CAT tools: theorie

CAT tools
Disadvantages

 You can’t change the order or move a meaning to the next line; you translate
decontextualized segments
 Interoperability; we lose information because everyone uses different programs, like
metadata
 File management is complex – people lose translation memories or term bases
o Too many files
 Learning curve: it takes you a while to learn how to work with the program, which costs
money
o Ask people to teach you how to work with it = money
o Not being able to translate that day = losing money

Translation Memory
Advantages

 Saves time, cost, energy

 Consistent translations – terminology
 Less repetitive tasks/translations

Disadvantages

 Context! One translation could be valid in a certain context, but not in another (you have to
map it carefully in your TM)
 Not all documentation formats supported by TM

Translation management systems

Advantages

 Centralize resources + communication

 Reduce repetitive tasks
 Cost reduction

Disadvantages

 Expensive
 Steep learning curve
 Not easy to install + manage
 Less interaction with customers

CLOUD-based

Advantages

 Software as a service: different payment models

o You can pay for 1 month, more months etc.
  Easily accessible through internet: no local installation, no maintenance
 Scalable: you can use only the function that you really need
 Integration with CAT, CMS
 Real-time collaboration and project monitoring
 Customizable and automated workflows

Disadvantages

 security and data integrity: you should check confidentiality on website

 dependence on internet
 interoperability
o for example: trying to import trados TM into memsource
 less mature functionalities

Machine Translation
Research into MT
Warren Weaver
 Decoding in the WWII
Georgetown experiment in 1954
The decade of optimism
 Computer would replace most human translators in 5 years
 Not linguists but engineers designed it
 Dictionaries were improved
o More words, more translation equivalents
 Dictionary-driven rules
o No linguistic theory
’66: the end of optimism
 Slow, disappointing quality
 ALPAC report
o No immediate or predictable prospect
o  cut in investment in MT
o Focus on aids for the human translator
 End of MT research in US + Soviet Union
o Continued in France, Germany, Canada
After ALPAC
 Systran systems in USAF + European Communities
 Canada: translation engine for weather reports
The early 1990s

 First data-driven systems

 Beginning of speech translation
Adaptive MT: 4 kinds
 Rule-based MT = based on grammar rules
o Very time consuming to create
o High precision because it’s modeled by linguists
o Relatively low recall: lots of phenomena are not covered
o High frequency words are easier to model
o Low frequency words = a lot more of them!
o Vauqois triangle, parse tree, semantic transfer
 Statistical MT = you feed loads of text in a machine and let statistics do the work
o Most probable translation = very advanced guessing machine
o Trados uses this
 Restriction: inconsistent terminology
 Restriction: does not remember segments one by one like a TM, but your
translations will be added to the statistics
o Implicitly learns linguistic knowledge
 Linguists don’t have to write down rules
o Used to work only on strings, but later moved up in the Vauquois triangle
 Neural MT: uses a large artificial neural network to predict the likelihood of a sequence of
words, typically modeling entire sentences in a single integrated model
 Example-based MT: use of a bilingual corpus with parallel texts as its main knowledge base at
run-time

Terminology
Terminology: about concepts, the abstract representation of a real object

 Concept-driven; we want to know the meaning, then we look for the words to use to talk
about the concept
 Semiotic triangle
o Object = real, can be imaginary or non-tangible (burn-out, unicorn)
o Concepts = exact meaning, abstract
o Terms = collection of letters, sounds, symbol
 Terminology manager software = concept-based; representation:
o #
o Languages (doesn’t matter for the concept itself)
o Actual terms
3 levels:

1) Concept-level, applies regardless of language

2) Language-level, to sort your terms by language
3) Term entries, have properties like grammatical gender

#
- Picture
- Domain

English
 Term 1
Term 2

Dutch
Term 1: m/v/o; number; noun, verb; phonetics

Trados Groupshare
Advantages

 You can access it anywhere (if you have internet)

 You can share it easily
 Security: translators reuse TM’s they’re not supposed to
 GDPR: personal information
 More secure than emails with attachments
 You don’t have to install/update anything
 Usually subscription-based, no perpetual licensing