Pastaridpresent:machinetranslationhasbeeome
moreaffordClblearid 15 a usefulconsumertool"Everyday, more words are
translated by machines than
by humans. That's a fact"
Thetranslationnil:btmarecomesfrolllnorknowing
cxactlywheremistakeswillappcar."Machinetransla-
tionis5QIY,"saysChrisropherPyne.direcrorofpart-
nermanagementarSAPGlobalizationServices."Ir"sgor
a 'Jekyll-and-Hyde'characrer.Abour cvery sixthor
sevenrhlinc,a realmonsterishidinginthere_"
Ofcourse,thelackofaccuracyhasruincdtherepu-
tationofmachinetranslation.Mostofushavchada
good.la!!gharthe"wordsalad"servedrousbysoft-
ware-Inparticubr,byfreeWehversions.In1997.Ba-
belFish,poweredbySYSTRAN,gaveonlinemachine
translationtothegeneralpublic.Itwasfol1owedby,
amongothers,MicrosoftTranslator,<ludGoog!cTrans-
!ate. Overtheyears, whilewelaughcd, thesystems
sreadilvimproved.Andtheimperfectqualltydidn'tstop
usfromusingthesetools.
JaapvanderMeer,dircctorofTranslationAutoma-
tionUserSociery(TAUS),saidata recentsllmmitin.Ed:
;oburgh:"Everyday,morewordsaretranslatedbyma-
chinesthanbyhumans.That'sa fact."Hepointsrothe
50 millionrimesdailyrhatllltemerusers"dickthebur-
ron"rotraoslaterextsandsiresonline.Atanaverage
of 100 wordsperuser,thataddsuprofive.billim!words
a daytranslaredbymachines.VanderMeercompafl~s
thistotheworld's 150,000professional rranslarors,
whnmighteaehproduce2,000words<Iday,orthree
billionwordsintotal.Languagespecialists
ManyrraoslatorsfindtharmachlnctranslationisjUSf
roofullofmistakcs[0beofmuchuse.Orhersareafraid
rharircouldcosrrhemtheirjobs.Theynccdn'rworry.
"Thereareneverenoughrraoslarors."saysJulierMaean
arIc.Doc,a rechniC;ll-docwneortranslationcompanyin
512009
Bologna,lraly,witha nctwockofmorethan 900 rrans-
larors.So,machinetranslationsdon·tscemlikeajob
killerforlanguagespecialists.
ßecauseEnglishisagloballanguage,irisrhelanguage
mosttranslarorseantranslarcfrom.Butmaterialpro-
ducedinEoglishbynon-nativespcakerscancaustmore
problemsmanieso!ves.Machincsfindir nearlyimpos-
siblerorranslatetextsrhatcontainmisrakes."English
canappeardeceptivdveasy,bucitisalsoveryeasyro
express oneself in anincomprehcnsjble war," says
Macan.
Samelanguagespccialistsbelievcthatmachincrrans-
lationlowersrhe valucoEtheir.work.Havingspcnt
yearsbecomingexpertsatlanguagescrucruresaodvo·
cabulary,sametrallslatorsdon'elikerhe ideaofonl)'
correcringorcdiringmachinc-rranslatedtexts.
However,mOStpeoplewhotranslarespecialistmare-
rialdausecompurer-ajdedtranslarion(CAT)systems,
suchasSDLTrados.whichincludea translationmem-
un-Wirhmehelpofrhisrool,rranslarorscanalignpar-
alleltexts- theoriginalandthetranslatedversion-
inrwoormorelanguagessidebyside.Mostpeoplealso
usea databaseofrerminology,whichconrainscertain
rermsormeaningsrhararespecificroanindusrry,com-
pany,orevenrothedocumenrirself.
Believing that translarorsshouldcooperate racher
thancompete,theTranslarionAutomationUserSodety
inrroducedanopen,anlinetranslation-memorydara-
baseinJune2009."Byworkingrogcchcr,OUtindustI),
C:lnhavca muchbiggcr.i..nma..I;.tonthcworld,"saysdi-
recrorJaapvanderMeerfrorntheNcrherlands.The
databascisorganizcdbyindusrryandbUSinessarea,
whichcanbereallyusefulforIndJjzatjon,rhcprocess
ofchaogingproduCfssuchassoftwarerosuita partie-
ularlanguageanda specificculture. ~BusinessSpodigbl 15