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Machine-Assisted Human Translation: Its Definition
The present article discusses the definition of Machine Assisted
Human Translation by making contrast with the technical terms:
Computer Assisted Translation and Machine-Assisted Translation.
It puts forward that MAHT is concerned with computer tools which
assist the human translators in the course of a translation process.
Nowadays, globalization has turned the earth into a village; as
a result, translation has become a booming industry for frequent
and massive information exchanges among the people from
different countries. In translation industry, Machine-Assisted
Human Translation, MAHT for short, is playing a more and more
important role at present.
Before we introduce MAHT, it is needed for us to make clear
another two terminologies. Specialists and translation practitioners
are interested in mechanical aids for translation or translation
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Transhorsa Translation Co.,LTD.,,Shanghaihttp://www.transhorsa.org Msn:[email protected] Translation & Proofreading
automation is most frequently confronted with the somewhat
misleading term “Computer Assisted (or Aided) Translation” and
sometimes “Machine Assisted (or Aided) Translation”.
Over the years, there has been much confusion concerning
the definition of the terms. In view of the scientific and popular
interest in Machine Assisted Translation and Computer-Assisted
Translation, the latter has become an umbrella term and is
therefore no longer synonymous with MAHT. Considering
Computer Assisted Translation as a generic term, Machine
Translation and MAHT can be divided into two major subgroups.
Today, Machine Translation is generally understood to be the
process in which a “machine” (specifically a computer program is
the pivotal component in the translation process while humans are
in charge of developing the software (which includes, for instance,
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grammatical and lexical rules), updating the programs, pre- and
post-editing texts, and sometimes interactively communicating with
the machine to solve the translation problems in the text which is
being translated. At the other end of the Computer-Assisted
Translation spectrum we find MAHT tools, also known as
“translation workbenches”, where humans are pivotal to the
process. In the latter type, human translators prepare the target-
language texts and the “machines”(computer programs) assist
translators by offering terminological support(terms are retrieved
automatically or semi-automatically from an appropriate database)
and by building and employing translation databases (Translation
Memories) to suggest identical (100% matches) and similar
segments (fuzzy matches, which are less than 100%) that have
been used in previous translations and stored in the database.
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Transhorsa Translation Co.,LTD.,,Shanghaihttp://www.transhorsa.org Msn:[email protected] Translation & Proofreading
As hinted, MAHT is a budding discipline which has not been
precisely defined. First, MAHT is defined as a discipline that is
concerned with computer tools which assist human translators in
the course of a translation process. By mentioning translation
process, we does not mean mental processes that take place
during translation, but surface processes that start when a
translation assignment is accepted, which end with the delivery of
a finished product. Such translation process has two major
constituents parts: one is a creative part requiring human
evaluation leading to the production of a translation for which a
human translator remains solely responsible; the other is a
technical part which includes all such tasks as receiving and
sending documents, typing and formatting, scanning documents
for identical or similar segments to reduce the number of words
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Transhorsa Translation Co.,LTD.,,Shanghaihttp://www.transhorsa.org Msn:[email protected] Translation & Proofreading
and phrases that must be left for translation by human translators,
desktop publishing and terminological consistency, and other
features which can be handled by mechanical tools. But what we
have pay attention to is that it is humans who are responsible for
the end product and its quality, whereas the strength of a MAHT
system is that it ensures the terminological, phraseological, and
segmental consistency which is crucial to e.g. scientific and
technical translation.
It is often of great significance that we make clear of the
definition of something which we would like to apply to.
Author Information:
Heyi
Marketing Manager of
Transhorsa Translation Co., LTD., Shanghai
Addr:2601 Xietu Road, T1-16D Gateway Plaza, Shanghai 200030TEL: +(86) 021 51691621 33197285 FAX: +(86) 021 33197183
Transhorsa Translation Co.,LTD.,,Shanghaihttp://www.transhorsa.org Msn:[email protected] Translation & Proofreading
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