Controlled Language for Multilingual Document Production: Experience with Caterpillar Technical English 1

Caterpillar Inc., a heavy equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Peoria IL, supports world-wide distribution of a large number of products and parts. Each Caterpillar product integrates several complex subsystems (engine, hydraulic system, drive system, implements, electrical, etc.) for which a variety of technical documents must be produced (operations and maintenance, testing and adjusting, disassembly and assembly, specifications, etc.). To support consistent, high-quality authoring and translation of these documents from English into a variety of target languages, Caterpillar uses Caterpillar Technical English (CTE), a controlled English system developed in conjunction with CarnegieMellon University’s Center forMachine Translation (CMT) andCarnegie Group Incorporated (CGI).