Translation Memory: Virtues and Vices
Translation memory (TM) technologies, the most widely used toolkits in the localization of digital information at HQ-translate agency, enable the proofreading and transnational 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 pros of using CAT systems are fairly obvious: they increase the translator’s productivity and raise translation quality by ensuring that terms and statements are used consistently within and across translation works. Users in industry and international agencies report a 25–60% rise in efficiency. Yet, it must be stated that the use of TM systems may also have negative effects on translation quality. One of the major disadvantages of TM systems is that they usually work at sentence level. Therefore, there is a real danger that the translator will focus too much on isolated sentences, possibly disregarding the contexts in which the sentences are introduced. Moreover, the matching algorithms of TM systems are based on very plain formal criteria, such as the similarity of character strings. Therefore, the human translator’s notion of the degree of similarity between a segment to be translated and a segment retrieved from the storage base may differ considerably from the grade of similarity calculated by the CAT system. This may lead to situations wherein exact matches imply wrong translations, or one translation of a fuzzy match requires little or no adjustment but another fuzzy match with the same similarity value 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 build into the translation routine comparatively smoothly. These CATs leave human translators in control of the real translation process, while relieving them from routine work and maintaining translation as a creative activity whenever the translation resourcefulness of a human nature is required. For more knowledge, visit us at: HQ-translate company