Google Translate in the office

Neil Coffey wrote:

The article seems to imply that the main problem with MT is aesthetic. I think this is a dangerous position. Because of the way it works, MT can do pretty much the opposite, i.e. make disastrous errors while still maintaining an air of fluency: http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/translation-service/machine_translation_disasters.html

Incidentally, the word "gist" is surely centuries old (it comes from now obsolete French verb "gît", 'lies', when the verb was in common use and the "s" was pronounced). Albeit in its verbal guise, it seems a slightly extraordinary claim to suggest that this is a "verb of the future".

Laurent KRAULAND wrote:
from the Latin "jacere" like in "Hic jacet..." - it is very present and "very dead" (no future for that matter).

Neil Coffey wrote:



Absolutely, just with the observation that, while we tend to think of "gésir"/"(ci) gît" as being an archaism largely restricted to tombstones, up until c. 1600 it seems to have been a reasonably ordinary verb with a variety of meanings. As well as litearlly meaning "to be lying down" and associated manings (including "to give birth"), it also had figurative meanings similar to "lie" in English, i.e. "to reside/be inherent in...", "to be dependent upon...". So the meaning in English comes from equivalent French expressions where you could effectively say "There lies the issue/heart of the matter" using the verb "gist" > "gît". (Expressions such as "Là gît le problème", "C'est là que gît le problème" still appear to be just about possible in contemporary French, but are obvious archaisms.)

Neil Coffey wrote:
Because of the way it works, MT can do pretty much the opposite, i.e. make disastrous errors while still maintaining an air of fluency