faculdade de letras da universidade do porto informÁtica de traduÇÃo fall semester 2010

FLUP - Elena Zagar GalvãoFLUP - Elena Zagar Galvão

Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto

INFORMÁTICA DE TRADUÇÃO

FALL SEMESTER 2010Tue. 19:30-21:30 - Wed.17.30-19.30

Room 204

12 October 2010 (Lesson 5)

Teacher:Elena Zagar Galvã[email protected]

Webpage: web.letras.up.pt/egalvao

Lagoudaki, Elina (2006). Translation Memory Systems: Enlightening Users’ Perspectives. London: Imperial College. http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/pls/portallive/docs/1/7307707.PDF

Horsefrog – Online Translation Schoolhttp://www.horsefrog.com/japanese-translator-patent/mod/resource/view.php?id=265

García, Ignacio (2006). “Translators on translation memories: a blessing or a curse?” in Anthony Pym et al. Translation Technology and its Teaching, Tarragona: Intercultural Studies Group, Universitat Rovira i Virgili.


eCoLoTrain TM Courseshttp://ecolotrain.uni-saarland.de/index.php?id=1183&L=1

(available in EN, ES, FR, DE)

Somers, Harold (ed.) (2003). Computers and Translation. A Translator's Guide.

Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins


The first commercial Translation Memory tools are made available to translation professionals.

Main objective:to assist and accelerate the translation

process and related activities, thereby improving a translator’s working life.

Constant search for “optimal solutions to match the translation industry’s demands”.


Question: identify your area of specialisation and the file formats you work with. technical (including medical and scientific) : 61% legal content: 9%marketing material: 8%

financial content: 4% literature: 3%other specialisations (e.g., history, social sciences, business and administration) or no specialisation at all: 15%

(see Fig. 6 in the Report)


1. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and rich/plain text files: 96%

2. PDF files: 43%

“XML and HTML files accounted for 26%, hardcopy documents for 19%, DTP files (including FrameMaker, Illustrator, InDesign, QuarkXPress, PageMaker, etc.) for 12%, and various other file formats such as Java properties files, MS Windows resource files, audiovisual files and TM proprietary file formats accounted for 7% (see Figure 7 in the report).”


% of individuals using TM systems: 82.5%

% who did not use any TM systems at all: 17.5%


Company owners are slightly more likely to use TM systems, followed by company employees and then freelancers. (cf. 2004 LISA Translation Memory Survey)Company owners were the first to adopt TM technology, so they are more open to TM use than any other group as they know the advantages of TM systems in terms of being cost savings and productivity gains.


TM users (76%): translators (they were the largest group of professionals in this survey: 90%) PMs - project managers (8%), reviewers (6%), other translation professionals (5%),terminologists (4%) subtitlers (2%) interpreters (1%).


The high TM usage rate (82.5%) in this survey is due to 2

characteristics of the sample unit. Firstly, the majority of respondents specialise

in technical texts and there is a strong correlation between theparticular text type and the use of TM systems. This is because technical content normally contains a great amount of terminology, standard expressions, simple sentence structure and a high degree of internal repetition; therefore, the possibilities for content re-use are many.


The survey confirmed that those who specialise in technical texts are more likely to use TM tools, followed by those who specialise in financial and marketing content. Those who reported legal specialisation are also likely to use TM tools, but less than the previous groups.TM usage rate drops for those who translate general texts (or have no specialisation) and for those who translate literature.


Secondly, respondents have a high level of computer usage competence and this normally encourages the adoption ofTM technology.

The more skilled the translation professionals are in the use of computers, the more likely they are to use a TM system.


There is a relationship between high levels of repetition and high TM use, i.e., TM use rate declines as the repetition levels decrease.

No significant evidence of correlation between age and TM use.


TRADOS 76% Déjà Vu 61% Wordfast 51% SDL Trados 2006 49% SDLX 36% STAR Transit 25% MultiTrans 18% PASSOLO 11% Omega-T 10%


71% - out of a personal choice 20% - because they were imposed by the

company they work for (or partner with)

9% - because it was their client's request Company owners decide the use of TM

systems on a voluntary basis, whereas the majority of company employees are forced to startusing a TM either by their company or their clients.

For freelancers, on the other hand, the decision seems to lie more in the assessment of personal circumstances, rather than in external requirements (but the two could coincide/influnce one another)


hardcopy documents 38% the file format is not supported 28% too complicated for short texts 18% low repetition rate 18% not suitable for my text types 15% complex layout 5% lack of training/inexperience 3% use of other tools 2%


Why study about CAT tools? What is a CAT tool? What does a CAT tool do? Advantages Disadvantages SDLX SDL-TRADOS SDL Analyse


Because CAT tools can:

have to be used by necessity due to a request by a client;

improve translation consistency and quality.

enable reuse of translations done in the past.

improve translators’ productivity and thus increase income.


CAT stands for "Computer Aided Translation Tool". The terms "Translation Memory" and "TM" are sometimes used to refer to the same type of tool. A CAT tool is a computer program that helps a translator to work more efficiently, i.e, work faster, more productively and with a higher degree of consistency.



1. 1. A CAT tool breaks texts into A CAT tool breaks texts into segmentssegments (sentences or sentence fragments) and (sentences or sentence fragments) and presents the segments in a convenient presents the segments in a convenient way, to make translating easier and way, to make translating easier and faster. In some tools, for example faster. In some tools, for example MetaTexis or Trados Translator’s MetaTexis or Trados Translator’s Workbench, each segment is presented Workbench, each segment is presented in a special box, and the translation can in a special box, and the translation can be entered in another box right below the be entered in another box right below the source text.source text.

2.The translation of each segment is saved together with the source text. Source text and translation will always be treated and presented as translation units (TU). You can return to a segment at any time to check the translation. There are special functions which help to navigate through the text and to find segments which need to be translated or revised (quality control).


3.A CAT tool saves the translation units in a database, called translation memory (TM), so that they can be re-used for any other text, or even in the same text. Through special "fuzzy search" features the search functions of CAT tools can also find segments which do not match 100%. This saves time and effort and helps the translator to use consistent terminology

Besides these main functions many other functions may be included in CAT tools, to make translating easier and increase productivity.


Some translation memory programs function as stand alone environments, while others function as an add-on or macro to commercially available word-processing or other business software programs. (Wikipedia – Cat tools entry)


Some TM tools work as add-ins (through macros) to Microsoft Word.

Examples of these are: Trados, Wordfast, MultiTrans, Logoport,

Metatexis, and Fusion.

(main supported file formats of interest to us:

.doc, .rtf; .txt, .ppt, .html)


Other TM tools provide their own translation processing environment, usually in a tabular way. Examples of these are:

SDLXDéjàVu http://www.atril.com/en/home.aspx

MemoQ http://download.cnet.com/MemoQ/3000-2079_4-10555573.html

STAR Transit http://www.star-ts.com/downloads-translator-tools-transit-nxt.shtml

HeartsomeAcross http://www.across.net/en/index.aspx


http://download.cnet.com/MemoQ/3000-2079_4-10555573.html


All your tools in one place - editing, reviewing, terminology and project management tools all in one clean, tag-free environment


The choice of one design over the other is usually a matter of the user’s preference . . .

. . . but also of imposition by clients.



Most CAT tools also have what is known as a "concordance” function. This is one of the most useful functions of a CAT tool. When a segment of text within, for example, a sentence is selected and the concordance function run, a list of identical or similar matches will be displayed to the user if such matches exist in the translation memory. This is extremely useful in checking terminology consistency because a large number of terms can be checked almost instantly using a single concordance search. This is also useful in checking consistency of phrasing of particular expressions throughout a similar document, or in ensuring that two translations performed separated by a large gap in time (for example, one or two years) are still translated in a similar manner.

CAT tools will also usually include some kind of terminology management interface for handling storage, management and insertion of terminology. This makes it possible to create terminology databases associated with a particular job or jobs.


Quality Assurance (Consistency, Term Checking/Management)

SpeedRe-use


the file must be in electronic format.

mistakes repeated (a ‘bad’ translation memory results in bad translations; we might not agree with what is ‘consecrated’ in a client’s memory)

tendency to translate in sentences. the translation memory may break.


faculdade de letras da universidade do porto informÁtica de traduÇÃo fall semester 2010

Documents

translation professionals

translation technology

translation memory systems

translation industrys

translation memories

translation process

tm technology

advantages of tm systems