In January, the Brazilian press for the first time published an article highlighting the multilingual services sector. The article focused on the applications used in translation work and, as we had anticipated on our site, we are bringing you a series of articles to better clarify this subject.
To begin with, let’s talk about the doubt which for some time now has been hanging in the air: is automated translation a CAT (Computer-Aided Translation) tool? No. CAT tools and automated translation pursue entirely different objectives, but because they are relatively new to the multilingual
services environment, it is still very common to find clients who are unable to distinguish one from the other. Improving the perception in this respect could make an enormous difference at those different times when the subject of translation is broached, from whatever angle.
CAT tools are software specially designed to support human translation, accepting the fact that the role of the translator for the machine environment is unthinkable. On the other hand, in automated translation, which became popular on several sites like Google and Babel Fish, the work gets done
with no human intellectual interference, the main difficulty lying in considering the semantic and grammatical differences inherent to all languages, and consequently producing texts of an inferior quality to those produced by man.
Recognizing these limitations, CAT tools confine themselves to suggesting to the translator terminological patterns picked out from a data base composed of previous human translations, in addition to taking advantage of repetitive phrases. The purpose of these tools is to assist and not
take the place of man, with no ambitions towards impossible achievements.
It is the translator, with his knowledge of the languages involved, the culture which expresses them and his technical field of specialization, who has to choose between the alternatives suggested by the machine, quite often making correct adjustments to the best option.
Bearing the mind the sharp increase in the demand for multilingual services in all sectors of the economy at international level, the advent of CAT tools could not have occurred at a better moment. Discussions are also taking place in anticipation of their likely integration with automated translation.
Whether this integration actually happens or not, it must be remembered how important it is for the translation professional to make increasing use of these resources which have been made available by technology, thereby assuring their clients of quality gains with a resulting reduction in costs.
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