What does "Parallel Corpus" mean?
Table of Contents
A parallel corpus is a collection of texts in two or more languages that are aligned by their meaning. This means that for each sentence or phrase in one language, there is a direct translation in another language.
Purpose
Parallel corpora are important for tasks like machine translation, where the goal is to convert text from one language to another. They provide examples of how phrases are expressed in different languages, helping computers learn and improve their translation skills.
Creation
To create a parallel corpus, researchers often gather data from websites, books, or other sources. They align sentences or phrases using dictionaries or language models. Crowdsourcing, which involves many people contributing to the project, can also be used to collect data efficiently.
Benefits
Having a well-built parallel corpus helps in developing smarter translation models. It allows for better understanding and translation of low-resource languages, where there may not be enough data available. By using these corpora, researchers can improve translation quality and make tools more accessible for speakers of different languages.