Constructed languages, or conlangs, have a long 和 storied history in fiction 和 television. 从克林贡语到多斯拉克语, conlangs have served as a means of transporting audiences to new l和s, 向他们介绍新的文化, 作为他者的明确标志.
但是Jannah 马丁看到了conlang, 尤其是她自己构建的语言, as a means of bringing cultures together 和 closing that gap of otherness. 马丁, 她是赌博平台大全传播艺术与科学专业的大四学生, is completing a Schreyer Honors College thesis by constructing a language intended to serve as a bridge language. 与更熟悉的艺术应用程序(conlang)相反, a bridge language serves as an intermediary language for a translation algorithm like Google Translate. 当从德语翻译成英语时, 例如, 该算法将首先通过桥梁语言运行句子, in order to ensure that it has correctly understood nuance 和 neutralized biases.
But the system is imperfect — Google Translate will often choose to translate certain gendered terms according to their use frequency in the language. This leads to a gender bias in translation algorithm than can skew or even obscure the translation. “一个例子,马丁说, “is that the Turkish language doesn’t have a different term for ‘he’ or ‘she.所以如果你拿这个句子, 例如, “她是个医生,，然后用谷歌翻译把它翻译成英文, 它很可能会翻译成“他是一名医生。,’ even though there is nothing to suggest in the original language that it should be a ‘he.’”
conlang 马丁正在开发中, 叫做Katfa 'fulan 'zhosa (KFZ), 性别中立吗?, 专门为解决现有算法中的这种偏见而设计的. “如果你使用像我这样的桥梁语言, 它也没有性别, 它将确保英语将其编码为“他们”或“他或她”,’”她解释道. 消除偏见, 从而最大限度地减少翻译错误, 是马丁计划提交的论文项目的关键组成部分. 这篇论文将包括对conlang作为概念的描述, 历史上的优先级, 语言应用计划, 和 then a lexicon 和 usage guide — almost like a linguistic travel guide.
作为施赖尔荣誉学院的一部分, 马丁 had the opportunity to select a thesis that fit her interests 和 skill set. 而论文是这个过程中最容易辨认的代表, 一些学生选择创造性的项目，如戏剧和艺术作品. Building on a long-st和ing interest in linguistics 和 linguistic anthropology, 对马丁来说，康朗的道路似乎是一条自然的道路. “从本质上讲，这是一个创造性的项目. That’s a possibility for people who are doing theses — it’s a chance to explore different things. 我在做研究, but I’m also getting to create something new 和 not just report something that has already been established.”
Schreyer Honors College Coordinator S和y Feinstein said that she “wasn’t surprised when Jannah asked if she could focus her thesis on constructing a language. 在博克大学的第一学期，她学的是荣誉新生作文, Jannah写到她对密码学很感兴趣, 和, 在另一堂课上, 她创造了一个密码.” 马丁 has been working on developing KFZ for three or four years now 和 working on the thesis for two. She has incorporated the study of linguistics 和 linguistic anthropology into many of her class projects — something she says she was only able to manage because of the personal relationships she developed with her professors. “With the smaller classes, there was a lot of interaction with the professors. 我曾经问过一些教授, “我想在语言学方面做一个具体的项目, 我能把它放到性别这个项目里吗? 我能把它应用到这个生物项目中吗?’ Professors all over the college have allowed me the freedom to focus in on the things I found interesting within their curriculum 和 go my own direction with that.”
Two classes in particular 马丁 says helped her to develop her conlang project. “语言, 文化与交流,由Kesha Morant Williams教授, is focused on dialects 和 the effects cultural differences have on language. 马丁 said “This helped me to create a more natural language flow based on a fictional background, 这影响了发音, 书写变化和词序.”
Another class she credits with influencing her constructed language is “Nonverbal Communication,谢丽尔·尼古拉斯教授. “学习语气、外表、身体姿势等. can serve as communication helped me with the aesthetic components of the script,” 马丁 explained. “It also influenced the way certain words sound 和 how those sounds could be interpreted just based on tone, 以及语序如何暗示重要性或意义.”
马丁’s communications arts 和 sciences professors 和 thesis adviser aren’t the only ones impressed with her work on Katfa’fulan’zhosa: In 2020, she was awarded the Young Investigator Award from the 宾州州立银行 Division of Humanities, 艺术与社会科学. 颁发给学院每个学部的一名学生, the Young Investigator Award recognizes those students who have demonstrated outst和ing scholarship 和 performance or unusual achievement during their internship, 合作社, 或研究. 马丁 says she was absolutely honored to receive the award 和 hopes to show the faculty how she applied what they taught her 和 how she used their trust 和 support to pursue her project.
在的, 宾西法尼亚, native plans to graduate with a bachelor of arts in communication arts 和 sciences. 在那之后? “I’d love to find a way to continue to work with linguistics, probably in an academic sense.”
关于施赖尔荣誉项目
通过Schreyer荣誉学院和博克斯荣誉项目, 宾州州立银行 offers unique opportunities to its highest achieving students. 施赖尔荣誉学院的总招生人数为1,800 scholars represents just 2% of Penn State's undergraduate student population.
