Machine Translation And Human Translation
Ever since the idea of using computers to translate natural languages was first proposed
in the 1940s and since the first investigations were begun in the 1950s, translators have watched developments either in scorn or in trepidation. Either they have dismissed the very notion that anyone could even believe that translation could be mechanized, or they have feared that their profession would be taken over entirely by machines.
When machine translation (MT) was in its infancy, in the early 1950s, research was necessarily modest in its aims. It was constrained by the limitations of hardware, in particular by inadequate computer memories and slow access to storage, and by the unavailability of high-level programming languages. Even more crucially it could look to no assistance from the language experts. Syntax was a relatively neglected area of linguistic study and semantics was virtually ignored. The earliest researchers knew that whatever systems they could develop would produce poor quality results, and they assumed major involvement of human translators both in the pre-editing of input texts and in the post-editing of the output. To reduce problems of ambiguity seen as the crucial difficulty they proposed also the development of controlled languages and the restriction of systems to specific subject areas.
For the next decade MT research grew in ambition. It became widely assumed that the goal of MT must be the development of fully automatic systems producing high quality translations. The use of human assistance was initially regarded as an interim arrangement. The emphasis of research was therefore on the search for theories and methods for the achievement of perfect translations. It was of course this assumption that alarmed professional translators and that was famously criticised by Bar-Hillel (1960), who castigated current MT projects for their pursuit of the unattainable goal of fully automatic high quality machine
translation.
For most MT researchers in the 1960s, however, the current systems were temporary solutions to be superseded in the near future. They continued the perfectionist goal and gave virtually no serious consideration to how less than perfect MT could be used effectively and economically in practice. Even more damaging was the almost total neglect of the expertise of professional translators, who naturally became anxious and antagonistic. They foresaw the loss of their jobs, since this is what many MT researchers themselves believed was inevitable.
It is now widely accepted that MT proper works best in domain-specific and controlled environments.
When the first versions of MT systems appeared for personal computers (in the early 1980s) it was widely assumed that they would be used in much the same way as the mainframe systems had been, i.e. either to produce rough versions for information purposes, or draft translations for later revision and refinement. In both cases, it was also widely assumed that the principal recipients of MT output would be translators or at least people with good knowledge of both source and target languages; and, in the case of large organizations, it was expected that most would be professionally trained translators.
In general most commentators agree that traditional MT as such is quite inappropriate for professional translators. They do not want to be subservient to machines; few want to be revisers of poor quality MT output. What they have long been asking for are sophisticated translation tools. Since the early 1990s they can now have them in the shape of translation workstations. These offer translators the opportunity of making their work more productive without taking away the intellectual challenge of translation. Translator workstations combine access to dictionaries and terminological databanks, multilingual word processing, the management of glossaries and terminology resources, appropriate facilities for the input and output of texts. Above all, they include a translation memory facility, which enables translators to create, align, store and access existing translations for later reuse or revision or as sources of example translations it is the facility now regarded as perhaps the most significant aid for the professional translator.
The development of translation tools became feasible, firstly with the availability of real-time interactive computer environments in the late 1960s, then the appearance of word processing in the 1970s and of microcomputers in the 1980s and, subsequently, with intra-organization networking and the development of larger computer storage capacities. Although workstations were developed outside the traditional MT orbit, their appearance has led to a decline of the previous antagonism of translators to the MT community in general. They are seen as the direct result of MT research. Indeed, the translation memory facility does in fact derive directly from what was initially pure MT research on bilingual text alignment within a statistics-based approach to automatic translation.
The principal focus of MT research remains the development of systems for translating written documents of scientific and technical nature outside the range of possibility are literary and legal texts, indeed any texts where style and presentation are important parts of the message. Until recently, spoken language was also outside the range. However, within the last fifteen years, research on spoken translation has developed into a major area of MT activity.
In general, it assumed that systems are for the use of those who know something of both source and target languages. However, some research has begun on systems for speakers or writers who are quite ignorant of the target language. In these cases, what is required is a means of creating a message in an unknown language; it does not have to be a straight translation of any existing original. From interactive dialogue a translatable message can be composed for automatic conversion into an idiomatic and correct message in the target language without further involvement of the originator.
There is a need also for systems suitable for those wholly ignorant of the source
language. This need has so far been provided, on the one hand, by the use of unrevised outputs from older batch-processing systems, and on the other hand, by cheap PC-based software. None are wholly satisfactory and the development of fully automatic systems specifically for this potentially huge market is a challenge for future MT research.
Translation for dissemination has been satisfied with mixed successes by the large-scale MT systems. These are the systems most familiar to translators. Cost-effective use of relatively poor quality output, which has to be revised by human translators, is difficult to achieve without some control of the language of input texts. It has been an option for only the largest multinational companies with large volumes of documentation, which cannot be dealt with except by automating parts of their total documentation processes. These are systems which are effectively company-specific, and are costly to develop and costly to operate. The involvement of professional translators has varied, but in general these have been developments outside the translation profession.
Translation for assimilation has not traditionally been undertaken by professional translators. The work has been done in organizations often by secretaries or other clerical staff with some knowledge of languages as an occasional service, and usually under time pressures. Those performing the work have naturally been dissatisfied with the results, since they are not professionally trained. In this function, MT has filled a gap since the first systems were available in the early 1960s.
The presence of automatic translation facilities on the Internet will undoubtedly alert a much wider public to the importance of translation as a major and crucial feature of global communication, probably to a degree never before experienced. Inevitably, translation will itself receive a much higher profile than in the past. People using the crude output of MT systems will come to realize the added value of professionally produced translations. As a consequence, the demand for human produced translation will certainly rise, and the translation profession will be busier than ever. Fortunately, professional translators will have the support of a wide range of computer-based translation tools, enabling them to increase productivity and to improve consistency and quality. In conclusion, automation and MT will not be a threat to the livelihood of the translator, but will be the source of even greater business and will be the means of achieving considerably improved working conditions.
Aunes Oversettelser AS has been in the business for 26 years, and we are specialized in technical translations. We are specializing in the Nordic languages, and can offer services into Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Icelandic. The premier translation agency for Norway and the Nordic region! Technical translation services for businesses in the Nordic countries and translation agencies world-wide.
by: carmen
A Defunct Railroad And The Red Carpet Runner Cheap And Best Wedding Dress Why Portable Storage Is The Moving And Storage Option Alcohol And Alcoholism Why Buy Amana Air Conditioning Products - Reliable Ac Warranty And Ac Installation Support Team Islamic Finance And Its Future 2012 Hangzhou Net Goods Fair Clothing And E-commerce China International Stationery And Office Products Fair Meets You In Shanghai In September Three Star Hotels In Kolkata: The True Manifestation Of Royalty And Fascination The Various Styles And Designs Of Aprons Test 000-536: Fundamentals Of Applying Tivoli Security And Compliance Management Solutions V3 Locksmith Services And The Tools Used In Locksmithing Outsource And Get The Best Animation