Machine Translation and the SYGMART System
J. Chauch · 2016
1. Differences between Formal Languages and Natural Languages Much of the work in the field of machine translation and, more generally, of computational linguistics, is based on work in modern linguistics (Chomsky, Montague, etc.) and in computer science, while differences between natural language, the linguist's area, and formal (programming) languages, the field of computer science, are being disregarded. Usually this difference is defined simply as the problem of ambiguities: natural languages are ambiguous, formal languages (at least programming languages) are not. We are convinced that the essential differences between the two types of languages are different and that ambiguities are one of the manifestations of these differences and not the differences themselves.