PART 3.1: Computer-Assisted Translation

Transcription

1 UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI MACERATA Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici Lingue, Mediazione, Storia, Lettere, Filosofia Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Lingue Moderne per la Comunicazione e la Cooperazione Internazionale (Classe LM-38) TPCI inglese - mod. B Strumenti e tecnologie per la traduzione specialistica - a.a. 2016/2017 PART 3.1: Computer-Assisted Translation Sara Castagnoli sara.castagnoli@unimc.it 1

2 Computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools Computer-assisted translation or computer(machine)-aided translation (CAT) refers to a variety of tools, a family of software products designed to support professional translators in their work. CAT is a recent development, derived from MT over the last 20 years The idea to develop tools to help and assist (rather than replace) human translators was first proposed by Martin Kay (1980), then Alan K. Melby and others gave shape to this initial idea The actual development of commercial CAT tools started in the 1990 s the so-called translator s workstation / workbench, which includes terminology management packages translation memory (TM) software (+ text alignment software, etc.) CAT tools are pieces of software designed to enhance the work of translators: maximise speed higher productivity improve coherence and precision higher quality 2

3 CAT tools, example 1: terminology management packages Used to create, store, retrieve and manipulate bi-/multilingual termbases/glossaries As searching for terminology can be highly time-consuming (even up to 75% of translators time), setting up a database which gathers the terminology you come across is vital. Lists in word processors / spreadsheets (e.g. Excel) limited options for presenting and sorting data The terminology covered is usually that of a given (sub-)discipline or the terms needed for a specific translation project. Terminology records consist of a number of flexible fields Some are default (pre-defined) fields, others can be customised Typically: definitions, terminological equivalents, contextual/usage notes, grammatical information, references to sources, images, (conceptually) related terms, etc. 3

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6 Used to create, store, retrieve and manipulate bi-/multilingual termbases/glossaries As searching for terminology can be highly time-consuming (even up to 75% of translators time), setting up a database which gathers the terminology you come across is vital. Lists in word processors / spreadsheets (e.g. Excel) limited options for presenting and sorting data The terminology covered is usually that of a given (sub-)discipline or the terms needed for a specific translation project. Terminology records consist of a number of flexible fields Some are default (pre-defined) fields, others can be customised Typically: definitions, terminological equivalents, contextual/usage notes, grammatical information, references to sources, images, (conceptually) related terms, etc. Term records are searchable, either manually or automatically Terminology management packages are either stand-alone or integrated with other CAT tools, especially with translation 6 memory software CAT tools, example 1: terminology management packages

7 CAT tools, example 2: translation memory (TM) software Translation memory (TM): 7 multilingual text archive containing [ ] multilingual texts, allowing storage and retrieval of aligned text segments against various search conditions * Evaluation of Natural Language Processing Systems (EAGLES* 1995) This roughly means: a filing cabinet (i.e. a database) of old translations whose bits can be retrieved and used when / as needed by the translator essentially a textual database that can be searched pairs of source-text and target-text segments Note: Translation memory indicates both the software tool and the contents of the database, i.e. the whole set of aligned text segments that it includes

8 1:1 alignment 2:1 alignment Example of aligned bilingual translation unit (English/Italian) in XML format

9 Key idea: recycle similar past translations, never translate the same (or a similar) text twice How it works: TM tools divide the source text which must be in (or turned into, e.g. with OCR) electronic/digital format into segments, which translators can translate one-by-one in the traditional way. These segments (usually sentences, or even phrases) are then sent to a built-in database. When there is a new source segment equal or similar to one already translated, the memory retrieves the previous translation from the database. When is this most useful: for the translation of any text that has a high degree of repeated terms and phrases which must be translated consistently, as is the case with e.g. user manuals, computer products and subsequent versions of the same document (e.g. website updates). mostly relevant to technical/specialised translation (not literature) 9 Translation memory (TM) software

10 How to create a TM 12 TMs can be created from scratch/expanded as you translate (starting from an empty database) or by (automatically) aligning previous translations, or available parallel documents most TM tools come with an in-built aligner, whose output can be checked and modified external aligners, then import translation units into TM YouAlign Alinea InterText hunalign TMX (Translation Memory exchange) is the standard interchange format, i.e. a TM database developed using one product can be imported and used on all TM tools

11 Using translation memory (TM) software Scenario you have to translate the user manual of a printer (new model) from English into Italian a lot of repetition within the document itself overlap and repetitions across updated (old-new) versions of the documentation you have a relevant TM (similar topic / domain / texts / clients) you translated the previous manual(s) TM provided by client / translation agency / colleague 11

12 Using translation memory (TM) software Process activate the relevant TM for language pair set level of matching required for past units to be shown (say, 75% similarity) while you translate the TM retrieves and shows you units above 75% similarity you can choose whether you want to use the proposed translation candidates (matches) - either as they are or modifying them so as to better suit your current translation - or to ignore them TM can run in parallel with integrated terminology management packages (which suggest good TL term equivalents for specific words while translating) as well as machine translation software for first-draft translation The TM software is there to help the translator, who remains central / in charge of deciding: the similarity threshold to apply whether and how to use proposed matches 12

13 Using translation memory (TM) software Translation of a printer manual English (A) Italian (B) Source text (in language A) ST: There are 4 ways to change print settings for this printer Exact/Perfect match (everything in the segment is exactly the same) A: There are 4 ways to change print settings for this printer B: Ci sono 4 modi per cambiare le impostazioni di stampa di questa stampante Full match (only figures, dates and similar small details are different) A: There are 2 ways to change print settings for this printer B: Ci sono 2 modi per cambiare le impostazioni di stampa di questa stampante 13

14 Using translation memory (TM) software Source text (in language A) ST: There are 4 ways to change print settings for this printer Fuzzy match 85% similar (a few words in translation unit are different) A: There are several ways to change print settings for the printer B: Ci sono vari modi per cambiare le impostazioni di stampa alla stampante Fuzzy match 60% similar (some words in translation unit are different) A: There are several ways to modify the default setting of your printer B: Ci sono vari modi per modificare l impostazione standard della tua stampante With the acceptibility threshold of the TM tool set at 75%, no candidate translation unit under that level of similarity is retrieved 14 and shown to the translator!!

15 TM leverage: comparing current ST against relevant TM database Leverage: material that can be recycled, i.e. available translation units that can be potentially reused because they are to some extent similar to (parts of) the new text to be translated, grouped into levels of match similarity. Example of leverage analysis (done before translating): 16 Match types Segments # words % Repetitions % (Exact Match) % % % % % (No Match) TOTAL

16 More on TM leverage 15 Leverage analysis helps translators estimate the time needed to complete the translation task provide a quotation choose the TM to activate among several available TMs decide which similarity threshold to apply (e.g. to avoid seeing low % matches in case there are many «good» matches) Pre-translate function: inserts exact matches into target document

17 Self-access to state-of-the-art TM tools The following CAT tools are freely available, either online or as standalone applications. Try for yourself and learn to use state-of-the-art TM software! Wordfast Anywhere (free, online) 18 Wordfast Classic (commercial; limited demo version available) MateCat (free, online) OmegaT (free, open source, requires installation) installed on the computers of Lab 1.1 Palazzo Pantaleoni Across (free, requires installation) SDL Trados Studio 2017 (only 30-day free trial) For SDL Trados Studio 2011, see the book by Lecci & Di Bello (2012)

18 Getting ready for the next class Create an account on Wordfast Anywhere Create an account on YouAlign Download the Notepad++ text editor With reference to the UPS 3Q results text: look for similar parallel texts (that is, original texts in English and their Italian translations) and save them as txt files create a bilingual glossary with terms extracted from the UPS text (e.g. operating profit = utile operativo, growth = crescita, incremento, aumento, etc.) either in.txt or.xls format

19 Step by step Wordfast Anywhere - login ( Upload source text (File Upload) Open the source text Upload glossary and TM (TMs & Glossaries Setup - Upload) Start translating!

20 Summing up Translation Memories

21 Computer-Aided or Computer-Assisted Translation tools CAT tools are software products designed to help translators by «recycling» previously translated texts/sentences and terminology. CAT tools generally consist of: a Translation Memory (TM) a TermBase (TB) a text editor other utilities aligner tag editor project managing tool(s)

22 Translation Memory A database of parallel texts i.e. texts in language A and their translation in language B aligned at segment level. analogies with parallel corpora segmentation usually follows punctuation, but customization is possible Each pair of segments langa langb forms a Translation Unit (TU). If you start with an empty TM, TUs will automatically be saved in the TM as you translate. If you use an existing TM, this will be automatically consulted while translating in order to assess whether it contains segments which are identical or similar to the ones that you are translating. If there is a 100% correspondence = exact/perfect match If there is a partial correspondence = fuzzy match

23 Termbase A termbase (or terminological database) is a database which contains representative terms for a given domain, as well as their cross-linguistic equivalents. Compared to «traditional» glossaries, term records usually contain more useful information, in a number of (customizable) fields, e.g. Definition, Usage notes etc. Internal links among term records, more (and more refined) search possibilities Termbases can be created and fed independently and/or during the translation process.

24 Text editor This is where the translator actually writes her translation. Within a single interface, the translator can see the text s/he has to translate (divided in segments) as well as candidate TM matches and terms from the termbase, if available. If there are no TM matches, and in case Machine Translation is active, the translator can see the translation proposal coming from the MT system.

25 TM How they work Segments/sentences that are similar to the one which is being translated are retrieved from the Translation Memory database. Relevant translation units (i.e. aligned pairs of source-language and target-language sentences) from the TM are shown with an indication of where/how they differ from the sentence to be translated. The number of translation units retrieved from the TM and shown to the translator depends on their level of similarity to the sentence that is being translated, and varies according to the similarity threshold set by the translator. The translator is free to decide if and how to re-use the retrieved candidates (i.e. using them as they are, modifying them, ignoring them) The translator remains the key actor in the translation process; TMs are there to assist him/her.

26 CAT tools - Advantages can speed up the translation process and increase productivity can improve translation quality (by enhancing terminological and phraseological coherence) can help translators provide quotations allow for collaboration over large projects TMs/termbases can be shared by several translators and updated in real time Useless for some text types (e.g. literature) Essential for many specialized/technical domains Translation agencies require translators to use (specific types of) CAT tools

27 Some issues about TMs 16 Technical / practical issues different approaches: some CAT tools have a proprietary, stand-alone text editor, others are «integrated» (e.g. to Word processor), some recent ones are fully online proprietory vs. interchange formats no matches calculated below sentence-level (e.g. at phrase level) but Concordance function is becoming standard criteria used to define similarity / matches maching is calculated not on the basis of sentence or word meaning, but on the basis of character-string similarity TP: I bambini giocano in gruppo con il pallone FM1: I pampini giovano il grullo con il tallone (94% match) FM2: I bimbi si divertono giocando a calcio insieme (42% match)

28 Some issues about TMs 16 Language / translation issues segmentation implies that overall perception of the ST/TT is lost ST structure tends to be reproduced in TT cross-linguistic differences in e.g. cohesive patterns might be overlooked using TMs limits the translator s creativity, as s/he is usually expected to use the terminology and phraseology included in the TM TMs can sometimes be reversed, as if translation direction did not matter need to control the reliability of translations within TM

29 Some issues about TMs 17 Ethical / professional issues shared TM = «collaborative/collective» translator, i.e. translating using texts bits produced by others what about e.g. liability/ responsibilities? who is the owner of (the translations within) TMs? (authorship/copyright + confidentiality) the possibility of re-using previous translations means that clients ask translators to work with TM systems and then reduce the translator s fees: exact/full matches may not be paid at all, fuzzy matches may be paid less. Is that ok? doesn t the translator check/revise gold matches anyway? adapting partial matches to the new input is not the same as translating from scratch, but the amount of work may not be directly proportional to the percentage of fuzzy match on the source text this encourages translators to work fast and often uncritically with the previously translated segments decline in quality.

30 Main sources - Three chapters from Austermühl, F. (2001) Electronic Tools for Translators. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. + 1 Translation in the information age, pages Computer-assisted terminology management, pages Déjà Vu? Translation memories and localization tools, pages Four chapters from Bowker, L. (2002) Computer-Aided Translation Technology: A Practical Introduction. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. + 1 Why do translators need to learn about translation technology?, pages Terminology-Management Systems, pages Translation-Memory Systems, pages Other New Technologies and Emerging Trends, pages

31 Main sources (continued) - Three chapters from Somers, H. (ed.) (2003) Computers and Translation: A Translator s Guide. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. + 2 (H. Somers): The translator s workstation, pages (H. Somers): Translation memory systems, pages (L. Bowker): Terminology tools for translators, pages Five chapters from Quah, C.K. (2006) Translation and Technology. Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan. + 1 Definition of Terms, pp Computer-Aided Translation Tools and Resources, pp Evaluating Translation Tools, pp Recent Developments and Future Directions, pp Translation Types Revisited, pp Lecci, C. & E. Di Bello (2012) Usare la traduzione assistita. Bologna: CLUEB 32