IT AND TRANSLATION

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IT AND TRANSLATION

• INTRODUCTION

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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)
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COURSE OVERVIEW

• ESSENTIALS
• TEXT PROCESSING
• MT
• TM
• WORKING WITH CORPORA
• TERMINOLOGY EXTRACTION AND GLOSSARY PRODUCTION
  (MONOLINGUAL AND BILINGUAL CORPORA)

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COURSE OVERVIEW - DETAILS

• 1) ESSENTIALS
• Types of computer aides
• CAT vs. MT
• History of CAT tools
• General principles of working with CAT tools
• Reference materials
• Localization and internationalization
• UNIX

SOME OF THIS TODAY!
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COURSE OVERVIEW - DETAILS

• 2) TEXT PROCESSING
• Word and WordPad (tips and tricks)
• Fonts, code pages, keyboard layout, language
  tools in Windows XP and Office
• Speech recognition software
• Scanning
• OCR
• File types (essential info on the most common
  file types and file conversion utilities)

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COURSE OVERVIEW - DETAILS

• 3) MT
• How it works, brief exhibition
• Systran Pro
• Prompt
• Neuro Tran
• Babelfish

DESKTOP BASED
SUPPORTS CROATIAN (partially Serbian)
WEB BASED
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COURSE OVERVIEW - DETAILS

• 4) TM
• Overview (what it is, standards and file formats)
• Desktop vs. server based TM programs
• WinAlign
• WordFast
• Trados (nowadays SDL Trados) Freelance edition
• Sisulizer

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COURSE OVERVIEW - DETAILS

• 5) WORKING WITH CORPORA
• Essentials
• Concordancing (WordSmith, Concordancer, AntConc)
• Advanced corpora analysis WordSmith, TigerSearch
• Lemmatization and annotation
• Parallel corpora ParaConc

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COURSE OVERVIEW - DETAILS

• 6) TERMINOLOGY EXTRACTION AND GLOSSARY PRODUCTION
• Essentials
• Doing it automatically Trados (i.e. SDL)
  MultiTerm (Desktop and Extract)
• Doing it semi-automatically ParaConc,
  Concordancer

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COURSE REQUIREMENTS

• Basic computer literacy
• Positive outlook
• Computers dont bite
• CAT tools are not complex, they are actually made
  to make you more efficient
• Interest in translation
• Willingness to become several times more
  efficient in doing translations

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SCHEDULE

• HONESTLY, WE DONT KNOW FOR CERTAIN!
• THATS 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, at1600 OCLOCK

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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)

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COURSE OVERVIEW - GRADING

• This is a hands-on course
• You 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

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IT AND TRANSLATION

• ESSENTIALS AND MORE ABOUT THE COURSE

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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

WORD PROCESSORS
Electronic books (desktop web) Electronic
dictionaries Web (Eurodicautom, onelook, etc.)
Software-based reference materials
(encyclopedias, e-Bible, etc.)
TM tools MT tools Speech Technology (i.e. voice
recognition)
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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.

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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.

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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.

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CAT vs MT (continued)

• Graphically represented, the difference is

Translation Technology Continuum
automation
human involvement
Computer-aided Translation (CAT)
Unaided Translation
Automatic Translation/ Machine Translation
Translation process aided by electronic tools
such as (most typically) Translation Memory
Translation process automated by use of Machine
Translation
Translation process not aided by any electronic
tools
Adapted from Hutchins Somers (1992)
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CAT its scope
WRONG!!!

• 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.

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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

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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 companys best-selling TM program for a
  number of years.

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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

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MT History how we switched to CAT

• MT research began in 1950s Warren Weavers
  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 195518)

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MT History how we switched to CAT

• Initially based on some misconception about human
  translation
• knowledge of two language systems suffices
• it is merely a matter of looking up dictionaries
• it is easy to define a good translation
• there is only one correct translation possible

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MT History how we switched to CAT

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...

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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

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MT History how we switched to CAT

• 1975 Météo project in Canada
• Automatic translation of weather forecasts (En
  -gt Fr)
• Sublanguage approach (domain-specific MT)
• Most successful MT application to date
• public broadcasting since 1977
• Fr -gt En available since 1989
• only 4 of output needs post-editing
• rapid translation staff turnover no longer a
  problem

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MT History how we switched to CAT

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

• 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

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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.

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History of CAT Tools

• Unreliability of MT tools -gt 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

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History of CAT Tools

• Two major players in the domain of CAT tools
  development Trados and STAR Group both started
  as
• TRANSLATION AGENCIES!!!

STAR AG was founded as a small translation agency
in 1984 by Josef Zibung and Hanspeter Siegrist in
the northern Swiss city of Stein am Rhein near
Schaffhausen. It won and keept customers from the
automotive, machine tool, computer and
aeronautics industries like ABB, ATT, BMW,
Dornier, IBM, Mazda, Mercedes, Nissan, Saab and
Siemens.
TRADOS was founded in 1984 by Jochen Hummel and
Iko Knyphausen in Stuttgart, Germany to provide
translation services for IBM.
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TRADOS timeline

• 1990 - first version of TRADOS's main component,
  MultiTerm was created for DOS
• 1992 -TRADOS developed the first MultiTerm for
  Windows (v3.1)
• 1992 TRADOSs Translator's Workbench with
  linguistic fuzzy-matching on translation memories
  for DOS
• 1994 - TRADOSs Translator's Workbench for
  Windows

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TRADOS timeline (continued)

• 1997 BREAKTHROUGH Microsoft decides to base
  its internal localization memory store on TRADOS
• 1998 Microsoft acquires a share of 20 in TRADOS

TRADOS becomes a de-facto industry standard CAT
tool!!!
Thats why we will mostly work with TRADOS in
this course (as far as TM is concerned).
But we will also work with WordFast, because not
all people can afford Trados.
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WHAT WE WANT TO TEACH YOU HERE?

• TWO PRACTICAL EXAMPLES OF COMMON TRANSLATION
  PROBLEMS

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• 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

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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).

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General principles of working with CAT tools

• So, wouldnt 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).

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General principles of working with CAT tools

• So, wouldnt 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).

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TRADOS - a screenshot
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A DREAM COME TRUE?

• 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)

• NOT REALLY ???

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

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

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A BRIEF DIGRESSION

• The term LOCALIZATION has often popped up in
  previous slides
• What is LOCALIZATION?

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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.)

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LOCALIZATION what it includes

• Focal 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)

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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.

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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 is currently the industry standard
localization tool, so thats the one in which we
will work!!!
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SISULIZER a screenshot
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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.

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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

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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)

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Internet Archive
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eBrary
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Questia
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Questia
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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)

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Online glossary language automation glossary
index
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Online terminology databases - EURODICAUTOM
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Online terminology databases - EURODICAUTOM
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Acronym dictionary www.acronymfinder.com
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Online dictionary www.thefreedictionary.com
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BNC British National Corpus
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BNC British National Corpus
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COCA Corpus Of Contemporary American English
COCA Corpus Of Contemporary American English
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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)

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Electronic dictionaries - OED
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Electronic Bible - e-Sword
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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)

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Monolingual Concordancer
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Parallel Concordancer
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Intellexer Summarizer Pro
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Intellexer Summarizer Pro
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THE END