THESAURUS

According to wikipedia Thesaurus:  “Is a book that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning (containing synonyms and sometimes antonyms), in contrast to a dictionary, which contains definitions and pronunciations”.

Thesaurus is based on “Term relationships” which are links between terms. These relationships can be divided into three types: hierarchical, equivalency or associative.

• Hierarchical relationships are used to indicate terms which are narrower and broader in scope. A “Broader Term” is a more general term e.g. “Apparatus” is a generalization of “Computers”. Reciprocally, a “Narrower Term” is a more specific term e.g. “Digital Computer” is a specialization of “Computer”.

• The equivalency relationship is used primarily to connect synonyms and near-synonyms.

• Associative relationships are used to connect two related terms whose relationship is neither hierarchical nor equivalent. This relationship is described by the indicator “Related Term”. In a way, associative relationships should be applied with caution, since excessive use of RTs will reduce specificity in searches.

The Visual Thesaurus of the Cambridge Dictionary Online is an example of a Thesaurus. In the website, when you look up a word in a selected topic, you can see other entries in that topic on the right-hand side – a group of words that are related to the word you looked up. The words in the cloud are bigger or smaller depending on how frequently they are used. Here we have an example with the word alone.

With a slight click in that square, the website leads us to the Visual Thesaurus. Then, we type in a word (alone) and clicking once again we can find a big thesaurus in the middle of the page.

The yellow points indicate adjectives and the blue points adverbs. Then, we have red points which indicate nouns and the green ones which indicate verbs. The last two doesn’t appear in the example. Moreover, we are given the sound of the word searched, we can hear the pronunciation of words just with clicking the loudspeaker.

If you are interested in this ingenious tool here you have more information: The largest thesaurus in the world, the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary , which contains more than 920,000 words and meanings.

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE VISUAL THESAURUS OF CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARIES ONLINE AND OTHER THESAURUS  FOUND ON THE INTERNET

In this section of my review,  I would like to compare both The Visual Thesaurus of CDO and Lexipedia. Lexipedia is another page with thesaurus that is very similar to Visual Thesaurus. However, they have little differences among them.

At first sight as many other thesaurus they looked equal, both show nouns, adjectives, verbs… What’s more, they also show the definition and the sound of each word we have looked up. Apart from that, they have the chance of search a word in other languages which is useful for people who are learning more than one language. However, apart from equalities, we can also find little differences.

VISUAL THESAURUS: Example of a research

First, you just need to type in the word you are interested in and, then, click were it says “look it up”.

After that, you do not need to do anything else, the word just shows a number of words related to what you have searched.

LEXIPEDIA: Example of a research

As well as in the other thesaurus you have to type in the word you are interested in and, then, click were it says “sumit”.

Instantly, as well as in the other example, a thesaurus appears with a number of words related to what you have searched.

DIFFERENCES:

• At first sight, we can appreciate that Lexipedia looks more elaborated and easier than CDO’s Visual Thesaurus as it has very well organised elements. In the case of CDO’s Visual Thesaurus, the page which appears in front of us when we look up a word is rather boring and simple as it has just the meanings of words on the right and the thesaurus in the centre.
• Another difference between these thesaurus is that Lexipedia gives us the meaning of words such as noun, adjective, verb etc  and Visual Thesaurus don’t.

• The last but also an important difference is that in Lexipedia, just putting the mouse in any word of the thesaurus a window appears with the sound and definition. In the case of CDO’s Visual Thesaurus you have to click on the word to make the sound appear. What’s more, Lexipedia offers the definitions of words on the left of the page and also in the window I mentioned before.

Sources:

• Thesaurus. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 16, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thesaurus
• Visual Thesaurus. Retrieved March 17, 2010 from  http://www.visualthesaurus.com/landing/?ad=cdo&utm_medium=default&utm_campaign=VT&utm_source=cdo&word=alone
• Lexipedia beta. Retrieved May 28, 2010 from http://www.lexipedia.com/english

Second Review: Forvo, the Pronunciation guide

Last week, while I was attending my Language Resources course, I was having a look at Delicious’s bookmarks when I found this pronunciation guide on the Internet. At the beginning, I did not pay much attention to it, but when our teacher mentioned it a couple of times, I said to myself: Let’s have a try!

Although it might sound rather surprising, Forvo has become the largest pronunciation guide in the world just in a year’s time. It was born as an idea in 2007, and is online since January 2008. Moreover, and I am sure many of you would be proud to know, the owner of this site is Forvo Media SL, from San Sebastián (The Basque Country).

Forvo.com is a website that allows access to pronunciation sound clips in many different languages in an attempt to make easier the learning of languages. Likewise, what it is amazing about this website is that all sound clips are created by its users, who also have the chance to vote on each clip, positively or negatively, so that it ensures that those sound clips which have a better quality have priority over lesser sound clips when being listened to.

Moreover, it must be pointed out that it offers a huge variety of languages, not only English. For instance, laguages such as Amharic, Assamese, Kotava, Babarian and so forth are presented, which are rarely heard.

EXAMPLE OF THE RESEARCH

I would like to give an example of how this website works.

• The first step would be to type in a word. Let’s put as an example the word Umbrella.

• Then, with a slight click in the tiny square that says “Go”, the website leads the user to the next page where the results of the search are presented:

• At the bottom of the page, it can be read “Umbrella 2 pronunciation”. Therefore, if we click on it, what we find is the next thing:

The pronuntiation guide offers us the different pronunciations of the word, provided by the users. Finally, we only need to choose one of the two and listen to it. (In this case, the second pronunciation does not work or, at least, nothing can be heard).

COMPARISON BETWEEN FORVO AND OTHER PRONUNCIATION GUIDES FOUND ON THE INTERNET

• Howjsay.com

Very similar to Forvo is the website howjsay.com. Although it does not contain as much data as Forvo, it is very easy when trying to look up a word. However, another important difference that might make it slightly restrictive, is the fact that words are not uoloaded to the page by the users and it is precisely this property that I like from Forvo. Nonetheless, users can add comments and suggest new uploads to the page, as it can be appreciated on the picture below.

EXAMPLE OF A RESEARCH

Its functionality is very similar to Forvo’s as I have already mentioned. First, you just need to type in the word you are interested in and, then, click were it says “sumit”.

After that, you do not need to do anything else, the word just comes out pronounced automatically. Yet, it does have an innovation that Forvo does not include on his web page. There is the possibility to translate that word -by Google Translate- into a large number of languages, such as Korean, Persian, Hindi and many others. For example:

• Fonetiks.org

Fonetiks.orgis rather different from Forvo and howjsay.com. It is mainly based on isolated sounds of consonants and vowels; that is, it is not focused on the pronunciation of words, but of sounds. In fact, it provides online pronunciation guides to 9 varieties of the English language and 9 other languages, instant sound and pronunciation samples by over 40 native speakers.

In the presentation page, there is some sort of a comparison made between different dialects of English regarding mainly the differences in the pronounciation of sounds from one language into another. Users can listen to the pronunciation of sounds in American English, British English, Irish English, Scottish English, Welsh English, Australian English, Canadian English, Indian English and South African English which are divided into categories such as single vowel sounds, two vowel sounds and so forth.

Apart from all these, it is also interesting the fact that it has more activities in order to practice pronunciation. For instance, it offers a variety of English dialogues, an interactive reading course and many other activities which are available on the web page. In the picture below, there is an example of a dialogue which emphasises the use of the relative pronoun ”whose”.

PERSONAL OPINION

From the three pronunciation guides that I have been checking so that I could write my second review, I would say that Forvo has been the most attractive one, since the involvement of the users is wider than in the other two. Yet, it is interesting the translation service that howjsay.com provides for the users and, at the same time, the diversity of activities offered by fonetiks.org is quite helpful for the development and improvement of the pronunciation for those who do not have the chance to go to other countries in order to practice the language.

Information sources:

• Forvo.com. (2010, March 3). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:22, March 23, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Forvo.com&oldid=347544470
• Forvo: The pronunciation guide. (2010). Retrieved on March 23, 2010, from http://forvo.com
• Fonetiks.org (2000-2009). Retrieved on May 2, 2010, from http://www.fonetiks.org/
• Howjsay.com (2006-2010). Retrieved on May 2, 2010, from http://www.howjsay.com/

Google Translator

Google Translator

Google Translator is a free online translation tool.  It offers 52 different languages to work with.  These are just some examples: English, French, Italian, Corean, Yiddish, Chinese, Catalan, and many more. The service limits the number of paragraphs, or range of technical terms, that will be translated.

This tool is provided by Google Inc. and since November of last year, it displays a much more minimalist aspect.

Unlike other translation services such as Babel Fish, AOL, and Yahoo which use SYSTRAN, Google uses its own translation software. Some say that this could lead to a revolution in modern language industry.

However, and as any other machine translator it still makes some mistakes.  It can help you get the general idea of the text but the translation is not 100% reliable.

FIRST TEXT:

Original text in English from BBC news:

European airports have reopened for business, almost a week after a cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano paralysed the industry.

About 75% of European flights are due to operate on Wednesday, according to air traffic agency Eurocontrol.

But delays are expected, as airlines try to cope with the backlog from the cancellation of 95,000 flights.

International air transport group IATA says the disruptions have cost the industry $1.7bn (£1.1bn).

Iceland’s civil protection agency said the Eyjafjallajokull volcano had lost nearly 80% of its intensity since the weekend, although the situation remains changeable.

Google translator:

Aeropuertos europeos han vuelto a abrir para las empresas, casi una semana después de que una nube de ceniza de un volcán de Islandia paralizado la industria.

Alrededor del 75% de los vuelos europeos se deben a operar el miércoles, según la agencia de tráfico aéreo de Eurocontrol.

Pero los retrasos que se espera, ya que las compañías tratan de lidiar con el retraso de la cancelación de 95.000 vuelos.

Internacional de Transporte Aéreo IATA dice que el grupo de las interrupciones han costado a la industria de $ 1,7 billones (£ 1.1bn).

Agencia de protección civil de Islandia dijo que el volcán Eyjafjallajökull había perdido casi el 80% de su intensidad desde el fin de semana, aunque la situación sigue siendo cambiante.

Human Translation:

Los aeropuertos europeos han vuelto a abrir para vuelos de negocios, casi una semana después de que una nube de ceniza de un volcán de Islandia paralizara la industria.

Alrededor del 75% de los vuelos europeos volveran operar el miércoles, según la agencia de tráfico aéreo de Eurocontrol.

Pero se esperan retrasos, ya que las compañías tratan de lidiar con el atraso creado por  la cancelación de 95.000 vuelos.

El grupo internacional de transporte aéreo IATA dice que las interrupciones han costado a la industria de 1,7 billones  de dólares.

SECOND TEXT:

Original text from People Magazine online:

Sandra Bullock not wearing wedding ring

Sandra Bullock was photographed last week in Northern California without wearing her wedding ring, Entertainment Tonight reports.

The photo, said to be the first since her husband Jesse James’s infidelity scandal broke, will be featured on Tuesday night’s broadcast, and shows the somber actress hiking, drinking coffee and wearing a hat with a scarf around her neck, according to ET.

Bullock, 45, moved out of the Los Angeles area home she share with James, 40, and his three children shortly after the first report March 15 he allegedly had an affair with a tattoo model. Two weeks later, he checked into a treatment facility to deal with “personal issues,” his rep said. – Mike Fleeman

Google Translator:

Sandra Bullock fue fotografiada la semana pasada en el norte de California sin llevar su anillo de bodas, Entretenimiento informes esta noche.

La foto, dice que es la primera vez desde el escándalo de su esposo Jesse James, la infidelidad se rompió, se presentará en la difusión la noche del martes, y muestra el senderismo actriz sombrío, el consumo de café y un sombrero con una bufanda alrededor del cuello, de acuerdo a ET.

Bullock, de 45 años, se mudó de la casa de Los Ángeles que él comparte con James, de 40 años, y sus tres hijos poco después del primer informe 15 de marzo que supuestamente tuvo un romance con un modelo de tatuaje. Dos semanas más tarde, se registró en una planta de tratamiento para hacer frente a “cuestiones personales”, dijo su representante. – Mike Fleeman

Human Translation:

Sandra Bullock fue fotografiada la semana pasada al norte de California sin su anillo de boda, dice Entertainment Tonight.

La foto, que se dice ser  la primera desde el escándalo de infidelidad de su esposo Jesse James, se presentará en la difusión de la noche del martes, y muestra una visión  pesimista de la actriz, tomando café y con un sombrero y con una bufanda alrededor del cuello, de acuerdo a ET.

Bullock, de 45 años, se mudó de la casa de Los Ángeles que compartía con James, de 40 años, y sus tres hijos poco después del primer informe del 15 de marzo que supuestamente afirmaba que había tenido un romance con una modelo de tatuajes. Dos semanas más tarde, ingreso en un centro de ayuda para hacer frente a “cuestiones personales”, dijo su representante. – Mike Fleeman

THIRD TEXT:

Original text from Wikipedia:

LOST

Lost is an American live-action television series. It follows the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island, after a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles crashes somewhere in the South Pacific. Each episode typically features a primary storyline on the island as well as a secondary storyline from another point in a character’s life, though other time-related plot devices change this formula in later episodes. The pilot episode was first broadcast on September 22, 2004, and since then five full seasons have aired, with a sixth currently in progress set to finish on May 23, 2010. The show airs on the American Broadcasting Company in the United States, as well as on regional networks in many other countries.

Google Translator:

Lost es una serie americana de acción en vivo de televisión. De ello se desprende la vida de los supervivientes del accidente de avión en una misteriosa isla tropical, después de un jet comercial de pasajeros que vuelan entre Sydney y Los Ángeles se estrella en algún lugar del Pacífico Sur. Cada episodio cuenta con un típico argumento principal de la isla, así como una historia secundaria desde otro punto en la vida de un personaje, aunque otros recursos argumentales relacionados con el tiempo cambiar esta fórmula en episodios posteriores. El episodio piloto fue la primera emisión el 22 de septiembre de 2004, y desde entonces cinco temporadas completas han sido transmitidos, con un sexto en curso conjunto para terminar el 23 de mayo de 2010. El show se transmite por la American Broadcasting Company en los Estados Unidos, así como en las redes regionales en muchos otros países.

Human Translation:

Lost es una serie de televisión americana de acción en vivo. Trta de la vida de los supervivientes de un  accidente de avión en una misteriosa isla tropical, después de que un vuelo comercial que viaja entre Sydney y Los Ángeles se estrelle en algún lugar del Pacífico Sur. Cada episodio cuenta con un argumento principal en la isla, así como una historia secundaria desde otro punto en la vida de un personaje, aunque otros recursos argumentales relacionados con el tiempo cambiaran esta fórmula en episodios posteriores. El episodio piloto fue la primera emisión el 22 de septiembre de 2004, y desde entonces cinco temporadas completas han sido transmitidas, con una sexta en curso que terminara el 23 de mayo de 2010. El show se transmite en la American Broadcasting Company en los Estados Unidos, así como en otras redes regionales en muchos otros países.

MAIN MISTAKES MADE BY THE MT:

The principal  errors made by the Google translator could be divided in two main group: error related to the lexicon and the grammatical errors.

• Lexical errors are basically made because the MT has the tendency to translate words literally and without contextualizing too much.  Besides, most of the words have more that one meaning and the MT is not able to pick the most suitable one.  It usually chooses the most extended meaning of the linguistic expression.  These are just a few examples of this common mistake.  for exaple: it translates “drinking” as a noun to “el consumo” instead of translating it to the gerundive “bebiendo” or even better in this case “tomando”.  It also translates “follows” to “desprender” which does not fit in this case since the expression needed is “trata de”.  Moreover, the machine translates from English to Spanish every single word and it does not differenciate proper names that should remain in the original language.  This is clearly seen in the second text where the Mt translates “Entertainment Tonigh” when it shoul be left the same.

• On the other hand, we can also find mistakes that are related to grammar and the use of language.  It is clear that the machine translator has difficulties when translating articles.  It cannot distinguish the use of definite and indefinite articles in each language.  for example, it translates “civil protection agency” into “agencia de proteccion civil” without any article.  It should wear “la”.  Besides, it has difficulties maintaining the concordance of subject-verb in gender since there is no such thing in English.  He translates for instance: “cinco temporadas completas han sido transmitidos  ” when it should be “transmitidas”, in femenine.

Sources:

BBC News. Retrieved: 13:00, April 21, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Google Translator.  Retrieved: 13:00, April 21, 2010 from http://translate.google.es/#en|es|

Lucy Translator. Retrieved: 13:00, April 21, 2010 from http://www.lucysoftware.de/cms/front_content.php?idcat=45&changelang=1

People Magazine. Sandra Bullock. Retrieved: 13:30, April 21, 2010 from http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20362342,00.html

Lost (TV series). (2010, April 20). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11:34, April 21, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lost_(TV_series)&oldid=357200534

Wordreference. Retrieved: 19:00, April 26, 2010 from http://www.wordreference.com/es/