How to use two different translations for the same word? Thread poster: Harklas
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Hi!
I have OmegaT-2.0.5_2
It seems I can't give the same English word two different translations in the target language.
A hypothetical example of the problem at hand:
There are two instances of the word "jump", one as a noun and one as a verb. I translate the first jump to "hopp" and OmegaT automatically makes the second "hopp". Which is wrong, as the verb "jump" is "hoppa". So I change the second jump to "hoppa", and then OmegaT changes the first ju... See more Hi!
I have OmegaT-2.0.5_2
It seems I can't give the same English word two different translations in the target language.
A hypothetical example of the problem at hand:
There are two instances of the word "jump", one as a noun and one as a verb. I translate the first jump to "hopp" and OmegaT automatically makes the second "hopp". Which is wrong, as the verb "jump" is "hoppa". So I change the second jump to "hoppa", and then OmegaT changes the first jump to "hoppa" as well, while it should be "hopp".
It's like I have to choose between:
Jump = Hopp
Jump = Hopp
and
Jump = Hoppa
Jump = Hoppa
but what I want is:
Jump = Hopp
Jump = Hoppa
How do I do that?
Any quick input would be of great help ▲ Collapse
| | | | Susan Welsh 
United States
Local time: 12:25
Russian to English
+ ...
| I guess these are one-word segments? | Jun 14, 2010 |
If not one-word segments, I don't see why it would be a problem.
If they are one-word segments, then OmegaT automatically translates the word consistently (unfortunately). I raised the same issue on the OmegaT yahoo users forum recently, and was told that you have to alter the source document in some way to flag the difference in meanings: such as #jump vs. jump without the number sign.
It's kind of a pain, but there you have it.
Susan
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 18:25
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Harklas wrote:
It seems I can't give the same English word two different translations in the target language.
I believe the OmT developers are aware of this behaviour, but they don't regard it as a problem, and consequently they are not in a hurry to produce any type of built-in solution for it (for after all, a solution requires a problem). One solution might be to have a function in OmegaT that extracts all repeating segments to a separate file, so that a user can check them beforehand, or a function that allows the user to press a shortcut to jump to repeating segments (translated or not), so that he can check them beforehand or afterwards.
It is a Susan said... you just have to be very, very watchful and when you see an automatically translated segment approaching, quickly open it and add a marker like ### to it so that you can check it and correct it in the compiled version of the file.
If your one-word segments occur in mid-paragraph, you can merge that segment with the next or previous segment, by adding a segmentation rule. If you encounter this frequently, you can try my little script for it: http://leuce.com/tempfile/omtautoit/segadder.zip
| | | | Harklas
Local time: 18:25
TOPIC STARTER | How can this not be a problem? | Jun 15, 2010 |
I was even ashamed to ask the question, thinking it must be a setting somewhere and that I just didn't look around hard enough or RTFM.
Every language is full of words with multiple meanings in most languages. SDLX lite doesn't behave like this for one thing, and I doubt any other TM software does either. They let you choose for each instance if you want alternative 1), 2) or 3) etc
Anyway, thanks for your answers! I'll try to join segments, bundling the problematic one... See more I was even ashamed to ask the question, thinking it must be a setting somewhere and that I just didn't look around hard enough or RTFM.
Every language is full of words with multiple meanings in most languages. SDLX lite doesn't behave like this for one thing, and I doubt any other TM software does either. They let you choose for each instance if you want alternative 1), 2) or 3) etc
Anyway, thanks for your answers! I'll try to join segments, bundling the problematic one-liners with the previous or subsequent segments to make them unique. I should have thought of that myself, but when your brain isn't in place, it's good that you friendly souls on the Internet are
Exactly what does your script do, btw?
[Edited at 2010-06-15 11:23 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Tim Mott (X)
Canada
Local time: 12:25
French to English
| frustrating behaviour! | Jun 15, 2010 |
I also find this behaviour frustrating, and even dangerous. It happens often enough that I have a source text with titles split into several one- or two-word paragraphs, and I have to be careful to translate these to avoid 'contaminating' the rest of the document.
To make up an example, suppose we have
CHEF
DE
BUREAU
and
CHEF
DE
POLICE.
These must end up as "Office Manager" and "Chief of Police" ... but ther... See more I also find this behaviour frustrating, and even dangerous. It happens often enough that I have a source text with titles split into several one- or two-word paragraphs, and I have to be careful to translate these to avoid 'contaminating' the rest of the document.
To make up an example, suppose we have
CHEF
DE
BUREAU
and
CHEF
DE
POLICE.
These must end up as "Office Manager" and "Chief of Police" ... but there is a risk of getting absurdities like "Chief of Manager" or "Office Police"!
I can't see how the OmegaT team doesn't recognize this behaviour as a flaw. The suggestion of inventing arbitrary segmentation rules isn't feasible for large projects, and in my opinion only highlights the fact that there is a major issue.
It seems to me that it would be very(!) simple to implement a feature whereby you could simply 'lock' a particular segment to isolate it from the rest of the document, and thus avoid propagating the translation both from and to other segments.
Tim ▲ Collapse
| | | | Harklas
Local time: 18:25
TOPIC STARTER
I'm using SDLX now. It can translate everything automatically for you using old matches if you _want_ it to, but the default is that you have to manually approve each translation from a list of previous matches. Which so far has been the better option in every project I've done.
| | | | Didier Briel
France
Local time: 18:25
English to French
+ ...
| It is a problem, but the solution isn't easy | Jun 16, 2010 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
I believe the OmT developers are aware of this behaviour, but they don't regard it as a problem, and consequently they are not in a hurry to produce any type of built-in solution for it (for after all, a solution requires a problem).
It is considered a serious problem.
Being a serious problem doesn't mean there is an easy solution.
We are (slowly admittedly) working on it.
Didier
| | | | Didier Briel
France
Local time: 18:25
English to French
+ ...
| There is a single segment for duplicates | Jun 16, 2010 |
It seems to me that it would be very(!) simple to implement a feature whereby you could simply 'lock' a particular segment to isolate it from the rest of the document, and thus avoid propagating the translation both from and to other segments.
Except that, if the word 'Hello' appears several times in a document, there will be a single 'Hello' segment in memory. ('Locking' it would not thus achieve anything.)
That's a not choice of the current developers, that's how it has been designed initially.
So, the solutions is not 'very' simple.
Didier
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 18:25
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| What my script does | Jun 16, 2010 |
Harklas wrote:
Exactly what does your script do, btw?
My script makes it easier to add exceptions to the segmentation rules. Basically, if you press the script's shortcut key, you're asked for some text that you want to be an exception, and then my script adds it to the segmentation rules for you. The script is also useful for adding abbreviations to the segmentation rules. My script would be far less necessary if adding segmentation rules was less user-unfriendly in OmegaT, but it is, and so this script is useful. The script has a readme file in the zip file explaining everything.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 18:25
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Didier Briel wrote: Samuel Murray wrote:
I believe the OmT developers are aware of this behaviour, but they don't regard it as a problem, and consequently they are not in a hurry to produce any type of built-in solution for it (for after all, a solution requires a problem). It is considered a serious problem. Being a serious problem doesn't mean there is an easy solution.
This serious problem has been a thorn in the side of OmegaT users for quite a few years now. I've checked the User Manual briefly but I find no mention of it, so it would seem that new users are expected to just discover it by themselves. Perhaps a section in the User Manual called "Limitations of OmegaT" or "Shortcomings of OmegaT" or "Known problems/bugs in OmegaT" would be useful.
The fact that there is no easy solution does not mean that a temporary solution should not be considered:
1. I have lobbied for a text extraction feature for many years now, and such a feature could then be used by translators to avoid (not permanently solve, but avoid) the problem of unique repeating segments.
2. If it is possible for OmegaT to determine (from the source documents) which segments are repeating, it could add those segments to the project_save.tmx file in advance, with "[repeating]" in front of the target text, so that users can at least be made aware of those segments, so that they can decide for themselves how to solve it.
The biggest problem here IMO is not the fact that OmegaT can't translate non-unique segments uniquely, but that there is no way for the user to safely be aware of such segments.
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