Will machine translation kill the art of translation?
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| | Textklick 
Local time: 17:46
ドイツ語 から 英語
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追悼 | Grey words or gold? | Feb 16, 2011 |
I agree with your comments fully.
Recently, I carried out an experiment with a piece of prose (tourism-oriented). No term lists and the style guide was me.
The result of the MT was surprisingly good in general. I 'edited out' errors and 'edited in' some style. It was correct and read well, yet somehow just seemed to lack flair.
Four weeks later, I was confident that I had pretty much forgotten the content.
I then translated the whole piece from scratc... See more I agree with your comments fully.
Recently, I carried out an experiment with a piece of prose (tourism-oriented). No term lists and the style guide was me.
The result of the MT was surprisingly good in general. I 'edited out' errors and 'edited in' some style. It was correct and read well, yet somehow just seemed to lack flair.
Four weeks later, I was confident that I had pretty much forgotten the content.
I then translated the whole piece from scratch and edited my translation.
Comparing final version 1 with final version 2 was a real eye-opener.
My take is that post-editing works, but that the final product still depends very much upon the translation, be it human or MT. Think of it like this: having been polished up, what's going to look better - a Toyota pickup or a Ferrari? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | MT works fine... except when it does not | Feb 16, 2011 |
Like Textklick, we have all done the little test consisting in running a portion of text on Google Translate. It is indeed quite amazing.
In a way, the problem is that the final result "sounds OK-ish" most of the time: therefore, one is tempted to believe that the translation has to be be correct. Or correctish. I also agree with Textklick that the MT usually sounds a bit stilted, but not bad overall.
At the moment, Goggle spend enormous budgets in R&D on this; problem ... See more Like Textklick, we have all done the little test consisting in running a portion of text on Google Translate. It is indeed quite amazing.
In a way, the problem is that the final result "sounds OK-ish" most of the time: therefore, one is tempted to believe that the translation has to be be correct. Or correctish. I also agree with Textklick that the MT usually sounds a bit stilted, but not bad overall.
At the moment, Goggle spend enormous budgets in R&D on this; problem is they still follow the same old route of the statistical approach.
Hence, wordings such as "take the lead" has good chances of being translated into "take some heavy metal which symbol is Pb", should the context of the extract point toward chemistry.
That is IMOH the very thing that still saves us as a trade: Google Translate makes BIG blunders, but they are not always easy to detect if you only read the translation.
Sadly, the problem is also that the average quality of the source copy we receive is going southwards. At some point in the future, I am afraid that the regressing text quality requirement curve will cross the ascending one of Google abilities.
Google say the day the get a proper MT engine, it will take them ten minutes to link it to voice recognition on one end and to synthetic speech on the other (these two technologies have already reached a mature stage). So that is also the instant death of interpreters as a trade.
I hope this does not happen before a few decades...
Jean-Louis
[Edited at 2011-02-16 15:30 GMT]
[Edited at 2011-02-16 15:31 GMT]
[Edited at 2011-02-16 15:34 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | PT Translati (X)
米国
Local time: 09:46
日本語 から 英語
| No, but for some language combos... | Feb 16, 2011 |
I think in languages that have similar sentence structure and many similar words, it will lead to an increase in documents where employers will demand that employees do the minimal translation on their own using these new tools. Even then, I still can't fathom a significant decrease in important documents where accurate translation is required. Unlike automation of something like, say very basic (not advanced) programming code writing, there are far too many variables even for the simplest of tr... See more I think in languages that have similar sentence structure and many similar words, it will lead to an increase in documents where employers will demand that employees do the minimal translation on their own using these new tools. Even then, I still can't fathom a significant decrease in important documents where accurate translation is required. Unlike automation of something like, say very basic (not advanced) programming code writing, there are far too many variables even for the simplest of translations. Too high of a risk to automate the process.
With languages where sentence structure and words are completely different, I think it will be far less significant. I realize that processors enable amazing calculations at amazing speeds, but the variables are far too great when it comes to languages. Also there is the other issue of quantification.
Simple reason:
There are elements in writing that can't be quantified, even when it comes to writing at a basic level. If you can't quantify it, no super computer in the world will be able to calculate it.
[Edited at 2011-02-16 15:54 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Laurent KRAULAND (X)
フランス
Local time: 18:46
フランス語 から ドイツ語
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Textklick
Local time: 17:46
ドイツ語 から 英語
+ ...
追悼 | Bottom line comparison | Feb 16, 2011 |
Sure.
We've all seen the results of MT and endless discussions about it.
And incidentally, we are not talking about the future: MT is already here and being used in localization. In areas such as e.g. SDL 'Global Information Management'.
What I am talking about is not the MT quality, but the comparative end value of the finished product.
That's where the surprises can be found, believe me. ... See more Sure.
We've all seen the results of MT and endless discussions about it.
And incidentally, we are not talking about the future: MT is already here and being used in localization. In areas such as e.g. SDL 'Global Information Management'.
What I am talking about is not the MT quality, but the comparative end value of the finished product.
That's where the surprises can be found, believe me. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Alma de Kok
オランダ
Local time: 18:46
2006に入会
ポーランド語 から オランダ語
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| Will machine translation create a newish language? | Feb 17, 2011 |
I was wondering...
If Google uses a statistical approach, does it sort out texts which are translated with MT and then published on the internet? If they don't, how will that influence languages?
Some time ago I translated a specialist text on magnets. Looking foor good Dutch phrases I had to wade through some sites of Chinese companies which were clearly machine-translated, before I found 'normal' sites. Considering the size of the Chinese economy this might pose a problem in... See more I was wondering...
If Google uses a statistical approach, does it sort out texts which are translated with MT and then published on the internet? If they don't, how will that influence languages?
Some time ago I translated a specialist text on magnets. Looking foor good Dutch phrases I had to wade through some sites of Chinese companies which were clearly machine-translated, before I found 'normal' sites. Considering the size of the Chinese economy this might pose a problem in the future. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Not our business | Feb 17, 2011 |
Believe me: machine translated materials would go untranslated if MT did not exist.
The customer does not intend to pay for these translations. Not 20 cents, not 15 cents, not 7 cents, not 2 cents per word. They want it for free or nearly free, so MT is not depriving us of our work.... unless you charge 2 cents of course! In that case you should worry!
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