Skip to main content

The Georgetown-IBM Experiment Demonstrated in January 1954

  • Conference paper
Machine Translation: From Real Users to Research (AMTA 2004)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 3265))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

The public demonstration of a Russian-English machine translation system in New York in January 1954 – a collaboration of IBM and Georgetown University – caused a great deal of public interest and much controversy. Although a small-scale experiment of just 250 words and six ‘grammar’ rules it raised expectations of automatic systems capable of high quality translation in the near future. This paper describes the system, its background, its impact and its implications.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. ALPAC: Languages and machines: computers in translation and linguistics. A report by the Automatic Language Processing Advisory Committee, Division of Behavioral Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences – National Research Council (1966)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Dostert, L.E.: The Georgetown-I.B.M. experiment. In: Locke, W.N., Booth, A.D. (eds.) Machine translation of languages, pp. 124–135. M.I.T.Press, Mass (1955)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Garvin, P.: The Georgetown-IBM experiment of 1954: an evaluation in retrospect. In: Papers in linguistics in honor of Dostert, pp. 46–56. The Hague, Mouton (1967) ;reprinted in his On machine translation. The Hague, Mouton , 51-64 (1972)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Macdonald, N.: Language translation by machine - a report of the first successful trial. Computers and Automation 3(2), 6–10 (1954)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Macdonald, R.R.: The history of the project. In: Macdonald, R.R. (ed.) General report 1952-1963, pp. 3–17. Georgetown University Machine Translation Project, Washington (1963) (Georgetown University Occasional Papers on Machine Translation, 30)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Montgomery, Christine, A.: Is FAHQ(M)T impossible? Memoirs of Paul Garvin and other MT colleagues. In: John Hutchins, W. (ed.) Early years in machine translation: memoirs and biographies of pioneers, pp. 97–110. John Benjamins, Amsterdam (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ornstein, J.: Mechanical translation: new challenge to communication. Science 122(21), 745–748 (1955)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Panov, Yu.N.: Automatic translation. Translated by R.Kisch. Pergamon,London (1960)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Sheridan, P.: Research in language translation on the IBM type 701. IBM Technical Newsletter 9, 5–24 (1955)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Vasconcellos, M.: The Georgetown project and Leon Dostert: recollections of a young assistant. In: John Hutchins, W. (ed.) Early years in machine translation: memoirs and biographies of pioneers, pp. 87–96. John Benjamins, Amsterdam (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Zarechnak, M.: The history of machine translation. In: Henisz-Dostert, B., Macdonald, R.R., Zarechnak, M. (eds.) Machine translation, pp. 20–28. The Hague, Mouton (1979)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Hutchins, W.J. (2004). The Georgetown-IBM Experiment Demonstrated in January 1954. In: Frederking, R.E., Taylor, K.B. (eds) Machine Translation: From Real Users to Research. AMTA 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3265. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-30194-3_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-30194-3_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-23300-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-30194-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics