of three rhetorical figures based on repetition of words: chiasmus (“Fair is foul, and foul is fair.”), epanaphora (“Poor old European Commission! Poor old European Council.”) and epiphora (“This house is mine. This car is mine. You are mine.”). For a computer, locating all repetitions of words is trivial, but locating just those repetitions that achieve a rhetorical effect is not. How can we make this distinction automatically?  First, we propose a new definition of the problem. We observe that rhetorical figures are a graded phenomenon, with universally accepted prototypical cases, equally clear non-cases, and a broad range of borderline cases in between. This makes it natural to view the problem as a ranking task rather than a binary detection task. We therefore design a model for ranking candidate repetitions in terms of decreasing likelihood of having a rhetorical effect, which allows potential users to decide for themselves where to draw the line with respect to borderline cases.  Second, we address the problem of collecting annotated data to train the ranking model. Thanks to a selective method of annotation, we can reduce by three orders of magnitude the annotation work for chiasmus, and by one order of magnitude the work for epanaphora and epiphora. In this way, we prove that it is feasible to develop a system for detecting the three figures without an unsurmountable amount of human work.  Finally, we propose an evaluation scheme and apply it to our models. The evaluation reveals that, even with a very incompletely annotated corpus, a system for repetitive figure detection can be trained to achieve reasonable accuracy. We investigate the impact of different linguistic features, including length, n-grams, part-of-speech tags, and syntactic roles, and find that different features are useful for different figures. We also apply the system to four different types of text: political discourse, fiction, titles of articles and novels, and quotations. Here the evaluation shows that the system is robust to shifts in genre and that the frequencies of the three rhetorical figures vary with genre. / Denna avhandling behandlar tre retoriska figurer som bygger på upprepning av ord, kiasm (“Om inte Muhammed kan komma till berget får berget komma till Muhammed.”), anafor (“Det är inte rimligt. Det är inte hållbart. Det är inte rättvist.”), och epifor (“Den här stugan är min. Den här bilen är min. Du är min.”). En dator kan lätt identifiera upprepningar av ord i en text, men att urskilja enbart de upprepningar som har en retorisk effekt är svårare. Hur kan vi få datorer att göra detta? För det första föreslår vi en ny definition av problemet. Vi noterar att retoriska figurer är ett graderbart fenomen, med prototypiska fall å ena sidan, och klara icke-fall å andra sidan; däremellan finns ett brett spektrum av gränsfall. Detta gör det naturligt att se problemet som en uppgift som gäller rangordning snarare än binär klassificering. Vi skapar därför en modell för att rangordna repetitioner efter sannolikheten att de har en retorisk effekt. Därigenom tillåts  systemets användare att själva avgöra hur gränsfall ska hanteras. För det andra försöker vi undvika tänkbara svårigheter med att samla in annoterade data för att träna modellen för rangordning. Genom att använda en selektiv metod kan vi reducera mängden annoteringsarbete tusenfalt för kiasm och tiofalt för anafor och epifor. Det är alltså möjligt att utveckla ett system för att identifiera de aktuella retoriska figurerna utan en stor mängd manuell annotering. Slutligen föreslår vi en metod för utvärdering och tillämpar den på våra modeller. Utvärderingen visar att vi även med en korpus där få exempel är annoterade kan träna ett system för identifiering av repetitiva figurer med godtagbart resultat. Vi undersöker effekten av olika särdrag som bygger på t.ex. längd, n-gram, ordklasser och syntaktiska roller. En slutsats är att olika särdrag är användbara i olika grad för olika figurer. Vi prövar också systemet på ytterligare texttyper: politisk diskurs, skönlitteratur, titlar på artiklar och romaner, samt citat. Utvärderingen visar att systemet är robust vad gäller genreskillnader. Vi ser även att figurernas frekvens varierar över olika genrer.

This thesis deals with different narratives of the crusades found in czech high school history textbooks published during the 20th century. The paper shows various narrative strategies, use of languages and figures of speech that allow for many different points of view and a wide range of explanations of the same historical material. The paper is grounded in the historical narrativism paradigm and organized as follows: the first chapter introduces the theoretical background of narrativism, the second chapter deals with the theoretical approach to history textbooks and with the research that has gone into them. The third chapter offers analyses of all of the scrutinized history textbooks. The fourth and final chapter presents a synthesis spanning all the textbooks, looking for various recurring themes and phenomena.

A década de 90 poderá ficar marcada na história das comunicações pelo estabelecimento em definitivo dos meios interativos. Indubitavelmente, o computador foi o maior responsável por este fato. No entanto, esta máquina, que havia se tornado uma importante ferramenta de trabalho nos anos anteriores, ainda tinha uma grande resistência de uso pela maioria das pessoas. O principal motivo alegado era a sua dificuldade de operação e comunicação, em função de sua linguagem nativa. Por conta disso, a interface passou a ser considerada um elemento chave nas pesquisas nesta área; e, consequentemente, comunicadores entraram neste processo. Afinal de contas é através da interface que o usuário estabelece sua interação com o sistema operado pelo computador. Ela é um espaço tradutor, uma face intermediária entre a linguagem nativa da máquina e as linguagens naturais do homem. É neste ponto que a metáfora tomou seu lugar. Tropo lingüístico por excelência, a metáfora foi agregada à interface gráfica do computador e tornou-se um dos recursos tradutores de maior expressão neste processo. De meio técnico-científico utilizado no ambiente acadêmico, o computador foi se tornando cada vez mais também um aparelho doméstico. Este trabalho pretende demonstrar o papel que a metáfora teve neste período e o modo como uma figura tradicionalmente lingüística pode se manifestar em várias instâncias de sistemas computacionais e principalmente em interfaces de representação gráfica digital. / The '90s may come down into the history of communications as the decade in which interactive media were finally established. Computers were undoubtedly the main driving force behind it. Despite having become an important work tool in previous years, computers still met with great resistance on the part of most people. The primary reason against using computers was that it was not easy to operate and interact with, owing to the source language. As a result, the user interface became a key focus of research in this area; it was then that communication experts were drawn into the process. After all, it is through the interface that users interact with computer-controlled systems. The interface is a translation environment, a transition between the machine's source language and the languages typical of men. It is at this moment that metaphors found their place in this process. A figure of speech by nature, metaphors were added to computer graphic interfaces and became one of the most relevant translation features in this process. From a technical and scientific device used in academic environments, computers were gradually adopted as a household appliance as well. This paper aims to show the role of the metaphor during this period and the way in which what had traditionally been a figure of speech could manifest itself in several instances of system computers and mainly in digital graphic representationointerfaces.

A década de 90 poderá ficar marcada na história das comunicações pelo estabelecimento em definitivo dos meios interativos. Indubitavelmente, o computador foi o maior responsável por este fato. No entanto, esta máquina, que havia se tornado uma importante ferramenta de trabalho nos anos anteriores, ainda tinha uma grande resistência de uso pela maioria das pessoas. O principal motivo alegado era a sua dificuldade de operação e comunicação, em função de sua linguagem nativa. Por conta disso, a interface passou a ser considerada um elemento chave nas pesquisas nesta área; e, consequentemente, comunicadores entraram neste processo. Afinal de contas é através da interface que o usuário estabelece sua interação com o sistema operado pelo computador. Ela é um espaço tradutor, uma face intermediária entre a linguagem nativa da máquina e as linguagens naturais do homem. É neste ponto que a metáfora tomou seu lugar. Tropo lingüístico por excelência, a metáfora foi agregada à interface gráfica do computador e tornou-se um dos recursos tradutores de maior expressão neste processo. De meio técnico-científico utilizado no ambiente acadêmico, o computador foi se tornando cada vez mais também um aparelho doméstico. Este trabalho pretende demonstrar o papel que a metáfora teve neste período e o modo como uma figura tradicionalmente lingüística pode se manifestar em várias instâncias de sistemas computacionais e principalmente em interfaces de representação gráfica digital. / The '90s may come down into the history of communications as the decade in which interactive media were finally established. Computers were undoubtedly the main driving force behind it. Despite having become an important work tool in previous years, computers still met with great resistance on the part of most people. The primary reason against using computers was that it was not easy to operate and interact with, owing to the source language. As a result, the user interface became a key focus of research in this area; it was then that communication experts were drawn into the process. After all, it is through the interface that users interact with computer-controlled systems. The interface is a translation environment, a transition between the machine's source language and the languages typical of men. It is at this moment that metaphors found their place in this process. A figure of speech by nature, metaphors were added to computer graphic interfaces and became one of the most relevant translation features in this process. From a technical and scientific device used in academic environments, computers were gradually adopted as a household appliance as well. This paper aims to show the role of the metaphor during this period and the way in which what had traditionally been a figure of speech could manifest itself in several instances of system computers and mainly in digital graphic representationointerfaces.

The present thesis deals with figures of speech in non-literary texts and with the problems connected to their translation. The first part is dedicated to the theoretical description of figures of speech. First we deal with their definition according to the Czech and Spanish terminology and next we proceed to the figures that can be expected in popular science texts. We deal mainly with metaphors, their classification and opinions of translation scientists about the possibilities of their translation; but we mention also simile, metonymy and synecdoche. The second chapter is dedicated to popular science texts, to the problems connected to their translation, to the presence of metaphors in this type of texts and to their translation. In the second part we describe the analysed texts and the methods used in our work; the third part deals with the results of our analysis. During our analysis we found the same amount of figures of speech in both languages. Metaphors predominate in both languages, but while in Czech they represent the absolute majority of all figures, in Spanish they represent only a half of all the examples. Personification also appears many times in Spanish texts, but in Czech texts it doesn't appear in such a large measure. Metonymy, synecdoche and rhetorical question are represented...

Данная магистерская диссертация посвящена проблеме передачи средств речевой выразительности в художественном тексте при помощи машинного перевода. Рассматриваются современные технологии машинного перевода, специфика перевода художественных текстов и классификация тропов и фигур. В рамках исследования осуществляется сопоставление «способностей» трех автоматизированных систем (Яндекс.Переводчик, Google Translate и PROMT.One) передавать средства выразительности речи на материале романа Дж. К. Роулинг «Гарри Поттер и философский камень». / This master’s thesis studies the problem of rendering the means of speech expressiveness in a literary text using machine translation. There are considered modern machine translation technologies, the specific features of literary texts translation and the classification of tropes and figures. Based on the novel “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by J. K. Rowling, the study compares the “abilities” of three automated systems (Yandex.Translate, Google Translate and PROMT.One) to identify stylistic devices in the source language and reproduce them in the target language.