Yehoshua Bar-Hillel ( he, יהושע בר-הלל; 8 September 1915, in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
– 25 September 1975, in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
) was an Israeli
philosopher,
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
, and
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...
. He was a pioneer in the fields of
machine translation
Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT (not to be confused with computer-aided translation, machine-aided human translation or interactive translation), is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates ...
and
formal linguistics.
Biography
Born Oscar Westreich in Vienna,
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
, he was raised in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
. In 1933 he emigrated to
Palestine with the
Bnei Akiva
Bnei Akiva ( he, בְּנֵי עֲקִיבָא, , "Children of Akiva") is the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, with over 125,000 members in 42 countries. It was first established in Mandatory Palestine in 1929.
History ...
youth movement, and briefly joined the
kibbutz Tirat Zvi before settling in Jerusalem and marrying Shulamith.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, he served in the
Jewish Brigade of the British Army. He fought with the
Haganah during the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, losing an eye.
Bar-Hillel received his PhD in Philosophy from the
Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public university, public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein ...
where he also studied mathematics under
Abraham Fraenkel, with whom he eventually coauthored ''Foundations of Set Theory'' (1958, 1973).
Bar-Hillel was a major disciple of
Rudolf Carnap, whose ''Logical Syntax of Language'' much influenced him. He began a correspondence with Carnap in the 1940s, which led to a 1950 post-doctorate under Carnap at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, and to his collaborating on Carnap's 1952 ''An Outline of the Theory of Semantic Information''.
Bar-Hillel then took up a position at
MIT, where he was the first academic to work full-time in the field of
machine translation
Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT (not to be confused with computer-aided translation, machine-aided human translation or interactive translation), is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates ...
. Bar-Hillel organised the first International Conference on Machine Translation in 1952. Later he expressed doubts that general-purpose fully automatic high-quality machine translation would ever be feasible. He was also a pioneer in the field of
information retrieval.
In 1953, Bar-Hillel joined the
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...
department at the
Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public university, public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein ...
, where he taught until his death at age 60. His teachings and writings strongly influenced an entire generation of Israeli philosophers and linguists, including
Asa Kasher and
Avishai Margalit
Avishai Margalit ( he, אבישי מרגלית, born 1939) is an Israeli professor emeritus in philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 2006 to 2011, he served as the George F. Kennan Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in ...
. In 1953, he founded a pioneering algebraic-computational linguistic group, and in 1961 he contributed to the proof of the
pumping lemma for
context-free languages (sometimes called the Bar-Hillel lemma). Bar-Hillel helped found the Hebrew University's department of
Philosophy of Science
Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...
. From 1966 to 1969 Bar-Hillel presided over the Division for Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science of the
International Union of History and Philosophy of Science
The International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology is one of the members of the International Science Council (ISC). It was founded in 1955 by merging the ''International Union of History of Science'' (IUHS) and the ''Inte ...
.
Bar-Hillel's daughter
Maya Bar-Hillel is a
cognitive psychologist at the
Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public university, public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein ...
, known for her collaborations with
Amos Tversky and for her role in critiquing
Bible code study. His other daughter, Mira Bar-Hillel, is a freelance journalist who has worked for the London ''
Evening Standard
The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format.
In October 2009, after be ...
''. His granddaughter,
Gili Bar-Hillel
Gili Bar-Hillel Semo ( he, גילי בר-הלל סמו; born Gili Bar-Hillel in 1974) is an English-Hebrew translator from Israel, best known for translating the '' Harry Potter'' series into Hebrew.
Biography
Bar-Hillel is the daughter of Maya ...
, is the Hebrew translator of the
Harry Potter
''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at ...
series of books.
Related terms
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Categorial grammar
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Indexical expression
Notes
Melby, Alan. The Possibility of Language (Amsterdam:Benjamins, 1995, 27-41)Appendix III of 'The present status of automatic translation of languages', Advances in Computers, vol.1 (1960), p.158-163. Reprinted in Y.Bar-Hillel: Language and information (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1964), p.174-179.
Select bibliography
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References
External links
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Yehoshua Bar-Hillel: A Philosopher's Contribution to Machine Translation
*
Bar-Hillel and Machine Translation: Then and Now."
''Time'' Magazine article from 1954.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bar Hillel, Yehoshua
1915 births
1975 deaths
20th-century Israeli mathematicians
Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni
Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty
Israeli Jews
Jewish Brigade personnel
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Mandatory Palestine
Jewish philosophers
Jewish scientists
Linguists from Israel
Machine translation researchers
Mandatory Palestine military personnel of World War II
Mathematical logicians
Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Philosophers of language
20th-century linguists
20th-century Israeli philosophers
Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty