Synthetic Fluency: Hallucinations, Confabulations, and the Creation of Irish Words in LLM-Generated Translations

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Castilho, Sheila, Fitzsimmons, Zoe, Holton, Claire, Donagh, Aoife Mc
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Castilho, Sheila
Fitzsimmons, Zoe
Holton, Claire
Donagh, Aoife Mc
author_facet Castilho, Sheila
Fitzsimmons, Zoe
Holton, Claire
Donagh, Aoife Mc
contents This study examines hallucinations in Large Language Model (LLM) translations into Irish, specifically focusing on instances where the models generate novel, non-existent words. We classify these hallucinations within verb and noun categories, identifying six distinct patterns among the latter. Additionally, we analyse whether these hallucinations adhere to Irish morphological rules and what linguistic tendencies they exhibit. Our findings show that while both GPT-4.o and GPT-4.o Mini produce similar types of hallucinations, the Mini model generates them at a significantly higher frequency. Beyond classification, the discussion raises speculative questions about the implications of these hallucinations for the Irish language. Rather than seeking definitive answers, we offer food for thought regarding the increasing use of LLMs and their potential role in shaping Irish vocabulary and linguistic evolution. We aim to prompt discussion on how such technologies might influence language over time, particularly in the context of low-resource, morphologically rich languages.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_07680
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Synthetic Fluency: Hallucinations, Confabulations, and the Creation of Irish Words in LLM-Generated Translations
Castilho, Sheila
Fitzsimmons, Zoe
Holton, Claire
Donagh, Aoife Mc
Computation and Language
This study examines hallucinations in Large Language Model (LLM) translations into Irish, specifically focusing on instances where the models generate novel, non-existent words. We classify these hallucinations within verb and noun categories, identifying six distinct patterns among the latter. Additionally, we analyse whether these hallucinations adhere to Irish morphological rules and what linguistic tendencies they exhibit. Our findings show that while both GPT-4.o and GPT-4.o Mini produce similar types of hallucinations, the Mini model generates them at a significantly higher frequency. Beyond classification, the discussion raises speculative questions about the implications of these hallucinations for the Irish language. Rather than seeking definitive answers, we offer food for thought regarding the increasing use of LLMs and their potential role in shaping Irish vocabulary and linguistic evolution. We aim to prompt discussion on how such technologies might influence language over time, particularly in the context of low-resource, morphologically rich languages.
title Synthetic Fluency: Hallucinations, Confabulations, and the Creation of Irish Words in LLM-Generated Translations
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.07680