TITLE:
A Statistical Theory of Language Translation Based on Communication Theory
AUTHORS:
Emilio Matricciani
KEYWORDS:
Channel Capacity, Communication Theory, Greek, Latin, Linguistic Variables, Modern Languages, New Testament, Noise-to-Signal Power Ratio, Readability Index, Short-Term Memory Capacity, Symmetry
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Statistics,
Vol.10 No.6,
December
7,
2020
ABSTRACT: We propose the first statistical theory of language translation based on
communication theory. The theory is based on New Testament translations from
Greek to Latin and to other 35 modern languages. In a text translated into
another language, all linguistic variables do numerically change. To study the chaotic
data that emerge, we model any translation as a complex communication channel
affected by “noise”, studied according to Communication Theory applied for the
first time to this channel. This theory deals with aspects of languages more
complex than those currently considered in machine translations. The input
language is the “signal”, the output language is a “replica” of the input
language, but largely perturbed by noise, indispensable, however, for conveying
the meaning of the input language to its readers.We have
defined a noise-to-signal power ratio and found that channels are differently
affected by translation noise. Communication channels are also characterized by
channel capacity. The translation of novels has more constraints than the New
Testament translations. We propose a global readability formula for
alphabetical languages, not available for most of them, and conclude with a
general theory of language translation which shows that direct and reverse
channels are not symmetric. The general theory can also be applied to channels of
texts belonging to the same language both to study how texts of the same author
may have changed over time, or to compare texts of different authors. In
conclusion, a common underlying mathematical structure governing human
textual/verbal communication channels seems to emerge. Language does not play the
only role in translation; this role is shared with reader’s reading ability and
short-term memory capacity. Different versions of New Testament within the same
language can even seem, mathematically, to belong to different languages. These
conclusions are everlasting because valid also for ancient Roman and Greek
readers.