Bilingual Text Research Articles

Bilingual Viewer: A bilingual text generation tool

This article describes the website BilingualViewer.com; it discusses the technologies used to build it and the engineering challenges that were encountered. BilingualViewer.Com is an open and free application that uses web technologies to create Bilingual versions of articles and books. The website can be saved onto the homepage of a smartphone and used like an App (for reading and converting newspaper articles on the fly), in addition to being opened on a computer's browser to process intensive tasks such as whole book translations. The website will henceforth be referred to as the app. Bilingual text refers here to a piece of writing where sentences in two different languages are presented sequentially, one sentence in the language to be learned followed by the user's primary language. Bilingual texts are particularly useful for students who rely heavily on dictionaries when reading books and newspaper articles.The app helps to create bilingual texts from almost any electronic content. A key feature from a copyright point of view is that the content is generated and stored locally on the device (unless added to an online library). Where a subscription is required to access newspaper content, the app generates a bilingual text article and stores it locally, so that the restricted content does not leave the device (i.e., it does not appear in any cloud server other than Google or Apple translation servers). There is a large features list including switching on and off languages, getting the device to read out loud, saving a list of items on the device along with the currently read position, sending content to an eBook, merging articles and more. A library of pre-translated books is provided in the app with the option of augmenting this with the user’s own on-line content. The app is available at https://www.bilingualviewer.com/ Documentation on the app can be found at hhtps://bv-fc.netlify.app/about/

A Transformer-Based Yoruba to English Machine Translation (TYEMT) System with Rouge Score

Automated translation systems for some indigenous Nigerian languages like the Yoruba, have historically been limited by the lack of large, high- quality bilingual text and effective approaches to modeling. This paper presents introduces an approach to bi-directional Yoruba-English text-to-text machine translation utilizing deep learning technique, specifically Transformer models. Transformer models, which utilizes self-attention mechanisms to improve translation quality and efficiency. The system was trained and evaluated on a newly curated Yoruba- English parallel corpus, which significantly augments existing resources. Experimental results demonstrate that the Transformer-based model performs translation accurately and fluently, achieving a ROUGE (Recall-Oriented Understudy for Gisting Evaluation) score improvement of 0.4649. This work not only advances the frontiers of Yoruba-English machine translation but also enriches a wider domain in the field of multilingual Natural Language processing (NLP) by addressing challenges associated with translating between languages with limited resources. Future studies include enhancing the available parallel corpus and exploring hybrid models that combine the strengths of both RNN and Transformer architectures.

Functional Analysis of Thematic Approach to the Division of Surahs in Two English Contemporary Translations of the Qur’an

Thematic division of Qur’anic chapters (henceforth, surahs) into paragraphs is a recent trend in translating the Qur’an. This thematic approach refers to the translation of Qur’anic surah based on their underlying themes rather than verse-by-verse translation in a bilingual text. Disregarding source text division, some translators divide each Qur’anic surah into paragraphs with subheadings while translating the surahs into English. This paper aimed to reveal how the division and chosen themes for each paragraph of the surahs often differ among translators who choose this thematic approach to the Qur’an translation. The data is collected from two modern thematic English translations of the Qur’an, namely, The Clear Quran by Khattab (2015) and The Majestic Quran by Hussain (2018). Adopting a descriptive design and qualitative research method, the paper aimed at applying Nord’s model of functionalist text analysis to compare the units of analysis selected from three Qur’anic surahs: Q. 86, Q. 87 and Q. 93. These surahs are particularly chosen because they are divided differently in the two translations. The paper queries the impact of thematic translation and text segmentation on the Qur’an translation process, especially in relation to producing loyalty and functional adequacy in the two translations. Nord’s functional model was used to explore the effect of thematic translation in conveying the functions for the intended readership without betraying their trust in that they are reading God’s word in their own language. The findings emphasise that thematic translation tends to violate rather than maintain the original intended functions (skopos) and loyalty to the source text.

Abstract B021: Quitxt research study: A mobile messaging intervention to promote smoking cessation among young adult smokers in South Texas

Abstract Background: Despite major advances in tobacco control and treatment, tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in the US. Smoking prevalence is highest among Texas young adults (ages 18-29), especially those with lower education and income and those living in rural areas, like Latinos. About 19.2% of Latinos ages 18-29 in the study areas are current smokers, putting them at higher risk of cancer and other tobacco-related morbidity and mortality. Young adults are heavy users of smartphones, text messaging, social media chats, and other mobile social media, providing a remarkable opportunity for innovation in the delivery of health promotion interventions to reduce health disparities in this large and rapidly growing racial/ethnic population. This research study aims to assess the effectiveness of Quitxt, our culturally appropriate mobile smoking cessation program. Quitxt – launched by our interdisciplinary research team using proven social cognitive, motivational interviewing, and brief intervention methods for promoting behavior change – blends bilingual text and social media messaging for smoking cessation tailored to the language and culture of young adult smokers in our vulnerable region of South Texas. The team also adapted the program to the Primary Care and Mays Cancer Center patient population, and it is currently being implemented. Quitxt has not been tested in a research study, as its creation as an evidence-based cancer prevention service for young adult smokers was supported by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Methods: The proposed 5-year study involves a 2-group parallel randomized controlled trial with 4 assessments (baseline, 1, 3, and 6 months) and will recruit 1,200 young adult Latino smokers: 1)The intervention group will receive Quitxt (text messaging or chat); and 2) the usual care group will receive abbreviated text messaging with health promotion-related content, including smoking cessation and referral to the Texas DSHS cessation program YesQuit. Smoking cessation will be validated via biological tests for those who report smoking cessation at the study follow-ups. We hypothesize that the group receiving the Quitxt intervention will achieve significantly higher smoking cessation rates than the group receiving usual care. Results: The proposed intervention will mark the first significant study to assess the effectiveness of an innovative, bilingual, culturally, and linguistically appropriate mobile cessation intervention tailored to young adult Latinos living in South Texas by enhancing their skills development, competence, and self-efficacy to initiate and maintain cessation. Conclusion: This study will advance public health by testing the effectiveness of a scalable, evidence-based, easily disseminated, and adaptable intervention with potentially broad national reach to help young adults stop smoking and reduce smoking-related cancer and chronic disease morbidity and mortality and their associated healthcare costs. Citation Format: Patricia Chalela, Vivian Cortez, Sandra Sivak, Armida Flores, Martha De La Mora, Zully Garcia, Byeongyeob Choi, Edgar Muñoz, Cliff Despres, Alfred L. McAlister, Qurathul Ahmed, Audrey Cordova, Maria I. Sung-Cuadrado, Luis F. Velez, Sahak Kaghyan, Rahul Mundlamuri, David Akopian, Amelie G. Ramirez. Quitxt research study: A mobile messaging intervention to promote smoking cessation among young adult smokers in South Texas [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 17th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2024 Sep 21-24; Los Angeles, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2024;33(9 Suppl):Abstract nr B021.

Thinking critically about scientific information generated by ChatGPT

PurposeIn November 2022, the commercial company, OpenAI, launched ChatGPT. Since then, university students have rapidly become regular users of this artificial intelligence (AI) platform. One reason for this is the powerful capability of this generative AI tool to produce textual content, which in many cases, is almost indistinguishable from human-generated content. Another reason is that ChatGPT easily gives anyone access to knowledge. However, there is a problem as the vast majority of its users have no idea how this AI platform works and thus overlook the importance of thinking critically about information communicated in ChatGPT. While some call for banning this generative AI tool, this study aims to provide evidence that science classrooms can become scenarios where students find explicit, concrete, and realistic opportunities to critically evaluate scientific information generated by ChatGPT.Design/methodology/approachAn intervention study was conducted with 55 students (26 females and 29 males, 17–24 years old) during a university Spanish-English bilingual science course taught within an active learning environment. The data consist of the written critiques of the students about Spanish-English bilingual scientific texts produced by ChatGPT.FindingsResults indicate that the intervention had a positive effect on students’ abilities to construct sound arguments in Spanish and in English while judging the quality of scientific texts produced by this AI bot. Moreover, the findings suggest that the intervention enriched students’ skills to make improvements to texts produced by this generative AI tool.Originality/valueThe evidence provided in this study contributes to the exploration of possibilities to help students become critical users of ChatGPT.

Acknowledging dispossession

Abstract This paper illustrates what can be revealed by a linguistic analysis of the discourse strategies deployed in a bilingual text acknowledging the dispossession of Indigenous peoples in Mindanao (Philippines). The analysis draws on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) descriptions of English, which model language as a resource for making meaning. It explores the choices involved from the perspective of critical discourse analysis (CDA), exposing language in the service of power, and positive discourse analysis (PDA), appreciating language as an instrument of social change. In doing so we exemplify the role of SFL-informed CDA/PDA in processes of reconciliation, including personal and public acknowledgements and apologies, alongside considerations of “making peace” with dispossessed Indigenous people through existing, renovated or emerging genres.

Professional realism in practice

Abstract This article describes an attempt to introduce the elements of collaboration into translator training in the form of a multi-stage translation project. The project was carried out during regular translation classes with the participation of 70 students (translating from Italian, French, or English into Polish). The project comprised the following stages (as prescribed by two standards: ISO 17100:2015 and ISO/TS 11669:2012). Stage 0: Project preparation (pre-production) – terminological work/dialogue list preparation; Stages 1 and 2: Translation and check of one’s own translation; Stage 3: Revision – work on bilingual texts – general correction; Stage 4: Review – work on TL texts – focus on factual errors; Stage 5: Proofreading – work on TL texts – focus on linguistic errors; Stage 6: Final verification and release. Each student was asked to work on a different text at each stage. The platform for exchanging files between the students was Trello, an online task management tool. The aim of the classes was to broaden the students’ view of the current translation market through hands-on experience and to develop their teamwork skills. This article presents the proceedings of the classes, the results of the opinion survey distributed among the participants, and discusses the potential difficulties.

Reading Arabic in Sumatra

ABSTRACT The article explores the involvement of bilingual texts comprising a source and its interlinear translation in Islamic educational practices in 19th- and 20th-century Sumatra. Such texts occur among the so-called kitab kuning, materials dealing primarily with the principles of Islamic faith, jurisprudence, and ethics that have been traditionally used for teaching in Indonesia’s Islamic schools. Written in classical Arabic, these texts are sometimes provided with translations to Malay or other languages between the lines. The article addresses two cases demonstrating occurrence of this practice in manuscripts containing Islamic doctrinal texts that were often used for teaching beginners: an anonymous versified ‘aqīdah originating from late 19th-century Aceh and a copy of Umm al-barāhīn by al-Sanūsī (d.1490), from Palembang of around the same period. The manuscripts under discussion appear to demonstrate different types of interlinear translation from Arabic to Malay, i.e. phrase-by-phrase and word-by-word. The article argues that both types combine literality with interpretation, which allows the assumption that interlinear translation was used as a tool for teaching both the Arabic language and the basics of Islamic doctrine.

Quality Assessment for The Translations of Museum Texts: A Case Study of The Archaeology and Ethnography Museum of Edirne

Museums have significant roles in promoting and presenting cultural heritage and cultural values in various ways. An intrinsic part of intercultural communication in museums, bilingual museum texts (e.g. labels, brochures, explanatory texts etc.) have become an important field to be investigated within the framework of Translation Studies. In order to make a contribution to the analysis of translation of museum texts, this study aims to provide a quality assessment of English translations of texts in the Archeology and Ethnography Museum of Edirne. Even though English translations of different texts types such as labels, brochures and explanatory texts are available in the museum, this study specifically focuses on the translation of explanatory texts presenting the ethnographic identity and archeological findings of the city. For this purpose, twenty-three texts displayed in information boards have been selected and their translations have been analyzed according to translation quality assessment model of Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MMQ). As a result of a detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis of the selected texts, the type, distribution and frequency of translation errors encountered in the selected corpus have been described according to eight dimensions of the metric. Based on this text-based and linguistically-oriented methodology, the functionality of the translated museum texts has been evaluated. It is concluded that this study will provide a theoretical framework and methodological guide to improve the quality assessment competences of lectures and students at the departments of translation studies as well as professional translators and researchers working in the area of museum translation.

Text Localization and Enhancement of Mobile Camera based Complex Natural Bilingual Text Scene Images

In this paper, we proposed a text localization and enhancement of the Mobile camera based complex natural scene images using fixed coordinates for removal of unwanted non text regions and making it localized. The morphological erosion technique is applied for the smoothness of foreground text regions. Here, the experimental working nature of the proposed method is first localized color input image is converted into a gray level, then a median filter is applied for the removal of noises. After that, the input image is further converted into binary image. In addition to this, morphological dilation and erosion operations also applied for connecting the broken pixels. Further, the connected component segmentation technique is applied to extract the foreground text regions from the binary input image. The real time input samples are collected by using mobile camera from the various categories of natural scenes of monolingual/bilingual text such as Stone, Wall, Poster and Iron-based. A total of 140 real time samples of natural scene text images are considered for the experimental setup. The experimental results shown that 132 real time sample images are localized and then obtained the accuracy of 94.24%. Further, bilingual text regions are enhanced using hybrid approach and obtain the segmentation accuracy of 83.17%. The novelty of the paper is working on the real time data set and it contains a mixture of printed and handwritten natural scene text images.

Realia in der ein- bzw. mehrsprachigen Museumskommunikation: das Beispiel „Volkskundemuseum“

This paper aims to examine the strategies for conveying regional culture-bound terms in monolingual and bilingual (or multilingual) texts and chooses a type of museum for which such terms are particularly important: the folk museum. After a brief overview of this type of museum in Italy and Germany (section 2), section 3 deals with culture-bound terms, their classification and the strategies for introducing them in texts. Section 4 presents the empirical analysis carried out on a corpus of texts from the websites of 10 Italian and 10 German or Austrian folk museums. The use of realia was examined first in the monolingual, then in the multilingual museum communication.

The prose of a creative bilingual author as a variant of intercultural communication in an educational environment

of intercultural communication in the learning process. Intercultural communication through a work of art has a number of advantages in comparison with real-life communication, which has become the subject of research presented in the paper. Reading the literary text of a bilingual author is one of the options for intercultural communication, contributing to the establishment of a new cultural and linguistic space. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to describe an innovative approach to the establishment of a new cultural and linguistic space ("secondary" linguistic personality) in the process of mastering the phenomenon of the author's literary text as a creative bilingual personality and classifying the discussed variant of intercultural communication as integrated in the context of two cultures. Methodology. The methodological basis of the study is represented by an interdisciplinary approach to understanding cultural phenomena, involving the results of achievements in other sciences. Results. As one of the integrative approaches, the interdisciplinary unity of linguistics and "neo-rhetorics" is actualised, in the context of which the circumstances that act as factors determining the specifics of intercultural communication when reading a literary text are described. Conclusions. Consideration of the general issues of the strategy of linguistic competence of students in academic conditions allows formulating some recommendations and solutions for the use of a bilingual author's literary text as a variant of intercultural communication in teaching practice. The source in this study is the artistic publicism of the Kazakh bilingual writer and publicist A. Alimzhanov.

Local languages and the linguistic landscape: the visibility and role of Sardinian in town entry and street name signs

Abstract The present study deals with the presence and role of the Sardinian language in the linguistic landscape of sixteen villages in the province of Oristano, Sardinia. Specifically, their entry signs and street name signs were photographed and analysed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. In the entry signs, Sardinian was found to have a very strong presence, generating a high degree of bilingualism with Italian, as recommended by national and regional language policies. Systematic bilingualism could not, however, be observed in the street name signs, where Italian clearly prevails. Notwithstanding, the local language is visible in around a quarter of all street name signs. Complying with the provisions of national and regional legislations, Sardinian is used in the majority of street signs to recall the historical memory of the communities. Nonetheless, signs could be found where Sardinian is used in parallel bilingual texts to express exactly the same content as Italian, fostering a modern vision of the minority language. The present work shows how top-down language policies can be locally implemented or re-interpreted in the linguistic landscape; moreover, the article sheds light on how street naming can be exploited to influence society’s perception of minority languages and convey messages of local or regional/national identity.

From the Aramaic raḥmānāʾ to raḥmānān and al-raḥmān

Abstract The oldest record of the notion of “mercy”, raḥmān, in Aramaic is known from a bilingual text in which the word is the translation of the Akkadian rēmēnû. The latter is used in Mesopotamian onomastics, hymns and prayers, which delivered the oldest formulae of calls for the mercy of gods, especially in a recurrent expression: “the merciful god, that is good to pray,” translated verbatim in the Aramaic text of the statue of Tell Fekheryeh. Almost a thousand years later, the same wording has been inherited unchanged in Palmyrene Aramaic. Nevertheless, the Palmyrene interest on the divine epithet raḥmān and its revival in Palmyrene epigraphy may be explained by the influence of the new Roman concept of clementia. Meanwhile, this contribution proposes to outline a chronology of the Aramaic inscriptions from Syria and Palestine, in which raḥmānāʾ is either the main substitute for the divine name, or a major divine epithet. As the Akkadian phonetic assimilates the consonant <ḥ> to the laryngeal <ʾ> but preserves the velar <ḫ>, the supposed East Semitic root was rḥm, not rḫm. On the contrary, in the Arabian Peninsula, the earliest attested root is rḫm, as evidenced by South Arabic onomastics or toponymy. A late use of rḥm in South Arabic as a verb or noun is the result of a loan from Aramaic and does not appear until the fifth century AD. The first South Arabian inscriptions naming the monotheistic god raḥmānn are preceded by the Palmyrene inscriptions by almost two centuries and are contemporary with the Jewish-Aramaic inscriptions in the Palestinian synagogues, which call the God Raḥmānāʾ. Late, the Aramaic epithet was transferred to the Arabic al-raḥmān, through South Arabian.

Study on Translation of Scenic Spot Introduction Texts from the Perspective of Three-dimensional Transformation

With the development of globalization, the world has become accessible, and the transnational tourism industry has been booming. In each tourist attraction, there are a large number of Chinese-English bilingual introductory text, which are the information carriers to show the international image of the city, and have the characteristics of simplicity, formality, and clarity. However, from the current translation of the introductory text, the problem of mistranslation is very common, which not only fails to play the role of cultural dissemination, but also misleads the public and has a negative impact of a city. The texts in this paper are all obtained from the field study of 47 A-level scenic spots in Guangyuan. This paper takes the three-dimensional transformation translation method of Eco-Translatology as the guiding theory, exploring the problems existing in the translation of the introductory texts of the A-level scenic spots in Guangyuan, analyzing and discussing proper strategies.

Financial Causality Extraction Based on Universal Dependencies and Clue Expressions

AbstractThis paper proposes a method to extract financial causal knowledge from bi-lingual text data. Domain-specific causal knowledge plays an important role in human intellectual activities, especially expert decision making. Especially, in the financial area, fund managers, financial analysts, etc. need causal knowledge for their works. Natural language processing is highly effective for extracting human-perceived causality; however, there are two major problems with existing methods. First, causality relative to global activities must be extracted from text data in multiple languages; however, multilingual causality extraction has not been established to date. Second, technologies to extract complex causal structures, e.g., nested causalities, are insufficient. We consider that a model using universal dependencies can extract bi-lingual and nested causalities can be established using clues, e.g., “because” and “since.” Thus, to solve these problems, the proposed model extracts nested causalities based on such clues and universal dependencies in multilingual text data. The proposed financial causality extraction method was evaluated on bi-lingual text data from the financial domain, and the results demonstrated that the proposed model outperformed existing models in the experiment.

The Translation of Culture-Specific Items (CSIs) in Yellow River Cultural Corpus: A Case Study of History of the Yellow River

By constructing a bilingual parallel corpus from scratch and taking History of the Yellow River as an illustrative bilingual text, this study delves into the translation techniques applied to Culture-Specific Items (CSIs) within the framework of the Yellow River Basin civilization. The findings reveal a diverse range of approaches employed by translators, including literal translation, free translation, intracultural adaptation, omission, retention and annotation, especially in handling CSIs related to ecology, material culture, social life, religion, and language within the context of Yellow River culture. These techniques effectively preserve the intrinsic traits of the source language, thereby facilitating the propagation of Yellow River culture. The utilization of corpus-based research methodologies to analyze the English translation of CSIs in the Yellow River culture not only aligns with the essential imperatives of promoting Chinese culture on the global stage but also addresses the intricate nuances demanded by international communication.

Rethinking Reading at Home: Connecting families with multilingual digital texts

Reporting a Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE) project spanning 2018-2020, this paper looks at what happened when early primary, multilingual students were given e-readers with bilingual texts to take home to read together with their families. The shift in pedagogy to view our learners as multilingual, from learning English to developing multicompetence, influenced our decision to make digital texts in community languages more readily available to our students. Although our increasingly digital world has led to improved access to information, texts in different languages and the opportunity for students to access learning in different ways, we realised that students at school, particularly those from a refugee background, have limited access to these resources.
 Along with improved access for students, we also wanted parents to have access to reading materials in their home languages, so that they could read together with their young children. Our goal was not only to facilitate reading in both home languages and English but to create greater student engagement in reading, while strengthening home and English literacy. In the course of compiling the digital library, we realised that we needed to find out more about what helps our multilingual students with reading and gain a greater understanding of family literacy practices in our school communities. Our learnings about the sustainability of libraries, student progress in reading, and family literacy practices in Brisbane Catholic Education school communities has important implications for how we teach multilingual learners to read today

Centrifugal Navigation-Based Emotion Computation Framework of Bilingual Short Texts with Emoji Symbols

Heterogeneous corpora including Chinese, English, and emoji symbols are increasing on platforms. Previous sentiment analysis models are unable to calculate emotional scores of heterogeneous corpora. They also struggle to effectively fuse emotional tendencies of these corpora with the emotional fluctuation, generating low accuracy of tendency prediction and score calculation. For these problems, this paper proposes a Centrifugal Navigation-Based Emotional Computation framework (CNEC). CNEC adopts Emotional Orientation of Related Words (EORW) to calculate scores of unknown Chinese/English words and emoji symbols. In EORW, t neighbor words of the predicted sample from one element in the short text are selected from a sentiment dictionary according to spatial distance, and related words are extracted using the emotional dominance principle from the t neighbor words. Emotional scores of related words are fused to calculate scores of the predicted sample. Furthermore, CNEC utilizes Centrifugal Navigation-Based Emotional Fusion (CNEF) to achieve the emotional fusion of heterogeneous corpora. In CNEF, how the emotional fluctuation occurs is illustrated by the trigger angle of centrifugal motion in physical theory. In light of the corresponding relationship between the trigger angle and conditions of the emotional fluctuation, the fluctuation position is determined. Lastly, emotional fusion with emotional fluctuation is carried out by a CNEF function, which considers the fluctuation position as a significant position. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed CNEC effectively computes emotional scores for bilingual short texts with emojis on the Weibo dataset collected.

Cross-language information retrieval for poetry form of literature-based on machine transliteration using CNN

Transliteration is phonetically translating a language’s words into an international or non-native screenplay. The machine translation process now plays an essential role in scholarly research. The most crucial complement criterion of the English translation system is preserving the phonetic qualities of the language specification after English translation in the chosen language. However, a suitable bilingual text corpus is necessary for statistical models to attain improved transliteration accuracy. Marathi-to-English direct machine translation is done through a cross-language information retrieval system using the CNN classifier model in this proposed research. The proposed method considers a sequence labelling issue brought on by the split transliteration units used in the process. All half-consonant clusters in the Devanagari script are effectively mapped as half-consonant “a” s and labelled using the Modified Intermediate Phonetic Code (MIPC). After generating the phonetic units for each feature in the base and aim languages, the weight is assigned to a phonetic unit in both languages, and individual phonetic unit probabilities are computed. If the probability is zero, then segments are established and recalculated for each segment based on the target phonetic unit location in the word. Therefore, the proposed approach classifies the required phonetic unit with a high accuracy rate.