Computers - Computer-Aided-Translation: Yes or No
Translation memory (TM) systems, the most widely used toolkits in the localization of digital information at HQ-translate agency, enable the linguistic transition and cultural adaptation of electronic content (e-content) for local markets. The idea behind TM systems is to store in a computer system the original e-content and the translation that has been produced by human translators; the stored translated version of the source text has been broken down into smaller parts, generally one sentence long. Today the most popular CAT tools: TRADOS, Déjà vu, Wordfast. The priviledges of using TM systems are fairly obvious: they increase the translator’s productivity and better translation quality by ensuring that terminology and statements are used consistently within and across translation works. Users in business and cross-border firms submit a 25–60% rise in performance. Yet, it must be stated that the use of TM systems may also have negative effects on translation quality. One of the major discouraging things of TM systems is that they usually operate at sentence level. That’s why, there is a real danger that the translator will focus too much on standalone sentences, possibly disregarding the contexts in which the sentences are embedded. Moreover, the matching algorithms of TM systems are based on very simple formal criteria, such as the similarity of character strings. Thus, the human translator’s notion of the grade of similarity between a segment to be translated and a segment retrieved from the storage base may differ considerably from the grade of similarity calculated by the TM system. This may result in situations wherein exact matches yield wrong translations, or one translation of a fuzzy match requires little or no adjustment but another fuzzy match with the same similarity level is not useful at all (for a discussion on the aspects of evaluating the retrieval mechanisms of memory systems, see Expert Advisory Group on Language Engineering Standards (1996), Whyman and Somers (1999), and Reinke (2000a, 2004). Despite the vices, it should be noted that TM systems generally integrate into the translation routine comparatively smoothly. These CATs leave human translators in control of the actual translation work, while free them from routine work and supporting translation as a creative job whenever the adaptation resourcefulness of a human nature is required. For more remarks, visit us at: HQ-translate company
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