Abstract
Machine translation (MT) as a sub-field of computational linguistics represents one of the most advanced and applied translation dimensions as a research field. Translation divergence occurs when structurally similar sentences of the source language do not translate into sentences that are similar in structure in the target language" (Dorr, 1993). The sophistication in the domain of MT depends mainly on the identification of divergence patterns in a language pair. Many researchers in MT field including Dorr (1990, 1994) have emphasized that the best quality in MT can be achieved when an individual language pair in a particular context is described in detail. This paper attempts to explore the divergence patterns that characterize the translation of Kashmiri pronouns into English. The analysis in this paper has been restricted to the class of personal and possessive pronouns. Kashmiri has rich inflections and pronouns are marked for case, number, tense and gender and show complex agreement patterns. The paper identifies and outlines a wide variety of divergence patterns that characterize the Kashmiri English language pair. These divergence patterns are identified and summarized in order to improve the quality of the MT system that may be developed for Kashmiri English language pair in the near future and can also be utilized for other language pairs that are similar in terms of their structure and typological features.
Highlights
About the Author Dr Sajad Wani has a teaching experience of more than thirteen years at the department of Linguistics, University of Kashmir besides teaching at many other departments including IGNOU and Directorate of distance Education
As is clear from the above table, possessive pronouns in KEMT represent an affluent area of multiple divergence as 7 personal pronouns in English have about 37 forms in Kashmiri inflecting for the distinction of proximate, remote, gender, number and person of the modifier/complement (Figure 3)
This paper presented a detailed overview of various divergence types that one encounters while translating personal and possessive pronouns from Kashmiri to the English language
Summary
English pronouns have retained many case forms compared to other word classes in the English language, which have become more analytic in the transition from Old English to Modern English. Kashmiri third person personal pronouns have proximate (proximate), remote I (rem I, with in the sight) and remote II (rem II, out of the sight) forms which are not found in English language and leading to multiple divergence as shown in the below tables. It is clear that second person personal pronoun “you” has two different equivalents “tsI” and “toh’” in Kashmiri causing multiple divergence. Table A Showing Case Forms of Personal pronouns in Nominative Case for English Kashmiri Language Pair (6:15). Table B Showing Case Forms of Personal Pronouns in Dative Case for English Kashmiri Language Pair (6:10). Table C Showing Case Forms of Personal pronouns in Ablative Case for English Kashmiri Language Pair (6:10)
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