COSC 326 Look Who’s Talking

COSC 326 
Look Who’s Talking
Problem Description
In English when we say "we go", it could mean one of a variety of things, for example:
• You and I go
• He/She and I go
• You (two or more) and I go
• They and I go
In Maori, this is not the case as the pronouns (the ’we’ part in the example above) tell ¯
us who’s involved (the subject of the sentence). The table below shows this:
Includes both
speaker and
listener
Excludes the
listener(s)
Excludes the
speaker
Neither the
speaker nor
listener(s)
One person au/ahau
I,me
koe
you
ia
he, she,
him, her
Two people
taua ¯
we, us,
you, and I
maua ¯
we, us,
but not you
korua ¯
you two
raua ¯
they, them
Three or more
people
tatou ¯
we, us,
including you
matou ¯
we, us,
but not you
koutou
you
ratou ¯
they, them
On top of this we have to worry about the tense – when the thing happens. For example,
past completed – I went, present – I go, and future – I will go. In Maori, this is determined ¯
by a ’marker’:
Sentence Starter Example
Past I
I haere au
I went
Present Kei te Kei te haere au
I go
Future Ka Ka haere au
I will go
COSC 326 2018 Semester 2 Étude 3
Task
Write a program that takes an English sentence (e.g. ’We (3 excl) go’) and translate it
into Maori (e.g., ’Kei te haere m ¯ atou’). ¯
For example these lines of input:
We (3 excl) are going
I am going
They (2 excl) are reading
You (2 incl) are reading
I went
I will go
gibberish
We are coming
should produce output like:
Kei te haere m¯atou
Kei te haere au
Kei te p¯anui r¯aua
Kei te p¯anui k¯orua
I haere au
Ka haere au
invalid sentence
unknown verb "coming"
Notes:
1. Maori places a sentence starter then the verb followed by the subject then the ¯
object, where as English is subject-verb-object.
2. Maori doesn’t change the verbs to indicated tense unlike English, the sentence ¯
starter does.
3. Maori doesn’t change the verbs to indicated who’s talking unlike English. ¯
4. We will only be using the verbs below:
COSC 326 2018 Semester 2 Étude 3
haere - to go
hanga - to make
kite - to see
hiahia - to want
karanga - to call
patai ¯ - to ask
panui ¯ - to read
ako - to learn
Relates to Objectives
1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.2, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 3.5, 4.1, 4.2, 4.6
(2 point, Pair)