Comparing translator acceptability of TM and SMT outputs

This paper reports on an initial study that aims to understand whether the acceptability of translation memory (TM) among translators when contrasted with machine translation (MT) unacceptability is based on users’ ability to optimise precision in match suggestions. Seven translators were asked to rate whether 60 English-German translated segments were a usable basis for a good target translation. 30 segments were from a domain-appropriate TM without a quality threshold being set, and 30 segments were translated by a general domain statistical MT system. Participants found the MT output more useful on average, with only TM fuzzy matches of over 90% considered more useful. This result suggests that, were the MT community able to provide an accurate quality threshold to users, they would consider MT to be the more useful technology

Placeable and localizable elements in translation memory systems

Translation memory systems (TM systems) are software packages used in computer-assisted translation (CAT) to support human translators. As an example of successful natural language processing (NLP), these applications have been discussed in monographic works, conferences, articles in specialized journals, newsletters, forums, mailing lists, etc. This thesis focuses on how TM systems deal with placeable and localizable elements, as defined in 2.1.1.1. Although these elements are mentioned in the cited sources, there is no systematic work discussing them. This thesis is aimed at filling this gap and at suggesting improvements that could be implemented in order to tackle current shortcomings. The thesis is divided into the following chapters. Chapter 1 is a general introduction to the field of TM technology. Chapter 2 presents the conducted research in detail. The chapters 3 to 12 each discuss a specific category of placeable and localizable elements. Finally, chapter 13 provides a conclusion summarizing the major findings of this research project

Quality expectations of machine translation

Machine Translation (MT) is being deployed for a range of use-cases by millions of people on a daily basis. There should, therefore, be no doubt as to the utility of MT. However, not everyone is convinced that MT can be useful, especially as a productivity enhancer for human translators. In this chapter, I address this issue, describing how MT is currently deployed, how its output is evaluated and how this could be enhanced, especially as MT quality itself improves. Central to these issues is the acceptance that there is no longer a single ‘gold standard’ measure of quality, such that the situation in which MT is deployed needs to be borne in mind, especially with respect to the expected ‘shelf-life’ of the translation itself

Optimierung kommerzieller Translation-Memory-Systeme durch Integration morphosyntaktischer Analyseverfahren

Seit Anfang der 90er Jahre zählen Translation Memorys zu den bedeutsamsten Werkzeugen im Bereich der computergestützten Übersetzung. Dennoch wird in den meisten auf dem Markt verfügbaren Translation-Memory-Systemen nur ein Vergleich der Zeichenketten zwischen einem neu zu übersetzenden Segment mit einem im Translation Memory gespeicherten ausgangssprachlichen Segment durchgeführt, um ähnliche Übersetzungseinheiten aufzufinden. Linguistische Übereinstimmungen bleiben häufig unberücksichtigt, sodass bedeutungsgleiche bzw. -ähnliche Segmente mit unterschiedlicher (morpho-)syntaktischer Struktur nicht oder nur mit einem geringeren Ähnlichkeitswert ausgegeben werden. In diesem Band wird die Optimierung eines kommerziellen Translation-Memory-Systems durch Hinzuschaltung eines morphosyntaktischen Analyseprogramms beschrieben. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf der Erläuterung des entwickelten Prototyps, bestehend aus der Beschreibung des erweiterten Algorithmus zur Identifikation der längsten gemeinsamen Teilzeichenketten zwischen zwei zu vergleichenden ausgangssprachlichen Segmenten sowie des selbst konzipierten, auf linguistischen Analysen beruhenden Proximitätsmaßes zur Ermittlung von Ähnlichkeitswerten, die das menschliche Ähnlichkeitsempfinden abbilden sollen. Die umfangreiche Evaluierung des entwickelten Systems demonstriert das Ausmaß der erreichten linguistischen Optimierung kommerzieller zeichenkettenbasierter Translation Memorys

Tecnologías libres para la traducción y su evaluación

Los usuarios potenciales de las tecnologías libres para la traducción se enfrentan a la abrumadora tarea de considerar todas las opciones disponibles y seleccionar la herramienta que mejor se adapte a sus necesidades. En este trabajo presentamos un catálogo de herramientas y proponemos un modelo de calidad para la evaluación de las tecnologías libres para la traducción. Este modelo va más allá de la evaluación del software como producto y considera aspectos de las comunidades y procesos que soportan los proyectos de desarrollo.Potential users of open-source translation technologies face the daunting task of considering all the available options and selecting the one that better satisfies their needs. We created a software catalogue and propose a quality model for the evaluation of open-source translation technologies going beyond software product evaluation and including aspects of the communities and processes that sustain development projects

The Whitworthian 2007-2008

The Whitworthian student newspaper, September 2007-April 2008.https://digitalcommons.whitworth.edu/whitworthian/1092/thumbnail.jp