Prof. Asif-TRN 4

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Technology &TRANSLATION

Prepared by:M ASIF IKRAM ANJUM

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The relation between technology and translationis part of the wider question of what technologydoes to language. It is now a key questionbecause new translation technologies such as

translation memories, data-based machinetranslation, and collaborative translationmanagement systems are altering the very natureof the translator's cognitive activity, social

relations, and professional standing. Thecompetence needed to translate has also evolveddue to different factors, mainly technological

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Translators have always been associated with the

image of a man writing or typing behind a heap ofdictionaries and with a bunch of books behind him.However, in recent years this image has changed. Nowwhen we think of a translator we can imagine a man

behind a computer with Internet connection andmaybe a couple of books on his desk. Yes, with thearrival of the information era many things changed.

The translation profession has also changed. Now, inorder to be a competent translator it is necessary to becomputer literate and to keep ones informationtechnologies skills updated.

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First of all the term competence and then more

specifically the term translation competence will bedefined.

Competence is the combination of skills, attitudesand behaviour that leads to an individual being able to

perform a certain task to a given level. Different authors have developed the term

communicative competence: Thus, the termcompetence has been applied to different areas of life:

the labor market, business, education and translation. Translation competence is a complex concept

that has been addressed by a number of researchers inthe field of Translation Studies.

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The term competence - translational competence - wasfirst used by Toury (1980, 1995), because of its

similarity to Chomsky's (1965) famous distinctionbetween linguistic competence and performance, toexplore certain aspects of translation practice.

Translation competence is the ability to carry out

the transfer process from the comprehension of thesource text to the re-expression of the target text,taking into account the purpose of the translation andthe characteristics of the target-text readers. In fact,

the Translation Competence Model proposed by PACTE(Process of the Acquisition of Translation Competenceand Evaluation) research team (2003) is made up of 5sub competencies and psycho-physiological

components that overlap each other as they operate. 6


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General ICTs for translators.

(I) The Internet

The services offered by the Internet provide theprofessional translator with considerable advantages inthe documentation task as it allows him/her to accessto a huge quantity of data and publications, as well asto communicate with experts and translators in otherparts of the world with the purpose of exchangingideas and experiences. In our opinion one of the mostimportant tools offered by the Internet are the searchand location information engines. At the current time,the three leading search engines are Google; Yahoo!,operated by Yahoo! Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif.; and


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Microsoft's Bing (formerly Live Search), operated by

Microsoft Corporation of Redmond. They allow toaccess in a few seconds to an enormous quantity ofinterrelated information.

1.2 The use of corpus linguistics

This is another tool that can be of great help for theprofessional translator. Corpora are classified in twotypes. On one hand, the monolingual corpora, On theother hand, we have the bilingual corpora that can, in

turn, be divided in parallel corpus and comparablecorpus. The former is made up of a group of sourcetexts and their respective translations. The latter aretexts originally written in two or more languages.

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1.3 Concordance generator programs

A third example of general ICT is the concordancegenerator programs, which can find all the times that a

certain term appears in a text or in several texts writtenin electronic format. It can also show a list of thecontext in which the term appears. Regarding specificICT tools for the work of the professional translator, we

have: machine translation and computer assistedtranslation.


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Specific ICTs for translators. 1.1 Machine translation (MT) Machine Translation is a procedure whereby a

computer program analyzes a source text and producesa target text without further human intervention. Inreality, however, machine translation typically doesinvolve human intervention, in the form of pre-editingand post-editing.

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1.2 Computer-assisted

translation Computer-assisted translation (CAT), also called"computer-aided translation, "machine-aided humantranslation (MAHT)" and "interactive translation," is aform of translation wherein a human translator createsa target text with the assistance of a computerprogram. The machine supports a human translator.

Computer-assisted translation can include standarddictionary and grammar software. The term, however,normally refers to a range of specialized programsavailable to the translator, including translation-memory, terminology-management, concordance, and

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Effective use of translation technology starts from thetranslator's point of view. The translator has to

determine what types of translation technology areneeded at what stages of the translation process inorder to optimize his or her professional performance.

Within each of the three main phases of the

translation process -- reception, transfer, andformulation -- different sub-competencies aredemanded by translators, and the tools used tosupport them have to offer specific features and

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During the reception phase, a translatorcan use electronic encyclopedias, digitalknowledge databases or informationretrieval systems or can contact domainexperts through online newsgroups ormailing lists in order to retrieve missingbackground knowledge, allowing him orher to combine text, domain, and worldknowledge to fully understand thecontent of the source text.

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The transfer phase, i.e. the adaptation of the source

text information to the context of the target textculture is uniquely translational. Neither readers norwriters share this phase with the translator. It requiresdeep cross-cultural understanding and strong

intercultural communication skills. The tools neededduring this stage of the translation process need tooffer a high degree of intercultural knowledge, while atthe same time providing the translator with a

comparative analysis of the cultures affected by thetranslation project.

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Resources in this field are still rare, and special kinds

of translator dictionaries or culturally-sensitiveterminology databases providing a thoroughcombination and networking of linguistic,encyclopedic and intercultural knowledge have to be

designed to assist translators during the transferphase.

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Finally, the formulation phase confronts the translator

with challenges regarding the production of the targetlanguage text. Here again, the use of dictionaries andterminology databases can assist the translator quiteefficiently. The information contained in those

resources needs to offer support as can be found inmany style guides or in collocation dictionaries.Dictionaries providing such information becomevaluable production dictionaries. the translator can

turn to text archives available on CD-ROM or over theInternet for the verification of tentative translationsolutions in the target language.

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Within most professions, and within many societies assystems, some social groups gain positions of powerwith the help of the technologies they master. IBMheadphones and wires enabled conference interpretersto form a profession, to recruit their members from thecircles close to the institutions able to pay for thetechnology (at the Nuremberg trials, most of theinterpreters were from the social networks of thediplomats, judges and higher military personnel

involved in the trials), and to thereby prolong themystique of magical and masterly performance, suchthat the main difference between interpreting withand without the technology is still about $100 an hour.

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Prof. Asif-TRN 4

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