North Saami and Finnish
This page is for discussing the Northern Sámi and Finnish translator (apertium-fin-sme). Some pending things to think about:
General todo list
- For old list items see completed tasks
- How are compounds dealt with in Omorfi and in the GTSVN analysers ? Do they always split in the same places ? If not, we probably have to add those that don't as lexicalised entries in the transducers.
- Compounds in sme and fin are similar, and we should strive at translating dynamic compounds.
- Can we get access to the Álgu database ?
- Trond to look into this.
- Another possible source for paired words and sentences: Open-tran. Contains translation strings for linux software with GUIs, allows searching in any language pair, and contains Finnish and Northern Sámi. Ryan can contact them if it seems like their data would be of use.
- Lex choice build xsl script: Add colon number on the Finnish side.
- Find frequent multiwords, perhaps take advantage of mwetoolkit. Are there any multiword resources for Finnish existing ?
Comparisons of Northern Sámi and Finnish
Noun phrases
Both Northern Sámi and Finnish order noun suffixes in this way:
NOUN-Pl-Case-Possessive-CliticParticles
Possessives markers are much less common in Northern Sámi, but morphological analyzers will handle them.
Constituent order within noun phrases is similar:
Det Num Adj+ Noun
Where Det can be either a demonstrative pronoun or a pronoun denoting possession (i.e., a personal pronoun in the genitive).
Cases
Northern Sámi has 7 cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, locative, illative, comitative, essive.
- Accusative and Genitive are often syncretic, except in some numbers and some pronouns.
- Comitative and Essive are the same in singular and plural
Finnish has 15 cases (and several additional case-like suffixes only applied to adverbials). This is alot, here are the significant facts to avoid a string of opaque latinate terms:
- Structural cases: 4. nominative, partitive, accusative, genitive
- Locative cases: 6. An internal and external set (3 cases each) that show goal, location, and source.
- Stative cases: 2. state, goal state; rarely a third - source state
- Additional: 2 instructive/instrumental cases (with, without), 1 comitative case (plural only)
Where Finnish distinguishes internality and externality with locative and stative cases, there is no such distinction in Northern Sámi. Northern Sámi uses locative for source and location, and illative for goal. Thus, cases can roughly be transfered this way:
- (fin) Internal Source, Internal Location, External Source, External Location → Locative
- (fin) Internal Goal, External Goal → Illative
- (fin) Partitive, Accusative, Genitive → AccGen
Of course, the last set ending in AccGen will have to be distinguished with certain numbers and pronouns.
Case agreement
Most adjectives just have a predicative and attributive form, but some do agree in number with the subject.
Váralaš > váralaččat
- (fin) Muovipussit ovat vaarallisia. → Plásttetseahkat leat váralaččat.
earálágán > earálágánat
- (fin) Ihmiset ovat erilaisia. → Olbmot leat earálágánat.
Pronouns and demonstratives within DPs also agree with their head nouns, although there is some amount of syncreticism when they are attributes. In the plural however, the illative and locative forms are not syncretic and agree with a plural head noun.
| Case | Independent | As Attribute | Head Noun | Attr Pl | Head Noun Pl |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom | mii | mii (Nom) | beana (Nom) | mat (Nom Pl) | beatnagat (Nom Pl) |
| Gen | man | man (Gen/Acc) | beatnaga (Gen/Acc) | maid (Gen/Acc Pl) | beatnagiid (Gen/Acc Pl) |
| Acc | man | man (Gen/Acc) | beatnaga (Gen/Acc) | maid (Gen/Acc Pl) | beatnagiid (Gen/Acc Pl) |
| Ill | masa | man (Gen/Acc) | beatnagii (Ill) | maidda (Ill Pl) | beatnagiidda (Ill Pl) |
| Loc | mas | man (Gen/Acc) | beatnagis (Loc) | main (Loc Pl) | beatnagiin (Loc Pl) |
| Com | mainna | mainna (Com) | beatnagiin (Com) | maiguin (Com Pl) | beatnagiiguin (Com Pl) |
| Ess | manin | manin (Ess) | beanan (Ess) | manin (Ess) | beanan (Ess) |
This pattern holds for other demonstratives and numbers, except numbers do not have the same syncreticisms for Gen/Acc, in that the numbers may show separate marking for genitive and accusative, although the head noun shows syncretic Gen/Acc forms.
| Case | Independent | As Attribute | Head Noun | Attr Pl | Head Noun Pl |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom | guokte | guokte (Nom) | gápmaga (Gen/Acc) | guovttit (Nom Pl) | gápmagat (Nom Pl) |
| Gen | man | guovtti (Gen) | gápmaga (Gen/Acc) | guvttiid (Gen/Acc) | gápmagiid (Gen/Acc) |
| Acc | man | guokte (Acc) | gápmaga (Gen/Acc) | guvttiid (Gen/Acc) | gápmagiid (Gen/Acc) |
| Ill | masa | guovtti (Gen/Acc) | gápmagii (Ill) | guvttiide (Ill Pl) | gápmagiidda (Ill Pl) |
| Loc | mas | guovtti (Gen/Acc) | gápmagis (Loc) | guvttiin (Loc Pl) | gápmagiin (Loc Pl) |
| Com | mainna | guvttiin (Com) | gápmagiin (Com) | guvttiiguin (Com Pl) | gápmagiiguin (Com Pl) |
| Ess | manin | guoktin (Ess) | gáman (Ess) | guoktin (Ess) | gáman (Ess) |
This pattern is not exactly the same as with the number one, which has a syncreticism with Gen/Acc.
Some other attributes such as goappašat and guktot 'both (pl)' have separate patterns: syncretic gen/acc/ill (sometimes ill agreement is okay), agreement with locative, but optional agreement with comitative.
| Case | Goappašat case | Noun Case |
|---|---|---|
| Nom Pl | AGR | AGR |
| Gen Pl | AGR | AGR |
| Acc Pl | AGR | AGR |
| Ill Pl | Gen/Acc Pl OR Ill Pl | Ill Pl |
| Loc Pl | AGR | AGR |
| Com Pl | Gen/Acc Pl OR Com Pl | Com Pl |
| Case | Guktot case | Noun Case |
|---|---|---|
| Nom Pl | AGR | AGR |
| Gen Pl | AGR | AGR |
| Acc Pl | AGR | AGR |
| Ill Pl | Gen/Acc Pl | Ill Pl |
| Loc Pl | AGR | AGR |
| Com Pl | Gen/Acc Pl | Com Pl |
Adjectives
Adjectives in Northern Sámi can have two separate forms depending on whether they are attributive or predicative. The attributive adjectives mostly do not agree in number with the head noun, but predicative adjectives do. Attributive adjectives do not agree in case with the head noun.
In Finnish, adjectives always agree in number and case with the head noun, and agree in number when they occur in predicates (although there is some variation as to whether or not the predicative adjective is partitive plural or nominative plural).
Numerals
- Numerals in Finnish can have possessive suffix:
yksinänsä/yksi<Num><Card><Pl><Ess><PxPl3>, in Northern Sámi they cannot. - Ordinals are tagged as numerals in Finnish and as adjectives in Northern Sámi
Derivation
| Tag | Type | Example | Analysis | in North Sámi | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Der/inen |
N→Adj | "muovinen" | muovi+N+Der/inen+Pos+Sg+Nom |
plastihkas ráhkaduvvon | plastihkka+n.loc build+v.pass.pp |
Der/ja |
V→N | "kirjoja" | kirjoa+V+Der/ja+Sg+Nom |
kirjoa-ja = write-er (writer) ? | |
Der/lainen |
N→Adj | "saamelainen" | saame+N+Der/lainen+Pos+Sg+Nom |
sápmelaš | -laš
|
Der/llinen |
N→Adj | "kirjallinen" | kirja+N+Der/llinen+Sg+Nom |
kirja-llinen = book-ish (literary)? | |
Der/minen |
marks deverbal nouns ? | ||||
Der/oi |
|||||
Der/sti |
Adj→Adv | derives an adverb from an adjective ? -ly | |||
Der/tar |
|||||
Der/ton |
N→Adj | "rahaton" | raha+N+Der/ton+Sg+Nom |
ruđaheapme | ruht + -heapme
|
Der/tse |
|||||
Der/ttain |
|||||
Der/u |
|||||
Der/vs |
There are some cases where both a derived and a lexicalised entry might be in one analyser, but only one or the other in the other analyser. For example:
saamelainen [LEMMA='saamelainen'][POS=ADJECTIVE][KTN=38][CMP=POS][NUM=SG][CASE=NOM] saamelainen [LEMMA='saame'][POS=NOUN][KTN=8][GUESS=DERIVE][DRV=LAINEN][CMP=POS][NUM=SG][CASE=NOM] saamelainen [LEMMA='saame'][POS=NOUN][KTN=8][NUM=SG][CASE=NOM][BOUNDARY=COMPOUND][GUESS=COMPOUND][LEMMA='lainen'][POS=NOUN][KTN=38][NUM=SG][CASE=NOM] saamelainen saamelainen+A+Pos+Sg+Nom saamelainen saame+N+Der/lainen+Pos+Sg+Nom saamelainen saame+N+Sg+Nom#lainen+N+Sg+Nom
versus:
sápmelaš sápmelaš+A+Sg+Nom sápmelaš sápmelaš+A+Attr
How to deal with this will be one of the main challenges. E.g. do we add more entries, or do we remove entries ? Is there a way to do either of those automatically ?
The reason why the sme analysis gives only the lexicalised analysis is that there is a postprocessor choosing the lexicalised one, the perl file lookup2cg. Run through the same file the fin output is compatible:
$echo saamelainen|ufin|lookup2cg "<saamelainen>" "saamelainen" A Pos Sg Nom
Files
| Source files | ||
| File | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
apertium-sme-fin.sme-fin.dix |
Transfer lexicon / Bilingual dictionary | |
apertium-sme-fin.sme.twol |
Morphophonology for Sámi | This file is copied as is from Giellatekno SVN. No changes should be made to the local version. |
apertium-sme-fin.fin-sme.rlx |
Constraint Grammar for Finnish | |
apertium-sme-fin.fin-sme.t1x |
Chunker file for Finnish→Northern Sámi | |
| Compiled and binary files | ||
| File | Description | Notes |
fin-sme.prob |
Tagger HMM probability file | This file needs to be trained when the CG is fully converted. |
fin-sme.rlx.bin |
Compiled Constraint Grammar for Finnish | |
fin-sme.autobil.bin |
Compiled transfer lexicon | |
fin-sme.t1x.bin |
Compiled transfer rules | These are first-stage transfer rules, mostly for chunking and local reordering. |
Transfer
Some thoughts on when to just adjust tagsets, transfer lexically (in the bilingual dictionary) or with transfer rules.
- If there is a 1:1 correspondence between tags that mean the same thing in all contexts, then the tagset should be changed. For example
[NEG=CON], previously<NegCon>, should be just relabelled as<ConNeg>(the tag as it appears in the Sámi analysers). - If there is a need to insert or remove tags based on other tags, because of a difference in what is tagged then this can be done in the bilingual dictionary. For example in Finnish, adjectives in the positive comparison are tagged with
<A><Pos>, where in Sámi the positive is unmarked<A>. In this case, a paradigm in the bilingual dictionary can be used to remove all<Pos>tags from adjectives in the target language. - If the tag changes depend on syntactic or morphological context of more than one word, then it should be done in transfer rules.
Note: There will usually be some unclearness between 1--2 and 2--3. So if in doubt, just do it the first way that comes to mind. It can always be changed later.
Tagging inconsistencies
- kritisoinnin - kritiserema
$ echo kritiserema | osme 191480 0 kritiserema kritiseret+V+TV+Der3+Der/n+N+Sg+Gen kritiserema kritiseret+V+TV+Der3+Der/n+N+Sg+Acc kritiserema kritiseret+V+TV+Actio+Gen kritiserema kritiseret+V+TV+Actio+Acc
$ echo kritisoinnin | ofin kritisoinnin kritisointi+N+Sg+Gen
Can we add a lexicalised entry for this derived noun in the sme lex ?
