Utilization of Computer Memory: Pros and Contras
Translation memory (TM) arrangements, the most widely used toolkits in the localization of digital information at HQ-translate agency, enable the translation and cultural compliance of electronic content (e-content) for local markets. The idea behind TM systems is to store in a computer system the original e-content and the translation that has been produced by human translators; the stored translated version of the source document has been broken down into manageable bits, generally one sentence long. Today the most popular CAT tools: TRADOS, Déjà vu, Wordfast. The preferences of using CAT systems are fairly obvious: they increase the translator’s productivity and improve translation quality by securing that terms and sentences are used consistently within and across translation works. Users in governmental and transnational companies state a 25–60% rise in work throughput. Yet, it must be stated that the use of TM systems may also have negative effects on translation quality. One of the major discouraging things of TM systems is that they usually operate at sentence level. Therefore, there is a real danger that the translator will focus too much on standalone sentences, possibly disregarding the contexts in which the sentences are incorporated. Moreover, the matching algorithms of TM systems are based on very plain formal criteria, such as the similarity of character strings. Thus, the human translator’s notion of the degree of similarity between a piece to be translated and a part retrieved from the database may differ considerably from the level of similarity calculated by the CAT system. This may follow to situations wherein exact matches yield wrong translations, or one translation of a fuzzy match requires little or no adjustment but another fuzzy match with the same similarity level is not useful at all (for a discussion on the aspects of evaluating the retrieval mechanisms of TM systems, see Expert Advisory Group on Language Engineering Standards (1996), Whyman and Somers (1999), and Reinke (2000a, 2004). Despite the negative sides, it should be noted that TM systems generally integrate into the translation performance comparatively smoothly. These CATs leave human translators in control of the actual translation work, while liberating them from routine work and keeping translation as a creative activity whenever the translation resourcefulness of a human being is required. For more knowledge, visit us at: HQ-translate company
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