In a recent article in tcworld, a leading magazine for international information management, MultiLing’s VP Marketing Emmanuel Margetic compares machine and human translation approaches. “Even though machine translation (or MT) continues to advance and can be helpful to get the gist of a document, human translation is still a critical component, particularly for translations of highly technical or publication-quality documents, such as patents or other legal documents”, Emmanuel writes. In his elaborated article, he gives detailed examples of a human versus two machine translation results in the complex field of patent terminology and shows clearly, that machine translation fails in many aspects.
Emmanuel’s conclusion out of a practical test with different typically patent related terms is simple but quite convincing: “Machine translation continues to improve, refining as we further understand the complex interactions between language, culture, and technology. However, due to the complexities of language, the role of humans may never be completely eliminated from the processes of translating technical documentation or revising machine translations. A translation company that best knows how to balance the use of specialized translators and emerging technologies will be able to continually provide the best quality translations to its clients.”
MultiLing is highly specialized in translating patent-related documents of all kinds and has also proven experience in successfully managing highly complex multi-national IP projects for large companies.
Read the full tcworld article HERE.
One would have to agree with the assessment: that machine translation (MT) will never be a substitute for human translation. However, MT is being used increasingly for tasks that require a lower level of prosaic expression; or in some technical areas which use a very structured form of text (referred to as controlled text). MT is also being used in workflows that involve human editors at the back-end (post-editing).
Our company has developed a free, online translation post-editor which you can see here:http://www.gts-translation.com/tools/gts-translation-editor/
This is a good solution for quick translation of web pages which can be saved in HTML format and posted on the Internet.