Human Translator and Translation Technology

LI Chen

【Abstract】With the great development of technology， translation technology exerts great influence on human translators because during their translation process， they may use many computer-aided translation tools， such as TRADOS， Snowman， WordFisher and etc. However， they always misunderstand the concept of computer-aided translation， so this thesis managed to providedetails about some translation technology and human translators strengths so as to help them improve the productivity and the quality of theirtranslation works effectively and efficiently.

【Key words】machine translation； computer-aided translation； translation technology

Brief introduction of translation technology and its development

With the great development of information revolution in the late 20C， translation technology has become a remarkable characteristic of translation development in this information era. Translation technology has made a breakthrough in the aspect of traditional translation which depended on human translator totally. However， there are many computer-based translation systems are available in order to aid translators to increase their productivity and improve the quality of their productions. At present， many human translators complete their work under the assistance of different kinds of translation tools， which could be partially regarded as computer-aided translation， one of the most popular method and widely accepted idea of translation technology. Here comes out an important concept about translation technology. Different people hold on different opinions， but in general， it refers to the information technology and some electronic translation tools that are used in the course of translating， including machine translation and computer-aided translation， such as translation memory， terminology management， online dictionary， term bank， and corpus， etc. No matter machine translation or computer-aided translation， all these developments are achieved with the great development of computer and internet technology.

On the one hand， we need to come to machine translation， which is “the application of computers to the translation of texts from one natural language into another”. This is the definition given by Hutchins. At the earlier stage， machine translation was restricted by the limitations of hardware and the high-level programming language. What was worse， syntax and semantics were an area of linguistic studies that were virtually neglected. But as to the appearance of greatly improved computer hardware， the first programming language， and some formal grammars researched by Chomsky and other linguists， the quality of translated works that generated by machine has improved a lot. Later， the emergence of PC versions of Machine Translation systems has pushed machine translation move to a higher step. Up to now， machine translation is widely accepted that work best in domain-specific and controlled environments.

On the other hand， we need to move on to Computer-Aided translation， which is a system that human translators use a computer in the translation process. With the development of translation technology， CAT has been widely applied by many professional translators. In general， CAT tools can be divided into several systems， including translation memory system， terminology management system， alignment tools， software localization support tools， and translator workstation， etc. Take Translation Memory for instance， “translation memory is a database of previous translations by means of sentences or sentence-like units called segments”. When translating a text， the database will automatically compare the characters with ones recorded in the database， and then provide kinds of version for human translators. At present， there are many TM tools， such as TRADOS， which iswidely used in many multinational companies， SDLX， WordFisher and so on. These softwares have many characteristics， and terminology management is one of the most important characteristics among them. It is not difficult to realize that there are many technical terms in each text， but sometimes， we would find out the translation of that technical term is inconsistent when we proofreading the whole text. Instead， this terminology management will contribute to avoid above phenomenon. In TRADOS， MultiTerm is a place provided for users to store the technical terms. When processing translation， this Workbench will search out the terms in MultiTerm database， and if this term exists in the database， that term would be translated would be showed in that Workbench window. What is more， human translator is able to choose that term base in order to translate in different areas. This Terminology Management does really help to keep the consistency for the technical terms. This is a practical example for CAT tools in the daily use.

Human translators strengths and attitudes towards translation tools

Irreplaceable Strengths of human translators

Compared with machine translation， which came out with the development of translation technology， human translators have their overwhelming superiority and still keep the core role at the translation process. Firstly， in the aspect of translation style， it may require human translators contributes a lot. Owing to gain the equivalence between source text and target text， human translator needs to option the similar writing styles among them， such as literary translation， business translation， and journalistic translation and so on. Secondly， as to the aspect of determining translation strategies， human translators would choose the suitable translation methods and strategies in the course of translating. For example， in order to achieve the goal of sales promotion， human translator may choose to localize the translated version for the target reader， which cannot be done by the computer or other translation machines. Thirdly， from the pragmatics aspect， which focuses more on context， it is human translators who would deliberate which words would be better to use after glancing over the whole context. Last but not least， in the aspect of cross-culture， perhaps this process would be done by human translator only， since translation tools would prefer word-to-word translation， though the system contains countless terms， syntax， corpus or rules， it may not be able to translate the original meaning or deep meaning behind the forms of words. Instead， human translators would clarify and identify the exact meaning via checking and confirming with different resources.

Human translators attitudes toward translation tools

Translators attitudes towards translation tools have been changed a lot from the very beginning of the machine translation to the present with the great development of translation technology. When machine translation used direct and interlingua approaches to translate， human translator could not accept the production that generated word by word by the machine since it was quite literal and not very fluent. What was worse， the meaning of some phrases had been distorted sometimes. Human translators held the view that “translation is an art； something which at every step involves personal choice between uncodifiable alternatives； not merely direct substitutions of equated sets of symbols but choices of values dependent for their soundness on the whole antecedent education and personality of the translator.” However， along with the development of IT service and network service， translation technology has achieved a lot， for example， the use of transfer approach in machine translation， the development of computer-aided translation tools， such as translation memory， terminology management， and alignment tools and so on. At that time， translators attitudes had been changed to accept the production of machine translation， especially in the aspect of CAT tools， many translator hold the point that some CAT software do help their translation a lot.Here are some findings shown in Heather Fulford and JoaquínGranell-Zafras Translation and Technology： a Study of UK Freelance Translators. This journal reported that the overwhelming majority of translators believe ICT to be important to support each of the various groups of their translation activities. This is absolutely true， though some commentators insist that full automation machine translation is not very suitable for professional translators， there is no denying that CAT software applications do help translators doing their works more productive and effective with high-quality translation.

Conclusion

Human translators have no way to resist the development of translation technology， even though there are many difficulties that need to be dealt with urgently. But what would human translators do is to makefull use of translation tools in order to improve the productivity and the quality of the translation works effectively and efficiently. But as to the accuracy and improved editing， it may require human translators to concentrate more on the points that cannot be solved by the translation tools. Generally speaking， human translation and machine translation would be bonded together so that the translated version would become clearer and better to achieve the goal of the source text as well as meet the target texts requirements.

References：

[1]Heather Fulford and JoaquínGranell-Zafra.（2005）.Translation and Technology：a Study of UK Freelance Translators.

[2]John Hutchins.（1997）.Translation Technology and the Translator.

[3]Tina Paulsen Christensen.（2011）.Studies on the Mental Processes in Translation Memory-assisted translation-the State of the Art.

[4]Jose Ramon Biau Gil & Anthony Pym（2006）.Technology and Translation：a pedagogicaloverview.

[5]Gerald Dennett.（1995）.Translation Memory：Concept，products， impact and prospects.

作者简介：李辰（1988.7.16-），汉，女，天津人，硕士研究生，助教，主要研究方向翻译理论、计算机辅助翻译。