通过词对齐分析翻译中哪些词依赖上下文,揭示人类翻译的上下文选择性。
Which Tokens Need Context? A Reference-Based Analysis of Translation Responsibility Using Fertility and Entropy
- 用词生成数和熵值量化词语在不同上下文中的依赖程度
- 功能词生成量随上下文变化显著下降,实词基本稳定
- 可作为评估机器翻译是否像人一样用上下文的基准
人类翻译时,并非每个词都同等依赖上下文。一些功能词(如代词、助动词)高度依赖前后句,而专有名词等则相对独立。理解这种固有的上下文敏感性,对评估机器翻译系统是否以类人方式使用上下文至关重要。然而现有方法依赖特定语篇测试集或模型内部结构,适用范围窄且依赖模型。本文提出一种后验、模型无关的框架,基于词对齐数据,用两个指标——生成度(每源词生成的目标词数)和熵(生成度在不同上下文中的稳定性)——在词汇与句法层面量化上下文敏感性。基于三种语言对(德语↔英语、英语→印地语)在四种上下文条件下的参考译文,我们发现:上下文仅选择性地将生成责任从源词转移至上下文词,整体生成度不变;功能词生成度下降最明显,内容词保持稳定,表明上下文主要用于消歧而非新增信息。该框架为人类翻译中的选择性上下文使用提供了真实基准,可作为评估机器翻译模型的诊断工具。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
When humans translate, not every word depends equally on the surrounding context. Some tokens, particularly function words like pronouns and auxiliaries, rely heavily on preceding or following sentences, while others, such as proper nouns, do not. Understanding this inherent context sensitivity is essential for evaluating whether machine translation systems use context in human-like ways. However, existing approaches to analysing context usage rely on discourse-specific test sets or model internals, making them narrow or model-dependent. We propose a post-hoc, model-agnostic framework to quantify context sensitivity at lexical and syntactic levels using two measures derived from word alignments: fertility (number of target tokens generated per source token) and entropy (stability of fertility patterns across contexts). Using reference translations for three language pairs (German $\leftrightarrow$ English, English $\rightarrow$ Hindi) under four context conditions, we show that context selectively redistributes generative responsibility from source to context tokens without altering overall fertility. Function words show the largest fertility reductions, while content words remain stable, suggesting that context resolves ambiguity rather than adding new information. Our framework provides a ground-truth characterisation of selective context usage in human translation, establishing a diagnostic baseline for evaluating machine translation models.
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