Wes Groleau

On 01-21-2012 16:20, Davoud wrote:
> Wes Groleau:
>> I wonder what Dragon would make of either text at
>> <http://Ideas.Lang-Learn.us/WWW?itemid=52>
>
> Do you know how Dragon works? It doesn't know anything about logic or
> the meanings of words--just their sounds. It has no problem with the
> (now classic) Ladle Rat Rotten Hut.

Yes, I know how it works. No logic, true, and in a sense no semantics.
But it does use context to resolve ambiguity.

I am equally interested in what its English model would do with French
nonsense that was _designed_ to sound like English.

--
Wes Groleau

“Would the prodigal have gone home if
the elder brother was running the farm?�
— James Jordan

Alan Browne

On 2012-01-21 16:53 , Wes Groleau wrote:
> On 01-21-2012 14:56, Alan Browne wrote:
>> On 2012-01-21 13:53 , Wes Groleau wrote:
>>> If they had one for "English but your native language is Spanish" they'd
>>> probably sell a lot of them.
>>
>> Which Spanish? Go to Venezuela and then Argentina (Buenos Aires) and
>> you'd think they were two different languages. Then go to Madrid. Then
>> to Barcelona...
>
> I know. I took a whole college class on the differences. Mexicans think
> I'm argentino and argentinos think I'm mexicano. (At first--if I talk
> long enough, my grammar gives me away.)
>
>>> I wonder what Dragon would make of either text at
>>> <http://Ideas.Lang-Learn.us/WWW?itemid=52>
>>
>> That was a "robot" voice and not natural sounding at all. I had to
>> listen twice and I couldn't get the last word of the 2nd, 6th and last
>> sentences w/o the text.
>
> That might be partly because it doesn't make much sense in French. Hard
> to use context on nonsense.
>
> I didn't have any native French-speakers available to record it for me.
> My own crappy accent* is better than the few French majors I know.
>
> My friend wrote that on a chalk board when he was a professor teaching
> linguistics. There was one native French speaker in the class. He asked
> her to read it aloud and removed something hiding it. She could not
> figure out why all of her classmates were laughing so hard.

If you're referring to "Un petit d'un ..." I can't figure out which word
you're referring to.

>
> *I tried to ask directions in Quebec and the lady thought I was deaf and
> tried to give me money.

In Québec there are regional differences as well as some people who just
have very thick accents. Oddly, you can find "Québecois"-like accents
in some regions of France. OTOH, local slang/nouns in France are
getting freaking bizarre. Hard to understand recent French films. Even
a French fellow I met last year on a dive boat who lives in S.F. has a
hard time with recent slang out of France.

--
"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty."
Douglas Adams - (Could have been a GPS engineer).

Wes Groleau

On 01-21-2012 17:25, Alan Browne wrote:
> On 2012-01-21 16:53 , Wes Groleau wrote:
>> My friend wrote that on a chalk board when he was a professor teaching
>> linguistics. There was one native French speaker in the class. He asked
>> her to read it aloud and removed something hiding it. She could not
>> figure out why all of her classmates were laughing so hard.
>
> If you're referring to "Un petit d'un ..." I can't figure out which word
> you're referring to.

I'm referring to the entire piece. Read with a little bit of rhythm and
Americans hear "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall ..." French-speakers
without sufficient cultural background would likely just think "What the
..... ?"

--
Wes Groleau

You always have time for what you do first.