Computer-Aided

Translation Tools
and Resources
Jan-Hendrik Cobobus
&
Kay-Henryk Schrmann

Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources

Introduction

Professional translators can benefit from:

1. Translation memory systems
2. Terminology management systems
the standards for translation data interchange
such as...
Translation memory exchange (TMX)
Localization tools
Parallel Corpora
Concordancers
Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources
Workbench / Workstation

= a single integrated system that is made up of a number of translation tools and resources

such as...
a translation memory
an alignment tool
a tag filter
electronic dictionaries
terminology databases
a terminolgy management system
spell and grammar-checkers
Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources
Translation Memory Systems

= a multilingual text archive containing multilingual texts, allowing storage and retrieval of aligned
multilingual text segments against various search conditions
Advantages:
choice to accept or reject a term suggested by the system
language-independent
support international character sets

Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources

Translation Memory Systems

Limitations:
1. not all languages are supported
2. texts should be written in special language related to a particular subject field
(such as legal documents, technical reports, manuals)
works by reusing previously translated texts
uses databases of terms (termbase) which are built by a Terminology Management
System
Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources
Translation Memory Systems - Characteristics

Two different approaches/features:

1. Perfect matching
completely identical

English (source)
Old: I dont feel well today.
vandaag.
New: I dont feel well today.
vandaag.

Dutch (target)
Ik voel me niet goed
Ik voel me niet goed

2. Fuzzy matching
similar but not exactly identical

English (source)
Old: The weather is good.
New: The weather is bad.

Dutch (target)
Het is mooi weer.
Het is slecht weer.

Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources

Translation Memory Systems - Characteristics

Filter:
a filter is a feature that converts a source-language text from one format into another
giving the translator the flexibility to work with texts of different formats
Example:
<li>Tuesday 10-11</li> becomes Tuesday 10-11

Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources

Translation Memory Systems - Characteristics

Segmentation:
is the process of breaking a text up into units consisting of words or a string of words that is
linguistically acceptable
Example:
Segment
4.16
4.17
4.18

English
the translation of English affixes into Malay
in Malaysia
the terminology committee

Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources

Translation Memory Systems - Characteristics

Alignment:
is the process of binding a source-language segment to its corresponding target-language segment
(also called = translation units)
Example:
4.16 the translation of
4.16 la traduction
English affixes into Malay
daffices anglais
en malais
4.18
the terminology
committee

4.18a
la commission de
terminologie
Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources
Translation Memory Systems - Characteristics

The translation workflow:

Translation: EN source text into FR (target lang.)
EN text is compared to a database of previously translated English-French texts to find out if any of the
segments in the new English source text matches the segments of old or stored English source texts in
the database
At this stage: identical or similar segments in English and French are identified and extracted by the
translation memory system

Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources

Terminology Management Systems

Terminology:
a systematic arrangement of concepts within a special language. Concepts, not terms.
Each concept has a label (called a term)
Concepts are arranged systematically
Biology (= label or term)
plants (concept)

animals (concept)

The genus-species hierarchy:

Zingiber officinale (scientific name for ginger)
Zingiber = refers to the genus
Officinale = refers to the species
Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources
Translation Support Tools and Resources

Importance of additional translation tools used by a translator:

Spell/Grammar and Style-checkers
Dictionaries
Glossaries
Concordancers
Online search engines

Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources

Parallel Corpora
Definition: collection of written texts in a

machine-readable format

Parallel / Comparable Corpus (Original Text)

= the texts are of the same kind and cover the same content, e.g. legal contracts in English and
German.
Translation Corpus (Translated Text)
= the texts in one language (L1) are translations of texts in the other language (L2).
Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources

Parallel Corpora & Concordancer

Required Software:
Parallel Concordancer
Finds all the examples of a word or phrase in L.1., along with all the corresponding
translated sentences in L.2. - e.g. ParaConc & Multiconcord
Other functions:

Production of indexes
Wordlists

Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources

Parallel Corpora & Concordancer

Multiconcord Concordancer

Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources

Parallel Corpora & Concordancer

Edit and Sort Results

Search Language only.

Target Language only.
Search Language interleaved with for Target Language.
Search language and Target language in parallel columns

Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources

Parallel Corpora & Concordancer

Translation
Use for comparison of grammar and vocabulary in two languages:
Modal verbs: English - German
Sollen

Past tense form of sollen:

(1) While such action [should] only be taken when all peaceful means have failed, the option of taking it is
essential to the credibility of the United Nations as a guarantor of international security.
(2) Obwohl diese Manahmen erst durchgefhrt werden sollten, wenn alle friedlichen Mittel versagt haben, so ist
die Mglichkeit ihrer Inanspruchnahme doch unabdingbar fr die Glaubwrdigkeit der Vereinten Nationen als
Garant der internationalen Sicherheit. [INTORGS -UN]
Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources

Parallel Corpora & Concordancer

Translation

f. Subjunctive (6)
(21) In requiring the proletariat to carry out such a system, and thereby to march straightaway into
the social New Jerusalem, it but requires in reality that the proletariat [[should]] remain within the
bounds of existing society, ...
(22) Wenn er das Proletariat auffordert, seine Systeme zu verwirklichen und in das neue Jerusalem
einzugehen, so verlangt er im Grunde nur, da es in der jetzigen Gesellschaft stehenbleibe ...
[POLITICS-MANIFESTO]

only half of the examples of should in the corpus were translated by a form of sollen.

Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources

Localization Tools
Support the translation of software applications, product documentation and websites
Used in conjunction with other computer-aided translation tools such as -->
Translation Memory Systems
Terminology Management Systems
A typical localization process involves three stages:
Project preparation
Translation proper
Quality assurance

Example: Microsoft Xbox - manual

Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources

Conclusion
Wide range of computer-aided translation tools available; professional
translators need to decide which applications would enable them to
translate faster and produce higher quality work.
The use of applications like Translation Memory and Terminology
Management Systems might be useful whether or not the translator
specializes for example in technical texts especially since companies that
outsource translation jobs are increasingly incorporating such tools into
their workflow.

Thank you!