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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 25, 1963)
MEDKORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORD, OREGON Pronouns Flubbed WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 25. 196J Translation Machines Not So Smart; They Have Trouble With Spelling BY DICK WEST WASHINGTON (UPI) - As a drowning man will grasp at a straw, I never lose an oppor- . tunity to seize upon something that human be- inys can sun do better than machines. Re cently. I have been reading quite a bit about the de v e 1 o pment of west translation ma chines. These are electronic compu ters that are multi-lingual and can make rapid translations from one language to another. The big show-offs. I was gratified to note, how ever, that the machines are hav ing troubie with spelling, pro nouns and idioms, even as you A r k mi i ak -Sri ! ' . if" - 4 mt and I. In fact, they can't begin to handle idioms as well as hu man translators, as witness the following two examples: I 1. A human interpreter em ployed by the United Nations to j translate English into Spanish : ran up against the phrase "once j in a blue moon." A literal translation would not have meant much in Spanish, so he I changed it to "every time a f bishdp dies." 2. A translation macnine was given the expression "out of sight, out of mind" to convert to Japanese. It came up with the Japanese characters for "invisible, insane." This was a clear cut vic tory for Ihe human race. Such victories are rare these days and we should cherish them while we can. At a recent hearing by a house education subcommittee, examples were shown of a computer's handiwork in trans lating Russian and Chinese into English. In places, the poor thing's spelling was atrocious. It rcn- j dered "rapacity" both as "ca-; pacittyy" and "capaeityi" be- i fore finally settling down to j eight letters. But what amused me the most was the way it flubbed the pro nouns. Being unable to decide which pronoun was correct, it would occasionally list all the alternatives. Thus, when a pronoun was encountered, the machine would print "him-his-it-its" or her-it-hers-its." Which, of course, is the coward's way out. I have often wished that I could handle "who-whom" In that maner, but we hu mans are not permitted to es cape that easily. We have to go ahead and pick the wrong one. Among the material trans lated by Ihe machine was an article originally printed in Red China. One of the key para graphs came out like this: "Soviet Union successfully launch artifical cosmos stellar body but American imperalism then many times failure." Ugh. Computer speak with forked tongue. Paper Shuffling Necessary Before Treaty in Effect WASHINGTON ( UP) - U. S Senate ratification of the nuclear test ban treaty still leaves con siderable international rigama role to be completed before the treaty formally goes into effect. Since there is no international custodian of treaties, countries signing such pacts designate one or more governments as "depos itaries" to keep the official copies. In this case, the depositaries are the three original signers of the test ban treaty the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union. The treaty goes into effect when each of these nations has placed notices of ratification in all three "depositaries." which means nine acts of shuffling pa per. j President Signs Copies Following Senate action, Pres ' ident Kennedy has to sign four 1 identical "instruments of ratifi ' cation." Three are the "deposit" I copies one for London, one for Moscow and one to be kept in a vault at the U. S. State Depart ment. The fourth copy is what might be called this country's personal copy and will be kept either at the State Department or in the U. S. National Archives. 1 When each of the three coun tries has forwarded its notice of ratification to the other two, the treaty will be in effect. Pres. ident Kennedy then will sign a proclamation declaring that the treaty is henceforth binding on all U. S. citizens. The three original signatories STIIX BURNING NEW YORK (UPD-The old gas light was not like the dodo bird. It was never to become extinct. The Gas Applicance Manufacturers Association re ports the gas light did go into eclipse in 1914 after attaining a peak of 250.000 but today, GAMA says, more than 825.000 gas lights are in use. also plan to register the treaty with the United Nations. Now Before President The Soviet Union has its own version of the U.S. ratification process. The treaty has passed through a series of committees of the Soviet legislature and at last report was pending before 1 Soviet. Britain is handling its ratifi j cation more simply. Having lain 1 21 days without objection, the treaty is considered fully ap I proved by the British govern ment and ready (or the docu- ments of ratification to be sent . out. i I Many of the more than 90 oth-1 er nations which also have sign ed the treaty have ratification procedures in their own consti- A 3 tutions, and will be forwarding notices of ratification to depos itary governments. But this only affects their own legal status. It docs not aflect the three big powers. You Specify. . . ...We'll Satisfy LASME Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angelet and Other California Poind. Call Jack Fitigerald, 73-7761 Los Angeles-Seattle Motor Express, Inc. TAPPED President Kennedy Haid he would nominate Lt. Gen. Wallace M. Greene, top photo, to be Commandant of the Ma rine Corps when Gen. David M. Shoup, bottom photo, finishes his term Dec. .11. (UPI) Mme. Nhu Urges VielNamVisil ROME (UPI) Mme. Ngo Dinh Nhu, preparing for her trip to the United States, again has invited lop American offi cials to see for themselves what is going on in South Viet Nam. "The more senior officials come to Vict Nam to see the situation, the better it is." she told a news conference here. "They are more responsible lhan the people who are sabo taging our officials." She was referring to the on-the-spot assessment to be made by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, chairman of the U.S. Chiefs of Staff. Pres ident Kennedy has ordered both men into South Viet Nam to find out if the government's re ligious - political dispute with the country's Buddhists is af fecting its battle against t h e Communists. Italian youths demonstrated against South Vict Nam's first lady while her news conference was going on. Two Automobile Manufacturers To Hold Prices DETROIT (UPI) - Chevrolet and the Studebaker Corp. have announced their prices with prices much the same as last year's models with the excep tion of Chevrolet's new line, the Chevelle. The Chevelle prices run from $2,220 to $2,738. Studebaker prices remained the same except for price cuts on two lines. The price on the Grantursimo Hawk was cut $137 to $2,958 and the Daytona con vertible reduced $17 to $2,797. Semon E. Knudsen, General Motors vice president and head ! of Chevrolet division, said the j division would offer the same list prices on new models as last year's. Sixth Year ! "This is the sixth consecutive j year in which Chevrolet prices j have remained constant in spite j of rising costs," he said. Chevrolet, which puts its cars on sale across the country Thursday, followed Chrysler- Plymouth and Dodge in holding . the price line for 1964 models. I There had been speculation that rising labor costs and the selec tive steel price increases might j herald a general price increase in the industry with the model year. I There has been no general across-the-board increase since 1958. Half-Font Longer ( The 1964 Studebakers had an all new exterior and are a half-1 foot longer. , "Some idea of the kind of per-1 formance equipment available to Studebaker buyers may be j seen in the 72 new endurance and speed records set by Stude baker production cars at Bonne ville a few days ago," Sherwood H. Egbert, president of the firm, said. Prices on Studebaker's Chal lenger line run $1,935 for the two-door sedan, $2,040 for the , four-door sedan, and $2,430 for the four-door station wagon with 6-cylinder motors. Area Bank Debits Increase in Month i The Southwestern Oregon ' urea, including Curry. Jackson and Josephine counties, expe-; rienccd an increase in bank deb-1 its in Aueust, compared to the same month in 1962. the Univer-1 tity of Oregon bureau of bii less research has reported. Debits (or August. 1963. total Mi 145.001. For the preccd- lng ear the August total was $117,416,350. Total debits for Oregon in August. came to $2,553. 914.556. The previous year the ' stale total for August was $2,-4lA.T97.257 Records Sought j In Portland Case PORTLAND (UPI)-Attorneys for accused slayer Robert Ev ans, 26, Honolulu, have filed a second motion in Circuit Court here asking for records In Ev ans' case. Evans, a Hawaiian-born me chanic, is charged in the strang ulation death of Mrs. Irene Davis, 41. Payette, Idaho. The body of Mrs. Davis, a wealthy cattle heiress, was found in a room at the Portland Hilton Hotel Aug. 6. The motion asked for a court order directing the Multnomah county coroner's office to turn over to the defense all records and reprts made In its inves tigation. 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