First, I will present a new class of probabilistic unsupervised model that use these multilingual links as a form of naturally occurring supervision for language analysis. Then I will show that these methods also enable us to solve a novel task, beyond the scope of past techniques: the automatic decipherment of ancient lost languages. I will present results on the unsupervised translation of ancient Ugaritic tablets using data from related Semitic languages.
This is joint work with Benjamin Snyder, Tahira Naseem and Jacob Eisenstein.
RSVP: Because we need to provide enough food, please let Kathy Corser (kcorser@bcs.rochester.edu) know if you will be attending (and if you have dietary restrictions). Thanks.