Using computer software for enhancing professional competence of a translator

Non-Government Non-Profit Institute of Higher Education

Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages

Faculty of Translation and Interpreting

Department of Foreign Languages Theory and Practice

 

 

Term Paper

 

Use of computer software for enhancing translator’s professional competency

 

by

Tatiana Alexandrovna Afanasyeva

 

501 E/S

 

 

Research supervisor:

V. A. Bochkov ________

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Study field: Modern Translation and Interpretation

 

 

 

Moscow 2012

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

I wish to thank the MIFL Chancellor - Academician Emma F. Volodarskaya, President of the Russian Academy of Linguistic Sciences, for the encouragement I received in the course of my research into the subject of the present term paper. My enormous gratitude also goes to the Dean of the Translation and Interpreting Faculty B.S. Ivanov for his advice and understanding as well as to the entire staff of the MIFL Department of Foreign Languages Theory and Practice for their disinterested assistance and pertinent advice at every stage of my work.

 

I am very much obliged to the Supervisor of this work Master Teacher Viktor Alexeevich Bochkov for careful leading and valuable help with writing this paper. Thanks to my parents for their infinite tolerance and sympathy during my late night computer sessions. Special gratitude to my dear brother Sergey who was always available with his moral support and advice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

List of abbreviations

 

 

ES electronic software

CAT computer-aided translation

TM translation memory

PC personal computer

TT target text

MT machine translation

 

 

Summary

Not long time ago translators could not even imagine that in a little while they would obtain such a vast number of software and Internet resources to speed up and simplify the process of translation. Advantages are obvious but disadvantages were revealed as well. For example now translators are suffering from the introduction of translation memory programs (Trados, Déjà Vu, Star Transit, Wordfast, Across) since translation agencies and even end-users require translators to use TM's, but then pay the translator in full only for sentences which are not repeated. Under this system, the translator often has more work to do as a result of using a TM, but gets paid much less for a particular translation than he or she would have been paid before the introduction of TM's (John Hadfield's articles¹). Of course this applies not only to TM's but to all CAT (Computer-Aided Translation) software, Internet resources, on-line dictionaries which include users' examples and their variants of translations that are industry or profession concerned, style guides and writers, blogs, languages corpora. The problem of highly professional adequate translation includes expert pre-translation analysis that considerably involves a mind-mapping technique, a known system that is mostly skipped while learning a language but nevertheless is a perfect method of information systematization which a translator can use any moment without searching through the extra material once again. Nowadays software programs for enhancing professional competence of a translator are trying to efficiently enrich their data and keep it up-to-date. In my work I would like to enlighten main goals of a number of programs and techniques, their pluses and minuses for the purpose to fulfill an almost impossible task - peer into the future of translation and translators' professional competence.

 

Table of contents

 

Summary

 

Motivation

 

Chapter 1 Translator’s competence and its tools

 

1.1 What translator's competences involve

1.2 Translator's competence in connection with the international linguistic changes

1.2.1 Linguistic Globalization

1.2.2 Catching up with scientific and technical progress

1.2.3 Technical tools of translator's competence

 

Chapter 2 Practical use of translation softwae

 

2.1 Use of computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools in translation

2.2.1 Using Corpora to improve translation quality

2.2.2 Style and Grammar Checker, Spell Checker, Tag Editor

2.2.3 Information search and retrieval

2.2.4 Translation creation. Translation memory. Machine translation

 

 

 

Conclusion

References

 

Motivation

 

Technology is progressing exponentially. The beginning of the new millennium and the uprising of the so called 'era of information revolution' are used to be drawn a parallel between nowadays. The grounds are quite evident:

• globalization in many areas especially in political, economic and technological space,
• gradual development of intercultural communication,
• in this instant, wide application of information and communication technologies,
• huge expansion of the electronic market with the Internet, 'electronic mail' or just e-mail, electronic archives of periodicals, database management system etc. should be underlined.

 

As a result the translational industry underwent a virtual revolution at the turn of the XX and XXI centuries. New demands and types of translations appeared, for example localization (instrument adaptation to local environment), work by means of 'translation memory' (TM), computer-assisted translation. Old algorithms that failed to resist brute force of technologies became obsolete. Better algorithms became necessary for prospective computers.

 

This very reason brought about revolutionary changes in the arsenal of the written translator enriching it with electronic tools and various software, The Internet facilitated search for information and data on the required subject. Respectively the translation process and the end translation quality improved essentially.

 

These changes were especially pronounced in written translation from one language to another as facilities appeared to scan word stocks and word usage against the plurality of examples.

The first a personal computer (PC) was immediately hailed as «a highly effective tool of translators» [Zwilling, 1999: 35]. In no time it became the main means of accessing the Internet. Finally computer programs and electronic dictionaries focused especially on translator's performance were devised. Step by step more application areas were identified as:

• a technically equipped workplace,
• a virtual working group,
• instant messages service, videoconferences, multimedia presentation,
• quick and professional pre-translation analysis parallel with mind-mapping and other.

The time frame was limited. But the number of end translations still increased immensely [Ubin, 2001: 4].

 

Translation diversification is a current thing today. The mutually exclusive exaggerated client’s requirements as to expedience, on the one hand, and quality, on the other, seem preposterous. Meanwhile this contradiction can be solved partly through more active use of electronic software (ES) and programs that allow a translator to upgrade quality of a product and at the same shorten the required time. The pass-key is 'the Digital Fortress' [the word combination is adopted from Dan Brown's 'Digital Fortress', 2004 with no straight reference to the plot of the book] implying modern electronic technologies combining intelligence and versatile in knowledge of a translator himself. Translation as a profession can't remain in the same condition it was 20-30 years ago.

 

According to J. Brogueira [Brogueira: 2004] technological skills of from and to English translators may be subdivided depending on their functional purpose as follows:

 

— linguistic or translation skills assuming the use of a spell checker, thesaurus and electronic dictionaries at some point;

 

— communication skills when receiving and providing with the information (receiving, sending and forwarding messages by e-mail, file sending, team work, participation in different forums and conferences);

 

— skill of searching information by means of electronic dictionaries, encyclopedias, search engines in the Internet, web libraries and archives, terminological banks etc.);

 

— technological skills and means (scanners, printers, interactive voice menu, text editor and others).

 

Now a translator has the following electronic resources for enhancing his competence and improving the quality of end product:

 

— text editors;

 

— electronic on-line and off-line bilingual and monolingual dictionaries;

 

— the Internet;

 

— English-speaking terminological databases;

 

— specialized terminological dictionaries and glossaries;

 

— programs of automatic editing, Tag Editor program;

 

— general and specialized encyclopedias, encyclopedic dictionaries in English and Russian;

 

— electronic guides to English stylistics;

 

— electronic corpora of parallel texts and concordances;

 

— electronic libraries;

 

— on-line newspaper and journal archives;

 

— «Translational memory» programs;

 

— machine translation software;

 

— new communication technologies, RSS Feed, podcasts etc.

 

Unfortunately Russian theorists in translation underestimate the importance of electronic tools. As a rule in a course of practical translation at the translation and interpretation faculties these sources and programs are not given the attention they deserve. As a result, future or current graduates enter the translation and interpretation world with very approximate idea of possibilities offered by electronic tools except for some tentative experience of translation by means of PROMT, which professors consider as absolutely deleterious for a will-be translator. However in some contexts this instrument may prove useful given the time factor. From our point of view, electronic software and computer-aided translation (CAT) programs are not a whim, a craze or an idle toy in the hands of a person. It is a time-saving sine-qua-non translator’s instrument. The present tune must be modified as modern translator or interpreter ought not to be ignorant in the usage of CAT tools.

 

It is almost impossible to imagine a professional up-to-date translator without electronic means - a computer, a printer, a scanner who doesn't use a e-mail box and translation software.

 

Here and further on we intend to describe a number of resources and their performance. In doing so we shall rely on various Internet translators’ fora, e.g. www.proz.com, www.translatorscafe.com, forum.onehourtranslation.com and others, try to bring separate data together in a review of various electronic software while outlining patterns of their combined use by a translator.

 

Further on we shall proceed with a more detail consideration of advantages, features and most recent trends in the sphere of translator’s competence enhancing electronic software.

 

Chapter 1

 

       1.1 What translator's competences involve

 

Professional competence of a translator or an interpreter is made up of his key scopes and special scopes. “Competence” and “scope” are the concepts that should be refined upon and differentiated.

A translator or an interpreter versatile in languages and whose intelligence scope is as vast as possible is in great need in the modern world. Provided dynamic development of the international cooperation in politics and economics a first priority problem became a high-quality education of the Russian experts in the field of the foreign economic and diplomatic relations obtaining skills in business communication and with profound knowledge of languages, including such actual as Chinese, Arabic, understanding main economic and politic terminology and being able to work with original materials on trade and economic subject and well versed in the current course of world events. Training of future employees is essential. The quality of the higher education is understood today as a complete compliance of vocational training of future experts with modern requirements. The notion «professional competence» involves all the above mentioned training approaches and demands.

 

The definition of the word 'competence' given in the Oxford Dictionary of English (3rd Edition © Oxford University Press 2010) states that:

 

- competence - (mass noun) the ability to do something successfully or efficiently. Examples: courses to improve the competence of staff; the players displayed varying degrees of competence.

 

Competencies is a derivative concept of competence (syn. expertise) and designates a sphere of application of knowledge, skills of a person. Meanwhile competence is a semantically prior notion representing them as one.

 

The most acceptable definition of competence is following: competence is a readiness of a person for mobilization of one's knowledge, abilities and external resources for effective activity in a certain life circumstances that can involve a set of questions with paramount importance and while solving them a professional would apply the authority knowledge of which allows that person to carry out his professional duties effectively. It is all about personal ability of an expert to solve certain class of professional tasks.

 

The cornerstone of the modern educational system and new pedagogical process in the conditions of the market relations is the competency-based approach to training. It is understood that the purposes of education are more focused and adhered to applicability of the received knowledge and abilities in practice. Competency-based training helps to bridge the gap between what is taught in training and what tasks will be performed on the actual job. Training employees to perform functions required helps to ensure that front-line workers have the skills, knowledge and abilities required to perform their jobs properly, safely and effectively. Thus, the attention is strongly focused not on the number of acquired information but the ability of a person to operate in various situations.

 

The competency-based approach allows:

 

– connection of the purposes of education and professional activity;

 

– application in professional activity of the gained knowledge instead of its mere reproduction;

 

– focusing on a variety of professional and life experiences, etc.

 

In the flow of one of the pedagogical discussions concerning competency-based approach the following definition was offered: competence is an ability to operate in a situation of uncertainty. The level of person's erudition is as greater as the field of his professional activity and a degree of uncertainty of situations in which he is capable to act effectively independently is wider. From the generally accepted point of view competencies is a set of qualities of an expert gained by experience in the sphere of his professional activity. It is the characteristic given to a person as a result of an assessment of productivity of his actions on the solution of a certain circle of tasks. Thus competencies of an expert with higher education are defined as the integrated features of personality characterizing his eagerness and readiness to realize his potential (knowledge, abilities, experience, personal qualities, etc.) for successful creative activity in the professional and social sphere, realizing its social importance and an individual responsibility for the results of such activity and need of its continuous improvement and further development.

 

In Russian scientific literature key and professional competences are singled out. Key competencies are universal, applicable in various life situations. Professional competences in their turn aren't so universal. They are limited in accordance to this or that sphere of professional activity of a person. The term «professional competence» involves both ability to actualize gained knowledge and abilities, to use them in realization of the professional functions, ways, means of achievement of main goals and demands for obligatory solution of professional questions and tasks relying on the base qualification of an expert.

 

In other words professional competence is the integrated characteristic of several components necessary for effective implementation of professional activity problems. It is believed that professional competence is a quality forming in the educational process. So it is expedient to consider it as a subjective quality revealing itself during the activity of the one being trained taking into account qualifying requirements. According to E.F.Zeera, training the competences is possible only in the conditions of knowledge and abilities realization in practice. Thus a complete result of the education is shown not only in professional but social competences like personal integrative quality of the ability to come to solutions in standard and especially non-standard creative tasks as well. Professional competences are subdivided into basic and special (functional) competences. Basic competences are transferable and less adhered to an object of the labor, i.e. they can be demanded in various types of professional activity. Use of special (functional) competences is limited to a framework of a certain profession, specialty. They reflect peculiarities of the sphere of professional activity. Usually having no special names they are formulated as a function of concrete professional qualification. Special competences can be considered as a realization of key and basic competences of certain area of professional activity. Key, basic and special competences, cooperating with each other, actually work solving vital professional problems of different complexity level.

 

Therefore, it is possible to accept a point of view that professional competences a future expert gaines are personal qualities, abilities, knowledge, skills as preconditions of his activity of a competent professional. Being put into practice they become competences of a certain level thus proving that all three types of competences are interconnected and should develop at the same time that will finally provide formation of professional competence of an expert as the certain integrity, some integrative personal characteristic.

 

Translation at the United Nations will be given as an example.

 

United Nations documents are issued simultaneously in the six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Some core documents are also translated into German.

 

This is made possible by United Nations translators, whose job is to render clearly and accurately the content of original texts into their main or “target” language, which is normally the language in which they did their higher education studies. United Nations translators provide terminologically precise translations and revisions of original texts. They seek consistency throughout a single document, series of documents and multi-part special editions. It is important to be able to get an overview but it is no less important to do a microscopic reading, often under very tight time constraints. Failure to grasp the meaning of even one preposition could lead to a terrible mistake. The quest to find an accurate equivalent in a target language takes United Nations translators through standard bilingual dictionaries, comprehensive monolingual dictionaries, highly specialized dictionaries, subject glossaries prepared by the Terminology and Reference Section, previous United Nations documents, reference works, and the Internet, which, along with a broad variety of electronic tools, has become a vitally important part of their work. All this research is supplemented by consultations with fellow translators and other experts at the United Nations and with the Permanent Missions of United Nations Member States.

 

United Nations translators are recruited through a rigorous selection process. They translate and revise a wide range of United Nations documents on subjects that require experience and recognized proficiency in such areas of expertise as political, economic, financial, budgetary, administrative and other matters. That is why, in addition to having an in-depth knowledge of several official languages, many translators are also able to master specialized legal, scientific or technical vocabularies and styles. They have excellent writing skills, political sensitivity and a good knowledge of international affairs.

 

Competencies required of United Nations translators: 

 

• Excellent writing skills in their main language, high standard of accuracy and faithfulness to the spirit, style and nuances of the original text, as well as good grasp of a variety of subject matters.

 

• The ability to meet tight deadlines and maintain required productivity without sacrificing quality.

 

• The ability to use a variety of open and in-house reference sources relevant to the text at hand.

 

• The ability to establish and maintain effective working relations with people of different national, linguistic and cultural backgrounds with sensitivity and respect for diversity.

 

• The ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and to demonstrate a willingness to learn from others.

 

• May be promoted to become revisers and later senior revisers. In addition to

translating the most difficult and sensitive texts, revisers check and correct drafts prepared by junior colleagues and provide feedback to them for training purposes.

 

 

1.2 Translator's competences in their connection to the international linguistic changes

 

1.2.1 Linguistic Globalization

 

Citing 'Translators through History' by Jean Delisle & Judith Woodsworth: “Translators are the learned agents of cultural transmission who circulate information, knowledge and passions around the globe…”.

 

Globalization - outcome of the spread of capitalism after the Soviet Union’s dismemberment and the end of the cold war - that entailed political, economic, cultural, environmental consequences, generated numerous debates. The fact is supported by the very many definitions of the complex term and international phenomenon. Globalisation has been defined as the process whereby “events happening in one place importantly impact upon many other places, often remote in time and space” Urry (2003: 39).

 

In the field of language study, the phenomenon  of globalization points to the link existing between the dynamics of society and the need for  communication in the framework of  economic, political, cultural international contacts.

 

The use of English has lately spread so much around the world that it undeniably has become the tool for global communication. English is a global, international language because the language of global politics, economy, academic life is English. Arriving to a different we are surprised to find out that taxi drivers don't speak English. The phrase 'global English' is being used increasingly nowadays. Achievements in science - computer science in particular, technique, economy knew in the last decades occurred in English speaking countries so it appears natural that they represented the reasons that imposed the use of English in every part of the world. Linguistic globalization, part and consequence of globalization, regards the changes that national languages underwent in the course of time, particularly the latest decades, due to the deliberate acceptance of a common means of communication - English (Călăraşu, 2003, 323). At the level of national languages linguistic globalization refers to the excessive use of English and American loans which was conditioned by the contemporary social, economic, political reality. As it was pointed out (Graddol 2000, 8) English has become the lingua franca in twelve major domains: international organizations and conferences; scientific publications; international banking, economic affairs and trade; advertising for global brands; audio-visual cultural products (film, TV, popular music); tourism; tertiary education; international safety; international law; technology transfer;  internet communication; relay language in interpretation and translation.

 

The linguistic imperialism of English was accepted worldwide even by the economic authorities of the world - except for some countries among which China, France and the Canadian province of  Quebec that adopted laws to restrict the use of English - who overcame the national and cultural pride and obsolete competitive mentalities about linguistic supremacy (Călăraşu, 2003, 324).

 

1.2.2 Accelerating scientific and technical progress

 

Advances in information technology (IT) have combined with modern communication requirements to foster translation automation. The history of the relationship between technology and translation goes back to the beginnings of the Cold War, as in the 1950s competition between the United States and the Soviet Union was so intensive at every level that thousands of documents were translated from Russian to English and vice versa. It was more a war of intelligence than weapons. However, high demands revealed the inefficiency of the translation process above all and especially in specialized areas of knowledge, increasing interest in the idea of a translation machine. Although the Cold War has now ended, and despite the importance of globalization, which tends to break cultural, economic, political and linguistic barriers, translation has not become obsolete. We now face the desire of some nations to retain their independence and cultural identity, especially expressing their intentions through their own language and choose of the means to identify its originality and importance. This phenomenon can clearly be seen within the European Union, where translation remains a crucial activity.

IT has produced a screen culture that tends to replace the print culture, with printed documents being dispensed with and information being accessed and relayed directly through computers (e-mail, databases and other stored information). Instant availability of these computer documents and that they can be opened and processed with far greater flexibility than printed matter is useful and tempting for translators. With the result that the status of information itself has changed, it becomes either temporary or permanent according to need and conditions.

The development of the global market, industry and commerce function more than ever on an international scale, with increasing freedom and flexibility in terms of exchange of products and services. Meanwhile such freedom is becoming more dangerous concerning the author rights. Over the last two decades we have witnessed the enormous growth of information technology with the accompanying advantages of speed, visual impact, convenience, cost-effectiveness, ease of use, creative possibilities. The nature and function of translation is inevitably affected by these changes. There is the need for countries to cooperate in many spheres, such as ecological (Greenpeace), economic (trade agreements, especially free like between Russian Federation and Ukraine), humanitarian (Red Cross, Doctors without Borders) and educational (exchange programs, grants) and many others. Despite the importance of English, there is the commonly-held belief that people have the right to use their own language, yet the diversity of languages should not be an obstacle to mutual understanding.

 

Thus different aspects of modern life have led to the need for more efficient methods of translation. At the present time the demand for translations is not satisfied because there are not enough human translators, or because individuals and organizations do not recognize translation as a complex activity requiring a high level of skill, versatile competencies, creativeness, and are therefore not prepared to pay what it is worth. In other words, translation is sometimes avoided because it is considered to be too expensive and at times thought to be quite useless as there are still people who ignore the problem of specifying details. In part, human translation is expensive because the productivity of a human being is essentially limited and not always objective. Statistics vary, but in general to produce a good translation of a difficult text a translator cannot process more than 4-6 pages or 2,000 words per day. The economic necessity of finding a cheaper solution to international exchange has resulted in continuing technological progress in terms of translation tools designed to respond to the translator's need for immediately-available information and not following access to extensive databases.

Solutions to linguistic problems must be found in order to allow information to circulate freely and to facilitate bilateral and multilateral relationships.

We will try to answer the following questions:

• Which computer tools are truly useful to translators?
• Do the new technologies threaten the wealth and the whole existence of translation and the translator as a highly professional profession?

 

1.2.3 Technical tools of translator's competence

Translation software has been the subject of many authors in recent years. In 2003 Somers presented an overview to the different software packages that a translator have to deal with in his everyday work, although he does not describe any specific tool in particular, unlike Dohler (1997) and Nogueira (2002). Austermühl (2001) gives more details about certain CAT tools such as SDL Trados, as well as he provides a useful list of Internet resources in each chapter of his book. However, these studies lack a realistic professional approach because they are mainly focused on CAT tools, without mentioning other tools commonly used such as PDF tools, FreeMind.

 

First of all, it is necessary to consider the software licenses restricting the use of a program and its cost. There are principally two categories of licensing schemes: open-source/free software and closed-source/proprietary software. The programs named in this paper apart from Internet resources are of one of the following types:

• Commercial: Commercial software is computer software sold for commercial purposes generally in retail shops or on the Internet.
• Free: Free software, as defined by the Free Software Foundation, is software which can be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed without restriction. Although this type of software is usually available at no cost, free should be understood as free (of freedom) and not as free of charge.
• Freeware: Copyrighted computer software which is made available for use free of charge and for an unlimited time.

 

Shareware: As opposed to freeware, the user has to pay after some trial period which is usually no longer than 30 days after which a translator is ought to either buy a full version or delete the trial one and search for some free software but perhaps lacking certain useful features of the previous.

 

To have better orientation in the sea of electronic information, a translator ought to have skills which are gained either while studying in the linguistic institution of higher education or during practical work improving translational qualification. A translator spends less time with skillful, correctly organized information search. Finally everything depends on the translation quality demands a client makes. It is important whether a translation is checked by a stylist, a copy editor who know well the subject matter of the text and a foreign language.

Comparative data of many polls carried out in the West claims a significant increase in popularity of electronic resources and special programs among translators. Thus, the research conducted in 2003 revealed that among the interrogated professional translators 18 people always use compact disks in their work, 47 check on-line dictionaries and encyclopedias and 47 printing editions of the dictionaries [Menagarishvili & Coggin]. According to the 2001 interview in Finland 82% of professional Finnish translators often or from time to time use the Internet resources and 74% of translators [Jaaskelainen, 2004] use electronic dictionaries. It is obvious that advantages of the Internet outweigh its shortcomings and restrictions, and it is absolutely fairly considered irreplaceable means in an arsenal of the translator.

Every translator uses these or those opportunities of a computer on its minimum or maximum. The minimum includes a text editor, electronic dictionaries, e-mail. The maximum involves above listed tools and also electronic systems for a translator that can be with certain reservations divided into the following groups:

- informational. They are the systems providing automatic search of linguistic and extralinguistic information in the Internet, and also management of information streams (encyclopedias, electronic library catalogs, banks of terms, search servers, etc.);

- translational like PROMT, Translation Memory, StyleWriter, TransCheck machine translation systems, etc.;

 

- communicative. These are communication means of a translator like e-mails, websites, chats.

 

 

Chapter 2

 

2.1 Use of computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools in translation

Computer-assisted translation is a complex process involving specific tools adaptable to the needs of the translator. The computer becomes a workstation providing access to a variety texts, tools and programs, e.g. monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, parallel and translated texts, as well as terminology databases. The translator can create their own personal work environment and transform it according to the task put in front of them, taking advantage of on-the-spot-flexibility, freedom of movement and immediate access to an enormous range of up-to-date information. Thus, one could rightly say that computer-assisted translation is undoubtedly a great time saver. 

The following are the most important computer tools in the translator's workplace, from the most basic to the most complex: electronic dictionaries, glossaries and terminology databases.

At first glance using electronic dictionaries doesn’t seem to be hugely different to working with their paper counterparts. However, the advantages soon become evident -- looking for words by typing them out on the computer is much easier than going through a weighty tome. Moreover, there is immediate access to related data through links and it is possible to use several dictionaries simultaneously by working with multiple documents.

Electronic dictionaries are available in several forms: as software that can be installed in the computer; as CD-ROMs and, most importantly, through the Internet. Google, for instance, gives us access to a great variety of monolingual and bilingual dictionaries in many languages, although it is sometimes necessary to become on-line subscribers, as with the Oxford English Dictionary. On-line dictionaries organize their material using their corpus. Thus one can ask for all words related to one key word, or for all words that come from a particular language, i.e. they allow immediate cross-access to information.

There is a great deal of Internet dictionaries, glossaries and databases that can help one with specific terminology. Internet Le Nouveau Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique developed in Quebec, Canada contains 3 million terms in French and English belonging to 200 fields. Another important resource is EURODICAUTOM, a multilingual terminology database created by the European Union in 1973 that covers a variety of specialized areas, both scientific and non-scientific. In addition, there are many helpful web sites that offer information on. One such site is that of the TERMISTI research center attached to the Higher Institute for Translators and Interpreters (ISTI) in Brussels (http://www.termisti.refer.org) which provides information on the following:

• Dictionaries available on Internet such as those mentioned.
• Terminology networks such as RIFAL (Réseau international francophone d'aménagement linguistique) and RITERM (Red Iberoamericana de Terminología)
• European terminology projects such as Human Language Technologies, Information Society Technologies.
• Translation Schools
• Forums and diffusion/discussion lists
• Conferences

 

2.2.1 Using Corpora to improve translation quality

In the context of computer-assisted tools a corpus can be described as a large collection of texts in electronic format. Electronic corpora can be enriched by annotating them with part-of-speech tagging, and this is especially useful in order to enable researchers to carry out sophisticated linguistic investigations. But even an untagged corpus of texts, so-called raw text, can be a useful performance-enhancing tool in translating -- for instance, it can be of great help in confirming intuitive decisions, in verifying or rejecting decisions based on other tools such as dictionaries, in obtaining information about collocates (words that typically co-occur), in reinforcing knowledge of normal target language patterns, as well as in learning how to use new expressions.

Corpus analysis tools enable users to investigate and manipulate the information contained within a corpus in a variety of ways. For example, most corpus analysis packages comprise a concordancer, which will find all the occurrences of a search word, or search pattern, and display them in the centre of your screen, together with a span of co-text to the left and right.

The concordance lines can be manipulated, e.g. if the search word is a noun, one can ask the concordancer to sort the words immediately preceding the search word in alphabetical order, which may help find suitable adjectives that collocate with the search word. By double-clicking on a line, one can view it in its full context.

Consulting digitalized corpora by means of corpus analysis tools enables translators to exploit large quantities of text far more rapidly and systematically.

 

2.2.2 Style and Grammar Checkers. Tag Editor

 

Grammar and style checkers take a prescriptive approach to style. They’re intended to help writers during the proofreading stage of the writing process. By comparing the writers' work to some norm, they are able to detect and report some types of spelling, grammatical, and stylistic errors.

They usually have two primary components: a dictionary and a set of rules. The rules can range in form from a simple table of phrases to match, along with the corresponding diagnosis, to a formal grammar of the English language. The diction and explain programs from AT&T's Documenter's Workbench use this simple approach. The diction program attempts to match phrases from its list of examples of poor diction against the text. Each matching phrase is displayed at the writer's terminal and the explain program is used to print the diagnosis. For example, if the writer were to use the word implement, diction would print out the word implement, and explain would suggest that the writer use the phrase carry out in place of implement. Most grammar and style checkers make some attempt to parse the sentences of the writer's text to produce a more accurate and precise analysis of the text.

The grammatical component of the checkers are, in part, extended spelling checkers. By using a grammar and part of speech information, a grammar checker can detect misspellings that a traditional spelling checker will miss. For example, the read wagon would be reported as an error since an article the may not be followed by a verb read. The actual categories of grammatical error that are reported differ from program to program. Some commonly reported errors include:

 

Subject-verb agreement;

 

Julie, as well as her assistants, are entitled to the commission. (should be is, singular)

Pronoun case;

If you have any further questions, please call either Chrysanne or myself. (should be me)

Noun-modifier agreement;

Several of the missing photograph were found. (should be photographs, plural)

Verb forms;

The class was gave by Julie. (should be given, present participle)

The categories of stylistic errors that are reported also vary from program to program. Some common reported errors include:

 

Diction; prioritize, dollarization

Redundant phrases; each individual, merge together

Double (or more) negatives; I don't know nothing.

Excessive sentence length and complexity.

 

TagEditor

 

 

The principal feature of Tag Editor is that it is the editing tool (in modern versions of the program it is already installed, not an add-on), where the translation is done.

 

In options sector a translator can edit languages, view of the tag tool itself:

 

 

 

In the Edit tab the most important feature is Keyboard as if you know more than two languages it has an option to automatically change the keyboard language to the language found in the target field but that language should be pre-installed from the Regional and Language options in your Windows Control Panel.

Verification tab is related to the Verify (F8) function in Tag Editor dictating the strictness of tag check-up when running the verify features.

 

And one of the most useful and important Options tab is Spelling tab:

 

 

Tag Editor is similar in spellchecking to MS Word. It even has an option to use the spellchecking dictionaries from Microsoft Office Package.

 

2.2.3. Machine translation. Translation memory

Machine translation is an autonomous operating system with strategies and approaches that can be classified as follows:

-- the direct strategy

-- the transfer strategy

-- the pivot language strategy

The direct strategy, the first to be used in machine translation systems, involves a minimum of linguistic theory. This approach is based on a predefined source language-target language binomial in which each word of the source language syntagm is directly linked to a corresponding unit in the target language with a unidirectional correlation, for example from English to Spanish but not the other way round. The best-known representative of this approach is the system created by the University of Georgetown, tested for the first time in 1964 on translations from Russian to English. The Georgetown system, like all existing systems, is based on a direct approach with a strong lexical component. The mechanisms for morphological analysis are highly developed and the dictionaries extremely complex, but the processes of syntactical analysis and disambiguation are limited, so that texts need a second stage of translation by human translators.                There are a number of systems that function on the same principle: for example SPANAM, used for Spanish-English translation since 1980, and SYSTRAN, developed in the United States for military purposes to translate Russian into English. After modification designed to improve its functioning, SYSTRAN was adopted by the European Community in 1976. At present it can be used to translate the following European languages:

 

• Source languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Greek.
• Target languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Dutch, Finnish, and Swedish.

In addition, programs are being created for other European languages, such as Hungarian, Polish and Serbo-Croatian.

Apart from being used by the European Commission, SYSTRAN is also used by NATO and by Aérospatiale, the French aeronautic company, which has played an active part in the development of the system by contributing its own terminology bank for French-English and English-French translation and by financing the specialized area related to aviation. Outside Europe, SYSTRAN is used by The United States Air Force because of its interest in Russian-English translation, by the XEROX Corporation, which adopted machine translation at the end of the 1970s and which is the private company that has contributed the most to the expansion of machine translation, and General Motors, which through a license from Peter Toma is allowed to develop and sell the applications of the system on its own account. It should be noted that in general the companies that develop direct machine translation systems do not claim that they are designed to produce good final translations, but rather to facilitate the translator's work in terms of efficiency and performance.