IT AND TRANSLATION

INTRODUCTION

Rationale for IT Applications to Translation

“A computer is a device that can be used to magnify human productivity. Properly used, it does not dehumanize by imposing its own Orwellian stamp on the products of human spirit ……….

………..Translation is a fine and exacting art, but there is much about it that is mechanical and routine, if this were given over to a machine, the productivity of the translator would not only be magnified but this work would become more rewarding, more exciting, more human.”

Martin Kay (1987)

COURSE OVERVIEW

ESSENTIALS TEXT PROCESSING MT TM WORKING WITH CORPORA TERMINOLOGY EXTRACTION AND

GLOSSARY PRODUCTION (MONOLINGUAL AND BILINGUAL CORPORA)

COURSE OVERVIEW - DETAILS

1) ESSENTIALS:Types of computer aidesCAT vs. MTHistory of CAT toolsGeneral principles of working with CAT toolsReference materialsLocalization and internationalizationUNIX

COURSE OVERVIEW - DETAILS

2) TEXT PROCESSINGWord and WordPad (tips and tricks)Fonts, code pages, keyboard layout,

language tools in Windows XP and OfficeSpeech recognition softwareScanningOCRFile types (essential info on the most

common file types and file conversion utilities)

COURSE OVERVIEW - DETAILS

3) MTHow it works, brief exhibition:

Systran ProPromptNeuro TranBabelfish

DESKTOP BASED

SUPPORTS CROATIAN (partially Serbian)

WEB BASED

COURSE OVERVIEW - DETAILS

4) TM:Overview (what it is, standards and file

formats)Desktop vs. server based TM programsWinAlignWordFastTrados (nowadays SDL Trados) –

Freelance editionSisulizer

COURSE OVERVIEW - DETAILS

5) WORKING WITH CORPORAEssentialsConcordancing (WordSmith, Concordancer,

AntConc)Advanced corpora analysis: WordSmith,

TigerSearchLemmatization and annotationParallel corpora: ParaConc

COURSE OVERVIEW - DETAILS

6) TERMINOLOGY EXTRACTION AND GLOSSARY PRODUCTIONEssentialsDoing it automatically: Trados (i.e. SDL)

MultiTerm (Desktop and Extract)Doing it semi-automatically: ParaConc,

Concordancer

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Basic computer literacyPositive outlook:

Computers don’t biteCAT tools are not complex, they are actually

made to make you more efficientInterest in translationWillingness to become several times

more efficient in doing translations

SCHEDULE

HONESTLY, WE DON’T KNOW FOR CERTAIN!

THAT’S WHY WE NEED YOUR EMAIL ADDRESSES, SO THAT WE CAN KEEP YOU UPDATED WITH THE LATEST SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENTS

PROBABLY: LOCATION: 25 (lectures) and 38 (computer lab), SATURDAYS, at16:00 O’CLOCK

LITERATURE

Geoffrey Samuelsson-Brown, A Practical Guide for Translators (Topics in Translation), Multilingual Matters, 4th edition (May 28, 2004)

H. L. Somers (Editor), Computers and Translation: A Translator's Guide (Benjamins Translation Library, 35), John Benjamins Publishing Co, 1st edition (May 2003)

Bert Esselink, A Practical Guide to Localization (Language International World Directory), John Benjamins Publishing Co, Revised 1st edition (September 2000)

Silvia Pavel and Diane Nolet, Handbook of Terminology, Translation Bureau of Canada, 1st edition (2001)

Frank Austermuhl, Electronic Tools for Translators (Translation Practices Explained), St. Jerome, 1st edition, (April 2001)

COURSE OVERVIEW - GRADING

This is a hands-on courseYou will be graded on the basis of the

results of your practical assignments:Creating TMs from parallel texts (fiction and

non-fiction e.g. a book and a manual) – in a way, you will be also creating a parallel corpus

Translating two short passages (fiction and non-fiction) using your newly created TMs

IT AND TRANSLATIONESSENTIALS AND MORE ABOUT THE COURSE

TYPES OF COMPUTER AIDES Computer aides / tools that are relevant to

translators can be roughly classified into three groups: Basic input and editing tools Reference tools Productivity tools

CAT vs MT As soon as you start using computer software

in the process of translating, you are entering the realm of COMPUTER-AIDED TRANSLATION, or CAT in short.

In other words, CAT is a form of translation wherein a human translator translates texts using computer software designed to support and facilitate the translation process.

CAT vs MT (continued) The problem is that COMPUTER-AIDED

TRANSLATION, is sometimes also called COMPUTER-ASSISTED TRANSLATION, MACHINE-AIDED TRANSLATION or MACHINE-ASSISTED TRANSLATION.

Due to the latter two terms, CAT is sometimes confused with MACHINE TRANSLATION, or MT in short.

CAT vs MT (continued) Although these two concepts are related and

similar in some aspects, CAT and MT denote two diametrically different processes: In CAT, the computer program merely supports

the translator, so the translator translates the text himself/herself, making all the essential decisions involved.

In MT, the translator supports the machine, that is to say: the computer (i.e. program) translates the text, which is then edited by the translator, or, in most cases, not edited at all.

CAT vs MT (continued) Graphically represented, the difference is:

automation human involvement

Automatic Translation/

Machine Translation

UnaidedTranslation

Translation processautomated by use of Machine Translation

Translation process aided by electronic tools such as (most typically) Translation Memory

Translation process not aided by any electronic tools

Computer-aidedTranslation (CAT)

Translation Technology Continuum

Adapted from Hutchins & Somers (1992)

CAT – its scope CAT is traditionally associated with large-

scale / corporate translations: manuals and technical documentation software localization

“Typewriter-assisted” (i.e. traditional) translation is usually associated with small-scale / individual translations (done by freelancers): fiction books, scientific papers, etc.

CAT – its scope (continued) This is notion of CAT being restricted to

corporate translation projects dates back to the 90s and is based exclusively on financial criteria: during the early and mid 90s a combination of a

high-end computer and a high-end CAT tool cost as much as a new car

from their very beginnings CAT tools were designed to be capable of handling both big- and small-scale projects, but initially no freelance translator could afford them

CAT – its scope (continued) Even for a freelance translator, CAT route is

nowadays the only possibility if one wants to provide high-quality, 100% terminologically consistent and efficiently produced translations.

A testimony to that is the industry-standard TM program Trados: Trados Freelance edition has been the company’s best-selling TM program for a number of years.

CAT tools – a bit about their history CAT tools were developed after (very)

disappointing initial experiments with MT tools.

So, in order to give you a proper overview of how we got where we are now, we have to start with the history of MT tools

MT History – how we switched to CAT

MT research began in 1950’s – Warren Weaver’s 1949 Memo: “When I look at an article in Russian, I say: This is

really written in English, but it has been coded in some strange symbols. I will now proceed to decode.”

(in Locke and Booth 1955:18)

MT History – how we switched to CAT

Initially based on some misconception about human translation:knowledge of two language systems sufficesit is merely a matter of looking up dictionariesit is easy to define “a good translation”there is only one correct translation possible

MT history milestones: pre-ALPAC

1954: Georgetown system demo successful translation of 49 Russian sentences into English

1955-1966: $50m spent in 20 research centres in USA 1966: Automatic Language Processing Advisory Committee (ALPAC) Report concludes:

”...MT is slower, less accurate and twice as expensive as Human Translation...”“...there is no prospect of useful MT either immediately or in the future...”

MT History – how we switched to CAT

MT history milestones: post-ALPAC

1969 – privately funded projects Logos system (1969); Weidner-CAT (1977); ALPS (1980)

1975 – Météo project in Canada 1976 – European Commission acquires Systran 1979 – Eurotra project in Europe for Multilingual system 1980 – PC-based system 1990 – data-driven system; WebMT

MT History – how we switched to CAT

28

1975 Météo project in Canada Automatic translation of weather forecasts (En -> Fr) Sublanguage approach (domain-specific MT) Most successful MT application to date

•public broadcasting since 1977•Fr -> En available since 1989•only 4% of output needs post-editing•rapid translation staff turnover no longer a problem

MT History – how we switched to CAT

Technological factors specifically: prevalence of PC with improved processing power

Translation market factors official bilingualism/multilingualism create institutional

needs globalisation creates huge commercial needs

Advances in computational linguistics More realistic user expectations Internet creates casual access to multilingual information

Renewed interest in MT in late 80s and early 90s:

MT History – how we switched to CAT

However, translations produced by MT were still not reliable and accurate enough for large-scale commercial applications.

So, it became evident that the human translator cannot be eliminated and replaced by computers.

Actually, it became obvious that computers programs should be used as TOOLS which only HELP the translator.

MT History – how we switched to CAT

History of CAT Tools Unreliability of MT tools -> large

corporations hire translation agencies Translations agencies find it difficult to cope

with the increasing demand Translation agencies develop their own in-

house CAT tools Translation agencies begin to sell their CAT

tools

History of CAT Tools Two major players in the domain of CAT

tools development Trados and STAR Group both started as: TRANSLATION AGENCIES!!!

TRADOS – timeline1990 - first version of TRADOS's main

component, MultiTerm was created for DOS

1992 -TRADOS developed the first MultiTerm for Windows (v3.1)

1992 – TRADOS’s Translator's Workbench with linguistic fuzzy-matching on translation memories for DOS

1994 - TRADOS’s Translator's Workbench for Windows

1997 – BREAKTHROUGH : Microsoft decides to base its internal localization memory store on TRADOS

1998 – Microsoft acquires a share of 20% in TRADOS

TRADOS – timeline (continued)

WHAT WE WANT TO TEACH YOU HERE?

TWO PRACTICAL EXAMPLES OF COMMON TRANSLATION PROBLEMS

IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE:• (quite obvious) the book has an index = YOU (i.e. the translator) are supposed to make it in the translated version of the book

• a vast index = a lot of terminology

• some index terms appear on several pages that are not necessarily in the same chapter (e.g. pg. 36, pg. 92 and pg. 255) = a very serious problem for the consistency of you translation

General principles of working with CAT tools The main goals are EFFICIENCY and

CONSISTENCY CAT tools = TM tools (in this case only) The basic idea is fairly simple:

Documents, especially technical ones, contain a large amount of content that is similar or identical to information already contained in earlier versions or similar documents that have been translated before.

that applies to the source editing language (SL) as well as the target translation languages (TL).

General principles of working with CAT tools

So, wouldn’t it be great to re-use previously translated content as valuable reference material for new translations as well so as to obtain consistency of terminology and phrasing?

That is exactly what CAT tools do! CAT tools make it possible for translators to work

only on content that is being created for the first time. Existing text and text similar to existing text is taken from the available. reference translations (i.e. from TM= translation memory).

General principles of working with CAT tools

So, wouldn’t it be great to re-use previously translated content as valuable reference material for new translations as well so as to obtain consistency of terminology and phrasing?

That is exactly what CAT tools do! CAT tools make it possible for translators to work

only on content that is being created for the first time. Existing text and text similar to existing text is taken from the available. reference translations (i.e. from TM= translation memory).

TRADOS - a screenshot

A DREAM COME TRUE?

NOT REALLY

TO ENJOY ALL THE BENEFITS OF CAT TOOLS FIRST YOU HAVE TO CREATE A TM AND A TERMINOLOGY DATABASE:•either from your old translations•or from new translations (i.e. creating a TM from scratch)

THAT IS WHERE OTHER CAT TOOLS (i.e. NON-TM CAT tools) STEP IN TO SAVE THE DAY!!!

REUSING YOU OLD TRANSLATIONS

The best way to make a TM: reliable source (YOU did the translation) readily available (stored on you PC)

A BRIEF DIGRESSION The term LOCALIZATION has often

popped up in previous slides What is LOCALIZATION?

WHAT IS LOCALIZATION?

Localization is the process of adapting, translating and customizing a product (software) for a specific market (for a specific locale or cultural conventions; the locale usually determines conventions such as sort order, keyboard layout, date, time, number and currency formats). In terms of software localization, this means the production of interfaces that are meaningful and comprehensible to local users.

The Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA) defines localization as: “Localization involves taking a product and making it linguistically and culturally appropriate to the target locale (country/region and language) where it will be used and sold.”

Typically, this involves the translation of the user interface (the messages a program presents to users) to enable them to create documents and data, modify them, print them, send them by e-mail, etc.)

LOCALIZATION – what it includesFocal points of internationalization and localization efforts include: Language:

Computer-encoded text Alphabets/scripts; different systems of numerals; left-to-right script vs. right-to-left scripts. Most recent systems

use the Unicode to solve many of these character encoding problems. Graphical representations of text (printed materials, online images containing text) Spoken (Audio) Sub-titles for video

Date/time format, including use of different calendars Formatting of numbers (decimal points, positioning of separators, character used as separator) Time zones (UTC in internationalized environments) Currency Images and colors: issues of comprehensibility and cultural appropriateness Names and titles Government assigned numbers (such as the Social Security number in the US, National Insurance

number in the UK) and passports Telephone numbers, addresses and international postal codes Weights and measures Paper sizes Differences between local standards (e.g. YU ISO or JUS) and international standards (ISO)

LOCALIZATION vs. INTERNATIONALIZATION

The distinction between internationalization and localization is subtle but important: Internationalization is the adaptation of

products for potential use virtually everywhere, while

localization is the addition of special features for use in a specific locale.

The processes are complementary, and must be combined to lead to the objective of a system that works globally.

CAT tools for localization Over the last couple of years, in addition to

general-purpose TM tools such as Trados and Transit, translation technology companies also developed a number of TM tools specially designed for localization:

Alchemy CATALYST PASSOLO Sisulizer

SISULIZER – a screenshot

Other CAT tools (non-TM based) As we said earlier, computer-assisted

translation (CAT) is a broad and somewhat imprecise term covering a range of tools, from the fairly simple to the more complicated, which can include:

Word processors, grammar and spell checkers, terminology managers, eBooks, eDictionaries, full-text search tools, concordancers, web, TM tools, bitexts, etc.

CAT - REFERENCE MATERIALS Reference materials are the primary source of

terminology in absence of translation memory.

Computer-based reference materials can be classified into: Online libraries Specialized web resources Specialized software products Other materials in electronic formats

Online Libraries Large collections of books in electronic form,

e.g. eBrary (new scientific books, pay site) Internet Archive (hosting “A Million Book

Project”) Project Gutenberg (PD fiction books, free) Questia (popular titles – fiction and non-fiction,

pay site – some sections free)

Internet Archive

eBrary

Questia:

Questia:

Specialized web resources Online glossaries

e.g. http://www.lai.com/glossaries.html Online terminology databases

e.g. EURODICAUTOM Acronym dictionaries

e.g. www.acronymfinder.com Online dictionaries

e.g. www.thefreedictionary.com Online corpora (e.g. BNC and COCA)

Online glossary – language automation glossary index

Online terminology databases - EURODICAUTOM

Online terminology databases - EURODICAUTOM

Acronym dictionary – www.acronymfinder.com

Online dictionary – www.thefreedictionary.com

BNC = British National Corpus

BNC = British National Corpus

COCA= Corpus Of Contemporary American EnglishCOCA= Corpus Of Contemporary American English

Specialized software products Various programs that can be used for terminology

extraction: Electronic dictionaries

General monolingual: e.g. OED v3 Specialized monolingual: e.g. Cambridge Pronouncing

Dictionary, Collins Collocations Bilingual: e.g. Morton Benson, MidiDict

Electronic Bible (e.g. e-Sword) Concordance programs (e.g. Concordancer) Data-mining programs (e.g. Summarizer Pro)

Electronic dictionaries - OED

Electronic Bible - e-Sword

Concordancers Make it possible to see a word in context:

Useful for finding collocations and phrases Useful for extracting terminology

Two types: Monolingual concordancers (e.g. WordSmith) Polylingual concordancers (e.g. ParaConc)

Monolingual Concordancer

Parallel Concordancer

Intellexer Summarizer Pro

Intellexer Summarizer Pro

THE END