OLD BIBLICAL TRANSLATION AUTOMATION Cover Image

SENŲJŲ BIBLIJOS VERTIMŲ LYGINAMŲJŲ TYRIMŲ AUTOMATIZAVIMAS
OLD BIBLICAL TRANSLATION AUTOMATION

Author(s): Mindaugas Šinkūnas
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Biblical studies, Philology, Translation Studies
Published by: Lietuvių Kalbos Institutas

Summary/Abstract: The abundance of Bible citations in old Lithuanian writings makes it difficult to study their relationships. A user-friendly data platform is required to allow the Bible lines to be grouped according to the characteristics interesting to the researcher. The assessment of similarity of citations is the most problematic. An integrated analysis of vocabulary, syntax, and morphology (and in some cases—spelling) allows it, but this kind of philological research is slow and currently impossible to automate. We succeeded in automating the comparison with a cyclic algorithm. The task of the algorithm is to detect identical compounds in two character sequences and to calculate which part of the compared sequences they cover. The effect of the algorithm and the calculated percentages are mainly determined by the length of the lines, the shortest sequence allowed to be compared, and the transliteration accuracy. Different lengths of the lines (a biblical line can be quoted as a fragment that is comparable to the full line) require the consideration of the chronology of the sources and the selection of corresponding comparative calculation parameters. The most optimal shortest comparable character sequence was determined experimentally.

  • Issue Year: 2017
  • Issue No: 19
  • Page Range: 57-98
  • Page Count: 42
  • Language: Lithuanian