# Words as Bridges: Exploring Computational Support for Cross-Disciplinary Translation Work

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.18471 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.18471/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 33 of its 63 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 24 Mar 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 33)

- [Word Translation Without Parallel Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.04087/) (2017)
- [Unsupervised Machine Translation Using Monolingual Corpora Only](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.00043/) (2017)
- [Diachronic Word Embeddings Reveal Statistical Laws of Semantic Change](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1605.09096/) (2016)
- [A robust self-learning method for fully unsupervised cross-lingual mappings of word embeddings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.06297/) (2018)
- [Diachronic word embeddings and semantic shifts: a survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.03537/) (2018)
- [Statistically Significant Detection of Linguistic Change](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1411.3315/) (2014)
- [Loss in Translation: Learning Bilingual Word Mapping with a Retrieval Criterion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.07745/) (2018)
- [Human-LLM Compound System for Scientific Ideation through Facet Recombination and Novelty Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14634/) (2024)
- [Augmenting Scientific Papers with Just-in-Time, Position-Sensitive Definitions of Terms and Symbols](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.14237/) (2020)
- [Bilingual Lexicon Induction with Semi-supervision in Non-Isometric Embedding Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.06625/) (2019)
- [Understanding Cross-Lingual Alignment -- A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.06228/) (2024)
- [A Wind of Change: Detecting and Evaluating Lexical Semantic Change across Times and Domains](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.02979/) (2019)
- [Synergi: A Mixed-Initiative System for Scholarly Synthesis and Sensemaking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.07517/) (2023)
- [Cross-lingual Alignment Methods for Multilingual BERT: A Comparative Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.14304/) (2020)
- [We Don't Speak the Same Language: Interpreting Polarization through Machine Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02339/) (2020)
- [Paper Plain: Making Medical Research Papers Approachable to Healthcare Consumers with Natural Language Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.00130/) (2022)
- [Augmenting Scientific Creativity with an Analogical Search Engine](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.15476/) (2022)
- [Threddy: An Interactive System for Personalized Thread-based Exploration and Organization of Scientific Literature](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.03455/) (2022)
- [CiteSee: Augmenting Citations in Scientific Papers with Persistent and Personalized Historical Context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.07302/) (2023)
- [Relatedly: Scaffolding Literature Reviews with Existing Related Work Sections](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.06754/) (2023)
- [PaperWeaver: Enriching Topical Paper Alerts by Contextualizing Recommended Papers with User-collected Papers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.02939/) (2024)
- [Unsupervised Cross-lingual Transfer of Word Embedding Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.03633/) (2018)
- [PersonaFlow: Designing LLM-Simulated Expert Perspectives for Enhanced Research Ideation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.12538/) (2024)
- [Words as Gatekeepers: Measuring Discipline-specific Terms and Meanings in Scholarly Publications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.09676/) (2022)
- [Bursting Scientific Filter Bubbles: Boosting Innovation via Novel Author Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.05669/) (2021)
- [Unsupervised Cross-Lingual Information Retrieval using Monolingual Data Only](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.00879/) (2018)
- [Time-Aware Ancient Chinese Text Translation and Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03179/) (2021)
- [ComLittee: Literature Discovery with Personal Elected Author Committees](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.06780/) (2023)
- [IsoVec: Controlling the Relative Isomorphism of Word Embedding Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.05098/) (2022)
- [A Resource-Free Evaluation Metric for Cross-Lingual Word Embeddings Based on Graph Modularity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.01926/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [The Variance Paradox: How AI Reduces Diversity but Increases Novelty](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.19264/) (2025)
- [Breaking the Curse of Knowledge: Designing Personalized Jargon Support for Real-Time Online Meetings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.10239/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Scholars often explore literature outside of their home community of study. This exploration process is frequently hampered by field-specific jargon. Past computational work often focuses on supporting translation work by removing jargon through simplification and summarization; here, we explore a different approach that preserves jargon as useful bridges to new conceptual spaces. Specifically, we cast different scholarly domains as different language-using communities, and explore how to adapt techniques from unsupervised cross-lingual alignment of word embeddings to explore conceptual alignments between domain-specific word embedding spaces.We developed a prototype cross-domain search engine that uses aligned domain-specific embeddings to support conceptual exploration, and tested this prototype in two case studies. We discuss qualitative insights into the promises and pitfalls of this approach to translation work, and suggest design insights for future interfaces that provide computational support for cross-domain information seeking.