Machine Translation: What it is?
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The document discusses machine translation, explaining how it works, its advantages, and ways to improve its quality. It highlights two types of machine translators and emphasizes the importance of database quality in achieving accurate translations. Additionally, it addresses the reasons for using machine translation, such as speed and cost-effectiveness, as well as practical guidelines for writing text suitable for machine translation.
Machine Translation: What it is?
- 1. What?! • How?? • When? • Why..? • Where?
- 2. What?! A piece of text which has been written again automatically from one language to another by a machine*. * In this context ’machine’ is basically the same as computer.
- 3. What?! Two Types of Machine Translation Machine translator can utilize certain language related rules, like grammar Machine translator can use a and conjugation, with the database as a source for all help of a separate the information it needs for dictionary. These rules and translating. Machine dictionaries are integrated to translator uses the information the translator by human. in the database to determine Then the machine translator which words have similar tries to read the dictionary meanings in different and to apply the rules to the languages, which expressions text that is being translated. are most used, which words are synonyms, etc. Typically these kind of machine translators count probabilities to find out the best translation.
- 4. What?! The Difference in Quality The quality is more controlled if one teaches all the rules to the machine A translator which uses a translator. This method is database can learn from quite laborious and it it, especially if more data is requires accuracy. Only if the automatically collected. groundwork is done Although a bigger database properly, the machine usually improves the translator produces good quality, the quality of the quality. These rules should database is extremely be updated and reviewed to important. No matter how maintain the quality. huge the database is if it contains only bad examples.
- 5. How?? 4 Ways to Improve Machine Translation First translate with machine and then proofread the automatic translation. Write your original text in a way that machine can translate it better. Evaluate the quality of machine translation to determine whether the raw automatic translation has good enough quality for the case. Modify the machine translation to equal your translation needs.
- 6. How?? Guidelines for Writing Text That Machine Can Translate Cut long sentences Write Keep your Overuse commas. into pieces. This full, grammatically language simple. Separate different advice not only correct sentences. Use common parts of sentences ease the machine Don’t leave words vocabulary and with commas to translation but also or marks out of avoid words that help machine makes the original your sentences have several translators to text easier to read. and avoid meanings. combine the right complicated subject with the sentence predicate. structures. Correct spelling mistakes. Spelling mistakes and missing spaces between words are common and they have a huge impact on the machine translation. Always use spell check if you have one.
- 7. When?
- 8. Why..? Machine Translation is Easy-to-use. In its easiest form, one just puts the original text in and the machine gives the translation. Professional translation is not available as easily. First of all, finding the right person to do the translation requires some effort. Then one should negotiate about the prices and schedule and other relevant things. For someone who has never bought a translation before this task may feel overwhelming. It’s in the human nature to avoid stepping out of the comfort zone. When machine translation is just few clicks away, it becomes easily the most tempting option.
- 9. Why..? Machine Translation is Fast. There are situation when “now and here” beats “later and better”. If a customer sends you a message by email or through social media and you don’t understand his language, there is no time to send it to a professional translator. Even the biggest language service providers cannot be faster than a machine. Communication between humans takes always time, and it would cost A LOT to have a translator ready for unexpected situations all the time. The pace of living is fast nowadays, and people are not used to wait too long. Machine Translation can give you understandable translation in minutes or even seconds.
- 10. Why..? Machine Translation is Cheap. Money is also one reason for using machine translation. Machine translation offers very good price-quality combination. It is good that professional translators are proud of their profession and want to produce the best translation quality. However, the best quality is not always needed. Sometimes good enough translation quality is the goal or even mediocre quality can be enough to be able to understand the message. Today some professional translation service companies proofreads machine translated texts with half the price of a complete professional translation. For less crucial translations a machine definitely produces good enough quality with the most competitive cost.
- 11. Where? The more people are interacting between each others all over the world, the more there is demand for machine translation. Today some browsers translate web pages, Facebook translates comments and content, Google and Bing translate pieces of text, etc. Machine Translation in software and document localization: Multilizer Localization tools Machine Translation in PDF translation: Multilizer PDF Translator