OBJECTIVE
I am currently working full time in machine translation, and am interested in part time translation work from Norwegian, Russian and German to English.
NATURAL LANGUAGES
Native: English
Near-Native: Norwegian, Russian
BA (valedictorian):
German
Read fluently:
Swedish, Danish
Read semi-fluently:
French, Dutch
Read with a dictionary: most Indo-European East and West European languages
COMPUTERS
· Have
written commercial software using: Perl, C, C++,
Pascal, Applescript, PL/I, SQL, html. I have designed ground-breaking algorithms
for several large scale natural language software projects, including the
most widely used hyphenation software (Dashes) in the world. Dashes hyphenates
in 18 languages and is included in thousands of major newpapers, journals
and publishing systems worldwide.
· Programs: mySQL, Quark XPress, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe
PageMill, Filemaker Pro, MS FrontPage, MS Excel, MS Access, Quicken, TurboTax,
among others.
EDUCATION
University of Trondheim, Norway
· Doctor Philosophiae (the older and higher of the two PhDs offered
in Norway) -- dissertation on sound symbolism What's
in a Word.
GPA: N/A
Dates: November 2001.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
· PhD candidate in formal theoretical linguistics. I have completed
all necessary coursework and qualifying exams. Left MIT prior to graduation
in order to start Circle Noetic Services.
GPA: 4.9/5.0
Dates: Sep. 1981 to May 1985.
University of Leningrad
· Studied Russian syntax, phonetics, literature, history.
GPA: 5.0/5.0
Dates: Sep. 1980 to Jan. 1981.
Colorado State University
· BA in German with minor in mathematics. (completed all but one
course in advanced calculus required for a BS in math)
· Graduated summa cum laude with Honors, chosen 1979, 1980 best
Russian and German student at CSU, Phi Beta Kappa, awarded the President,
Honors and Westfall Scholarships.
GPA: 4.0/4.0.
Dates: Sep. 1976 to May 1977, Sep. 1978 to May 1980.
University of Oslo
· Grunnfag degree in linguistics.
GPA: 1,9 (a good mark)
Dates: Sep. 1977 to May 1978.
EXPERIENCE
SDL International
I am working as a computational linguist for their machine translation
software. I have primarily been writing supporting software in Perl. I
have also designed and built a sentence and lexical database in mySQL with
an Access Interface.
1994-2002
I have in recent years taken on various translation projects including:
· A German to English, Karl Friedrich Althoff, The Primordial Alphabet and the Gospel According to John, to be published by the Center for American Studies.
· A German to English, Suitbert Ertel, Sinnvolle Artikulation, Meaningful Articulation, to be published in Iconicity in Language.
· Norwegian to English, Jon Magnus, Veien til Karlsvogna, Charlemagne's Wagon.
In 1994, I sold my share of Circle Noetics, and spent the next years developing research in a neglected branch of linguistics which particularly interests me. During this time I have:
· Published one book, The Gods of the Word,.
· Co-founded the Linguistic Iconism Association, which now has over 300 members.
· Founded a peer-reviewed academic journal Iconicity in Language.
· Developed an extensive award-winning Web site about sound symbolism and linguistic iconicity.
· Written a 900 page Dictionary of English Sound to be published in the fall by Weidler Verlag in Berlin.
· Written a doctoral dissertation entitled What's in a Word? for which I received a PhD degree from the University of Trondheim in Norway, also soon to be published by Weidler Verlag.
I have in recent years taken on various translation projects including:
· I worked as a subcontractor for Microsoft to write them Italian morphological parsing software which they incorporated into their electronic book devices.
· I've designed Web Sites for a few local businesses and individuals.
· I've done some Internet-related commercial Applescript applications.
Circle Noetic
Services
Position: CEO, co-founder, developer
Dates: 1985-1993.
Major products: OEM linguistic software Dashes hyphenation
algorithm, Password spelling checker, WordFan morphological parser and
generator, InOtherWords lexical database. Dashes and Password are sold
as stand-alone products on the Mac and IBM PC, and all products are sold
on an OEM basis to be incorporated into other software. Customers include(d)
Linotype, LetraSet, Atex, RagTime, Quark, Microsoft, US West, among others.
Duties at CNS:
Software Development:
· Was the primary designer of all CNS software. In particular:
· Designed all of the the Dashes hyphenation software (in C) for 18 languages and was responsible for maintenance of all data files.
· Co-designed a linguistic compression method for the spelling checker.
· Designed and wrote thousands of entries for the "In Other Words" lexical database, including a word net, semantic selectional restrictions, morphological parses, syntactic subcategorization frames, pronunciation tables, etc..
· Designed a text retrieval tool, WordFan (in C), which given an input word, generates a list of morphologically related words. There were two such programs -- one dictionary based and one algorithmic.
· I also maintained and developed most of the data files and many of the dictionaries for Password. This combined with the Dashes and Word Fan development involved reading, typing and analyzing millions of words in 28 languages.
Management:
· Was responsible for managing all of the employees and subcontractors,
with the exception of some of the developers of the Spanish dictionary
in 1988 and one programmer. This involved hiring, supporting employees,
solving personnel problems, setting company policies, employee evaluations,
firing, and training.
· In 1988-1990, I was responsible for managing all orders, customer
requests, prioritizing projects and seeing to it that they were completed
within a reasonable amount of time. Projects included mass mailings, trade
shows, software development, software ports, sales, contract negotiations,
and correspondence.
Finances
· In 1988 and part of 1990, kept all the books for the company --
social security, estimated taxes, payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable,
etc.
· Handled collections and organized auditing of companies that were
delinquent.
· Through 1988, I did all income taxes.
Sales and Marketing
· Designed the company sales and marketing strategy.
· Wrote the copy for all advertisements, press releases and company
literature.
· In 1988 and 1989, I organized all printing, trade shows and managed
all contact with the press.
· Did many sales calls and negotiated most contracts. I also revised
contracts of various types based on prototypes provided by our lawyer.
· Wrote several technical manuals for various software applications.
University of Trondheim, Trondheim,
Norway
Position: post-doc.
· Initiated and did the first entries for a lexicon project for
the U. of Trondheim Linguistics Department, now called TROLL, which is
still active and employs people.
Dates: November 1986 - May 1987
Compugraphic Corporation
Position: programmer.
· Designed and wrote a hyphenation subroutine for their DTP program
which was to run on the Apple LISA. (in Pascal)
Dates: June 1985 - August 1985
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Positions:
· Research Assistant in a government funded Cognitive Science research
project to design compact dictionary databases and efficient methods for
accessing them.
· Teaching Assistant in introductory linguistics courses.
· Resident Assistant (or counsellor and academic tutor) for an undergraduate
dormatory, MIT's Russian House.
· Grader and evaluator for essays required of undergraduate applicants
and entering freshmen.
Dates: September 1981 to May 1984.
National Center for Atmospheric Research
Position: Programmer
· Was the only person on a project to design and code a computerized
library circulation system for the NCAR library, including check-ins, check-outs,
renewals, overdues and statistics. (PL/I) I implemented all the functionality,
but didn't have time to debug it fully before I left to return to graduate
school.
Dates: Jun. 1982 to Aug 1982.
Position: Programmer
· Was the only person on a project to design and code a full text
retrieval system for a meteorological database which NCAR licensed from
Lockheed. (PL/I)
Dates: Jan. 1981 to Aug. 1981.
PUBLICATIONS
· "Review of Gruber's 'Look and See' and Jackendoff's
'Grammatical Relations and Functional Structure", Lexical Semantics
in Review, MIT Center for Cognitive Science, 1985.
· I wrote quite a few manuals for software products in the years
1985-1990. I retain some examples, which I can produce on request.
· "Mincing Words", Language International, 1998.
· The
Gods of the Word: Archetypes in the Consonants, Truman State University Press, 1999.
· "I Am the Utterance of my Name", Ariadne's Web,
5 (2), Winter 1999/2000.
· Have published 13 of my poems with 7 different reviewed journals
or reviewed poetry Web sites.
· Founder of the academic journal, Iconicity
in Language.
· "Review of Gérard Genette Mimologics",
Iconicity in Language, 2001.
· A 900 page sound-symbolic dictionary A Dictionary of
English Sound, 2002, to appear by Weidler Verlag in Berlin, Germany.
· What's in a Word: Studies in Phonosemantics, my doctoral
dissertation, 2002, to appear by Weidler Verlag in Berlin, Germany.
PERSONAL
I was born Margaret Hope Magnus in Boulder Colorado, and grew up primarily in Colorado and also in Trondheim, Norway. I enjoy sports, piano, and reading in a wide variety of subjects. At present I live in Southern New Hampshire.
REFERENCES
· Catherine Chvany, professor emerita of Russian linguistics, who served on my doctoral committee and hired me as counsellor for the undergraduate dorm.
· Thomas Everth, software engineer TE Software, former CEO and co-developer of the RagTime DTP software (a client of Circle Noetics) and a former colleague at CNS.
· Linda Hardesty, software consultant, for whose business I have developed Applescript software. (prefers to be reached by phone rather than e-mail: 303/545-9044)
· Lars Hellan, professor, University of Trondheim, Norway, served on my doctoral committee, also hired me for a research position in 1987 during which I initiated the lexicon project, TROLL.
· John Robert Ross, former full professor of linguistics, MIT, co-founder of CNS, now professor at U. of North Texas, on the editorial staff of Iconicity in Language.
· Richard Rhodes, professor of linguistics, University of California, Berkeley, on the editorial staff of Iconicity in Language.
· Sean A. Day, professor of linguistics, University of Miami, president of the American Synaesthesia Association, on the editorial staff of Iconicity in Language.
· Charles Pyle, former professor of linguistics, U. of Michigan, on the review staff of Iconicity in Language.
Other references available upon request.