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Part of
History of Linguistics 2021: Selected papers from the 15th International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (ICHoLS 15), Milan, 28 August – 1 September
Edited by Savina Raynaud, Maria Paola Tenchini and Enrica Galazzi
[Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 133] 2024
► pp. 102–113

Chapter 7
“Computational linguistics” as the horizon of projection of early machine translation

| HTL UMR7596, CNRS, Université Paris Cité
In my paper, I will discuss the articulation between the horizon of projection (the anticipation of the evolution of a field of knowledge) and the horizon of retrospection (its background) in the special case of early machine translation. Because its horizon of retrospection (World War II sciences and technologies, information theory and mathematical logic) did not include linguistics, the horizon of projection of machine translation could not be high quality machine translation, but formal and computational linguistics. The horizon of computational linguistics thus projected was piloted and installed by institutions, funded and evaluated by state agencies, with conclusions and recommendations stated by expert reports, illustrating a new form of relationship between institution and sciences.
Keywords: machine translation, computational linguistics, horizon of retrospection, horizon of projection
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The horizon of retrospection of MT
    • 2.1MT as a cold war technology and an application of information theory
    • 2.2Yehoshua Bar-Hillel and the computationalization of linguistics
  • 3.From MT to computational linguistics
    • 3.1Stage 1: The 1952 conference
    • 3.2Stage 2: The power of MIT
    • 3.3Stage 3: Bar-Hillel’s Report 1960
    • 3.4Stage 4: The ALPAC report (1966)
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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References (20)
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