Machines, translations and memories: language transfer in the web browser

Abstract Classic translation memory (TM) revolutionised technical translation in the 1990s. ‘Enhanced’ TM will revolutionise most types of translation this decade. The massive memory databases collected over 20 years can now be accessed from TM tools for exact and fuzzy matches. Sub-segmental information (terminology and phraseology) can also be gained from them via manual or automated concordancing. Stripped of metadata and formatting information, they have made possible the swift development of statistical machine translation (MT), which can be integrated with TM to provide matches where the memories themselves cannot. At the same time, cloud computing facilitates the adoption of web-based MT (and of web-based TM and translation management systems). Postediting, previously limited to a narrow section of the industry, becomes mainstream. The Read/Write Web demands (and allows for) a new model of translation, with dynamic, user-generated content not well suited to the conventional translation-editing-proofreading model. The web browser seems to drive those who want to make technical translation a profession into either semi-skilled workers enduring quasi sweatshop conditions, or else into the highly-skilled language engineer who helps make the decisions on which tool or process those translators will use for which task.

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