Conducting Research In Translation Technologies

This volume offers a collection of articles by leading experts in the field that explore some of the current communication and information trends defining our contemporary world and impinging on the translation profession. The essays encourage intellectual reflection on the crucial role played by technology in the translation profession.

Translation technologies are moulded by and impact upon humans in all sorts of ways. This state-of-the-art volume looks at translation technologies from the point of view of the human users – as trainee, professional or volunteer translators, or as end users of translations produced by machines. Covering technologies from machine translation to online collaborative platforms, and practices from ‘traditional’ translation to crowdsourced translation and subtitling, this volume takes a critical stance, questioning both utopian and dystopian visions of translation technology. In eight chapters, the authors propose ideas on how technologies can better serve translators and end users of translations. The first four chapters explore how translators – in various contexts and with widely differing profiles – use and feel about translation technologies as they currently stand, while the second four chapters focus on the future: on anticipating needs, identifying emerging possibilities, and defining interventions that can help to shape translation practice and research. Drawing on a range of theories from cognitive to social and psychological, and with empirical evidence of what the technologization of the workplace means to translators, Human Issues in Translation Technology is key reading for all those involved in translation and technology, translation theory and translation research methods.

The Map is a practical guidebook introducing the basics of research in translation studies for students doing their first major research project in the field. Depending on where they are studying, this may be at advanced undergraduate (BA) or at postgraduate (MA/PHD) level. The book consists of ten chapters. Chapter 1 offers an overview of 12 research areas in translation studies in order to help students identify a topic and establish some of the current research questions relating to it. Chapter 2 is designed to assist students in planning their research project and covers topics such as refining the initial idea, determining the scope of the project, checking out resources, reading critically, keeping complete bibliographic records, and working with a supervisor. Chapters 3 to 7 provide some of the conceptual and methodological tools needed in this area of research, with detailed discussion of such topics as theoretical models of translation, types of research, asking questions, making claims, formulating hypotheses, establishing relations between variables, and selecting and analyzing data. Chapters 8 and 9 are about presenting one's research, in writing as well as orally. Finally, chapter 10 deals with some of the criteria commonly used in research assessment, especially in the assessment of theses. The authors provide detailed guidance on further reading throughout. This is an essential reference work for research students and lecturers involved in supervising research projects and degrees.

This collection of scholarly articles asks the question How useful is translation technology? Pointing to the need for a widely used and reliable way to test the efficiency of language translation programs, the presenters show that commercial tools such as translation memories and translation workbenches are popular, and their developers find them useful in terms of productivity, consistency, or quality. However, these claims are rarely proven using objective comparative studies, and this group describes several new statistical approaches to more rigorous evaluation methods. -- Product Description.

A Project-Based Approach to Translation Technology provides students of translation and trainee translators with a real-time translation experience, with its translation platforms, management systems, and teamwork. This book is divided into seven chapters reflecting the building blocks of a project-based approach to translation technology. The first chapter identifies the core elements of translation environment tools and collaborative work methods, while Chapters 2 and 4 review the concept of translation memory and terminology databases and their purposes. Chapter 3 covers machine translation embedded in the technology, and the other chapters discuss human and technological quality assurance, digital ethics and risk management, and web-based translation management systems. Each chapter follows a common format and ends with project-based assignments. These assignments draw and build on real-time contexts, covering the consecutive steps in the workflow of large and multilingual translation projects. Reviewing the many translation technology tools available to assist the translator and other language service providers, this is an indispensable book for advanced students and instructors of translation studies, professional translators, and technology tool providers.

This book assembles fifteen original, interdisciplinary research chapters that explore methodological and conceptual considerations as well as user and usage studies to elucidate the relation between the translation product and translation/post-editing processes. It introduces numerous innovative empirical/data-driven measures as well as novel classification schemes and taxonomies to investigate and quantify the relation between translation quality and translation effort in from-scratch translation, machine translation post-editing and computer-assisted audiovisual translation. The volume addresses questions in the translation of cognates, neologisms, metaphors, and idioms, as well as figurative and cultural specific expressions. It re-assesses the notion of translation universals and translation literality, elaborates on the definition of translation units and syntactic equivalence, and investigates the impact of translation ambiguity and translation entropy. The results and findings are interpreted in the context of psycho-linguistic models of bilingualism and re-frame empirical translation process research within the context of modern dynamic cognitive theories of the mind. The volume bridges the gap between translation process research and machine translation research. It appeals to students and researchers in the fields.

Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Technology, second edition, provides a state-of-the-art survey of the field of computer-assisted translation. It is the first definitive reference to provide a comprehensive overview of the general, regional, and topical aspects of this increasingly significant area of study. The Encyclopedia is divided into three parts: Part 1 presents general issues in translation technology, such as its history and development, translator training, and various aspects of machine translation, including a valuable case study of its teaching at a major university; Part 2 discusses national and regional developments in translation technology, offering contributions covering the crucial territories of China, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Japan, South Africa, Taiwan, the Netherlands and Belgium, the United Kingdom, and the United States; Part 3 evaluates specific matters in translation technology, with entries focused on subjects such as alignment, concordancing, localization, online translation, and translation memory. The new edition has five additional chapters, with many chapters updated and revised, drawing on the expertise of over 50 contributors from around the world and an international panel of consultant editors to provide a selection of chapters on the most pertinent topics in the discipline. All the chapters are self-contained, extensively cross-referenced, and include useful and up-to-date references and information for further reading. It will be an invaluable reference work for anyone with a professional or academic interest in the subject.

The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Technology provides a state-of-the art survey of the field of computer-assisted translation. It is the first definitive reference to provide a comprehensive overview of the general, regional and topical aspects of this increasingly significant area of study. The Encyclopedia is divided into three parts: Part One presents general issues in translation technology, such as its history and development, translator training and various aspects of machine translation, including a valuable case study of its teaching at a major university; Part Two discusses national and regional developments in translation technology, offering contributions covering the crucial territories of China, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Japan, South Africa, Taiwan, the Netherlands and Belgium, the United Kingdom and the United States Part Three evaluates specific matters in translation technology, with entries focused on subjects such as alignment, bitext, computational lexicography, corpus, editing, online translation, subtitling and technology and translation management systems. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Technology draws on the expertise of over fifty contributors from around the world and an international panel of consultant editors to provide a selection of articles on the most pertinent topics in the discipline. All the articles are self-contained, extensively cross-referenced, and include useful and up-to-date references and information for further reading. It will be an invaluable reference work for anyone with a professional or academic interest in the subject.