Documents found
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1.More information
The integration of data from statistical machine translation into translation memory suites (giving a range of TM/MT technologies) can be expected to replace fully human translation in many spheres of activity. This should bring about changes in the skill sets required of translators. With increased processing done by area experts who are not trained translators, the translator's function can be expected to shift to linguistic postediting, without requirements for extensive area knowledge and possibly with a reduced emphasis on foreign-language expertise. This reconfiguration of the translation space must also recognize the active input roles of TM/MT databases, such that there is no longer a binary organization around a “source” and a “target”: we now have a “start text” (ST) complemented by source materials that take the shape of authorized translation memories, glossaries, terminology bases, and machine-translation feeds. In order to identify the skills required for translation work in such a space, a minimalist and “negative” approach may be adopted: first locate the most important decision-making problems resulting from the use of TM/MT, and then identify the corresponding skills to be learned. A total of ten such skills can be identified, arranged under three heads: learning to learn, learning to trust and mistrust data, and learning to revise with enhanced attention to detail. The acquisition of these skills can be favored by a pedagogy with specific desiderata for the design of suitable classroom spaces, the transversal use of TM/MT, students' self-analyses of translation processes, and collaborative projects with area experts.
Keywords: savoir-faire du traducteur, compétence traductive, formation des traducteurs, technologies de la traduction, post-édition, translation skills, translation competence, translator education, translation technology, postediting
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As Austermühl (2001) put it over a decade ago, the use of information and communication technologies is a fait accompli in the lives of today's translators. Translation Studies (TS) have traditionally contemplated technologies only as supporting tools for translation practice, and translators' tools have not enjoyed consideration as decisive actors in TS. Hence, their impact has been somehow underrepresented in the discipline. In the light of well-established translation paradigms (linguistic, functional, cognitive, sociological), we analyze the role played by technology. Most TS approaches are artifactual, this meaning that a rather simplistic and outdated distinction is made between translator minds and the tools they use. This paper proposes an instrumental approach to technologies within TS. In this, cohesive and mutual merging between translators and their technologies, both field-specific and generic tools lead us towards a concept that goes beyond purely linguistic or anthropocentric translation notions. A trans-human translation theoretical modeling is proposed to revisit TS paradigms in the context of the Information Society era. The trans-human translation closes the loop initiated by the fragmentation and dehumanization of first translation technologies, and envisages a stimulating future for translators, where they will use technological and social extensions in a creative and critical way.
Keywords: translation paradigms, translation studies, technology, translation tools, trans-humanization, paradigmes de traduction, traductologie, technologie, outils de traduction, transhumanisation
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AbstractEven a broad definition of interpreting and translation — the interlingual transfer of the spoken and the written word respectively — would normally exclude any linguistic activity involving the recording and transcription of speech. However, an apparently unconnected group of language professionals, including foreign-language transcribers or' voice linguists,' UN précis-writers, market research analysts, and film sub-titlers, is engaged in the transcription of speech coupled with its transfer into a second language.The study described in this paper centres on the work of voice linguists and uses introspective accounts to investigate the processes involved and to identify the skill-set they use. It concludes that the work of such voice linguists involves a unique combination of inferencing and puzzle solving to resolve the difficulties of aural comprehension and a distinct, but essentially translation-based, approach to the subsequent written expression.
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This paper investigates the position of translators in Slovak society. It seeks an answer to the question who translates what, how and under which circumstances. To do so, it uses quantitative and qualitative methods of research. The quantitative analysis was performed with a questionnaire and data correlation analysis, whose results were then further tested via a qualitative analysis of 30 translations translated by 10 different translators (3 text types per each translator).1 The findings are juxtaposed with the ideas of Slovak and international translation scholars. The paper deals with translation as communication, the translation process, translator's competences, the means by which these competences are acquired (formal education or practical experience) and how these factors influence the quality of translators' output. This research paper presents results gained in the quantitative analysis.
Keywords: translator, competence, formal training, quantitative analysis, Slovakia, traducteur, compétence, formation professionnelle, analyse quantitative, Slovaquie
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Translators deploy a range of skills and draw on different types of knowledge in the exercise of their profession, but are some skills and knowledge types more important than others? What is the ideal combination nowadays? This study aims to investigate the relative importance of the different skills and knowledge that translators need in the specific context of translation at inter-governmental organizations. A survey was conducted of over 300 in-house translators and revisers working at over 20 inter-governmental organizations and with 24 different languages among them. The survey consisted of two questionnaires: one on the importance of different skills and knowledge, the other on the extent to which skills and knowledge are found lacking among new recruits. The results confirm that translators need more than language skills: in addition to general knowledge and in some instances specialized knowledge, they need analytical, research, technological, interpersonal and time-management skills. Correlating the findings of the two questionnaires produces a weighted list of skills and knowledge that can be used as a yardstick for adjusting training programmes and recruitment testing procedures in line with empirically identified priorities. The methodology should also be applicable to the identification of skill sets in other professions and contexts in which new recruits are closely observed, such as in-house interpreting.
Keywords: compétence traductionnelle, habiletés, connaissances, formation, organisations intergouvernementales, translation competence, skills, knowledge, training, inter-governmental organizations
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This article examines Jacques Derrida's concept of undecidability in machine and human translation. Defined as the very condition of possibility of acting and deciding (Caputo 1997: 137), undecidability is an essential component of decision-making. Using Derrida's concept as a starting point for thinking the intricacies of translation decision processes, this article explores manifestations of undecidability in the translations of an extract from Henri Meschonnic's Traduire au XXIe siècle (2008). Deliberately selected because of its direct resonance with the notion of undecidability, Meschonnic's comment claims that, except for automated translations, no practice of translation is possible without reflexive decision-making (Meschonnic 2008: 60). The observations discussed in this article challenge clear-cut distinctions between human and automated translations by showing that programmability and undecidability are features shared by both humans and machines in translation. As such, this study suggests that uncertainty, as a pre-condition of ethical decision-making, must be fostered within mechanical translations themselves, and that in-depth training in translation technology is necessary for a responsible use of machine translation.
Keywords: indécidabilité, traduction automatique, réflexivité, traductologie, traductique, undecidability, machine translation, reflexivity, translation studies, CAT