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Symmetry
Since `possible translation' is defined in terms of `having the
same syntactic meaning', the relation is symmetric. That is,
for each pair of sentences 
and 
, translates to if and
only if translates to . Because we preserve the syntactic
structure only to a certain degree (wherever possible), we suspect that
the relation is not transitive.
Given the assumption that linguistically possible translation is a symmetric relation, we have defined the computational model in such a way that it is reversible (see below).
Gertjan van Noord
Thu Nov 24 18:57:05 MET 1994