Transcription

1 Tite Automatic Contractions of Engish Brai Author(s) Tanaka, Kunihiro; Nishiyama, Mikio Editor(s) Citation 大阪府立工業高等専門学校研究紀要, 98, 5, p.9-4 Issue Date URL Rights

2 Automatic Contractions of Engish Braie through a Computer Kunihiro TANAKA', Mikio NisHiyAMA" (Received Apri 5, 98) ABSTRACT In Engish braie, the specia codes are often used as contractions, incuding word signs, part-words and short-form words. This study aims to fit these contractions automaticay by using a computer. Aphabetica etters, numerica etters and another marks are converted into braie codes as dott marks on a computer card by hand, Then the computer makes contractions by stored program from the input marked cards, and punches a paper tape. The paper tape is usabe as input for braie machines, which produce braie sheets for bind peope. Before punching the paper tape, the computer prints etters corresponding to marked dotts on the card. These printed Ietters are effective to proofread or to find errors in dotting, which is usefu in order to put off the transcribed by mistake. The principa rues of contractions, the computer program for Engish braie, the use of mark cards and the output resuts from a computer wi be described in the foowing papers.. Introduction It may be necessary for a transcriber to draw an exact ine among contractions, word signs, part-words and short-form words, but such distinction among them is not necessary to make Engish braie through the computer. Then a of them are caed as "contractions" in this paper and processed on the same eve in the computer program. Rues about contractions in this study are based on a Japanese book of Engish Braie, American Edition, 959, revised 968 (transated by Mr. Itoshima, 972). This study began with cassifing those rues so as to be easiy processed by the computer. As the resuts of cassifing, it becomes cear that there are two tipica types in the contractions' rue's; one is about a situation in which a contraction is to be used, and another is about an exception which dose not aow to use a contraction. The former is a rue of using contractions, which have a few types, for words, initia-etters, part words and fina-etters. The atter is a rue of excepting contractons in severa cases, where it is difficut to understand the meaning of the word and where specia signs are put before a word. Two rues above-mentioned about contr'actions are not competey contained in the computer program, but about 95 O/o of contractions are defined and about 850/o exampe words in the reference are converted into practica braies with contractions by being processed through the computer. 2. Rues of contractions Cassified contractions are shown in Tabe, according to which main fow of computer 'Department of Mechanca Engineering "Organization of Cornputer Work -9-

3 Kunihiro TANAKA Mikio NISMYAMA program is fixed. Each contraction rue is defined as sub-program, and of course, the rues of exceptions are defined, too. But the most difficut probems for a computer ie in the rues of exceptions because of their iogica manners. For such difficuties, the two foowing different ways are introduced to dea with exceptions. In a case of few exceptiona words in each contraction rue, a the exceptiona words are registered in each sub-program. In a case of many exceptiona words, it is sheved to use contraction itsef. The reason why we sheved is that wrong contraction makes readers misunderstand the meaning of a word. If ony one unexpected word appeares in sentences to be transcribed, computer produces wrong contraction. But, it may be not very troubesome that severa contractions are not used in braie. Even though the computer program has severa missing contractions, it makes right braie with most of contractions, so bind peope may be abe to read it exacty. Tabe 2 shows the undefined contractions in the computer program, Tabe Cassified contractions for processing NAMEOFCONTRACTIONS EXAMPLE RANGEFORCONTRACTIONS INTHEREFERENCE underinedpart whoeword one-cewhoe-wordcontractions owersigns initia-ettercontractions but was day about ataninitiapartofword inamiddepartofword atafinapartofword one-cepart-wordsigns owersigns initia-ettercontractions one-cepart-wordsigns owersigns initia-ettercotractions fina-ettercontractions one-cepart-wordsigns owersigns initia-ettercontractions fina-ettercontractions slhaop beieveknows friendy prob-em county unquestionaby passgd uneaten nowh5tze diction midafternoon Tabe 2 Undefined contractions in computer program ea ed er ever gg gh sh th ance acceptsevera -0-

4 Autornatic Contractions of Engish Braie through a computer 3. Input to computer Generay, computer has severa input materias, that is, punched cards, marked cards, punched paper tapes, magnetic tapes and so on, But injapan, most of transcribing work is done with braie typewriters or hand-braiers by vounteers. In this study, as taking about these two backgrounds into consideration we use mark cards as input materias for a computer. The reason why mark cards are the best of a}} depends on the foowing merits, It is not thenumberofce tobernarkedbraiecode4 tobemarkedcontroce(seetabe3) te' ee bojee eekee eo eeeen ee 2 spaceforrnemorandum 40 Fig. New designed mark card for braie necessary to use specia toos or instruments to mark on the card except usua marking pens, so vounteers can mark everywhere and everytime as they want. Ony marking braie codes is enough for this system, and the computer makes braies with contractions automaticay frotn marks on the card. New designed mark card for transcription to braie code is shown in Fig.. And the mark card has another space for correction to write etters. Those functions are described in Tabe 3. 0ne card is abe to keep 40 etters except bank space by corrected mark, Tabe 3 Functions of contro mark MARK POSITION FUNCTION ony ower eft to pass this ce ony upper eft to convert this ce into bank space ony upper right to insert a bank space before the next ce ony ower right to make a new ine in the braie sheet ony upper both to pass after this ce to the initia ce of next card ower eft and others - to pass this ce others, to generate an error massage,` fj" i e'!evoe Ieeee eo --

5 Kunihiro TANAKA, Mikio MSMYAMA 4. Computer program The computer program are composed of the two stages of proofreading and braie printing as shown in,fig. 2. The first program, named tproofread', gives printed sheets for proofreading to transcribers. The another program, named 'CONTRACT', makes Engish braies through fitting contractions, and then prints them on the sheets and punches them on the paper tape in braie cades. ENTRY convertntoetters by"proofread"program r- I ENTRY corrected by proofreading contract by "eontract" prog,ram outputprntedist withoutcontractions L J output prtnted tst with contractions output punched paper tape in bra!e code wtth contractions Fig. 2 Two stages of the computer program 4- preparation for processing Marked braie codes on the cards are stored in a fie of disk-pack unit of the computer before processing. To be stored so has an effect on rewriting a fie by using a dispay and a keyboard of computer termina. 4-2 tproofread' program Data structure in the fie is just as it is on the mark cards. Of course it incudes contro data. Then braie code data are simpy converted into the etters when there is no contro data, are converted into aphabetic or other etters according to contro data. If undefined braie or contro code appears, the computer points out mistake through error massages which indicate what kind of errors is and where they occur. -2-

6 ' Automatic Contractions of Engish Braie through a cornputer 4-3 tcontract' program The fundamenta programming is based on an end of a word. It is easy to find a word because there are two bank space before and after word's speing. Each word is sequentiay compared with defined contractions in the program. If there are specia codes of hyphon or apostrophe within a word, the program treats it as two or more words cut by the specia code. After the above comparison has done, these words are combined in one word again with their own specia code. Words contracted in this way are combined with a bank space and form Engish braie. 'puter program. Step. whoe-word contractions or short-form words or other usabe contractions' as a word. Step 2. initia-tettercontractions or other usabe contractions" at an initia part of word, Step 3. fina-etter contractions or other usabe contractions' in a midde part or at a fina part of word. ('other usabe contractions shown in Tabe ) These three steps are shown in Fig. 3. Whether the other steps are passed or not depends on whether the defined contraction is found or not in Step. S.TEP,, "cherish" STEP 2, STEP 5,, (-J -,,,i,ii,,ii,i, -- store the contraction - at an initia part of word - -,,, -,,,,,,,,,, store the contractions - inamidde part of word u -},,,}t,i store the uncontracted etter L---J,,,, store the contraction at a fina part of word range of compartson by scanning ) Fig. 3 A case of an exampe word "cherish" 5. Output from computer The ist for proofreading (shown in Fig. 4 ) is printed after being converted into Engish etters by a ine-printer which has not sma etters. So, capita etter is indicated by a dot above the etter. Words within one card correspond to one ine and are between two tt==" marks. After processing of contractions, origina Engish is converted into braie codes again. The ist of Engish braie with contractions is aso printed by the ine-printer. And the patterns of punching a hoe or more on paper tape are the same as braie code with contractions. The Comparison with contractions on defined tabe has the three foowing steps in the com- -3-

7 Kunihiro TANAKA, Mikio MSHIYAMA punched paper tape this study. is suppied to braie printer, the deveopment of which keeps pace with the number of mork card captta etter sign (. (.-i)-- YN 2 =RE. ENGLISHBRAILLE, THE SPECIAL CODES A= USED AS CONTRACTIONS, INCLUDING WORD Fig. 4 The ist for proofreading 6. Concusion There are 80 contractions in the reference and most of them are defined in the computer program. About 5/O/o contractions have been eft by the reason of each exceptiona rues, which is concerned with syabes or meanings of words. It might be possibe to define a the contractions in defiance of numerica capacities of computer memories, but 5 O/o of undefined contractions may be not aways troubesome for bind peope. At the end of this paper, authors hope that this way of cemputerized automatic contractions wi benefit transcribers, who are not usuay the speciaists to use contractions in Japan. Acknowedgement Authors wish thankfuness to Mr. K. Shionaka, Schoo for the Bihd, for his kind disscusion. who is a teacher of Osaka Prefectura Reference Engish Braie American Printing House for the Bind Edition 959, Revised, Louisvie, Kentucky, 962, , 968, 970, 972; American -4-