Machine Translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation of MT, is a sub-field of comptutational linguistics that investigates the use of computer software to translate text or speech from one natural language to another. At its basic level, MT performs simple substitution of words in one natural language for words in another. Using corpus techniques, more complex translations may be attempted, allowing for better handling of differences in linguistic typology, phrase recognition, and translation of idioms, as well as the isolation of anomalies.

Current machine translation software often allows for customization by domain or proffesion (such as weather reports) improving output by limiting the scope of allowable substitutions. This technique is particularly effective in domains where formal or formulaic languages is used. It follows then that the machine of governement and legal documents more readily produces usable output than conversation or less standardized text.

     Computer-assisted translation, computer-aided translation or CAT, is a form of translation wherein a human translator translates texts using computer software designed to support and facilitate the translation process. Computer-assisted translation is a broad and imprecise term cobering range of tools, from the fairly simple to the more complicated. These can include: spell checkers, grammar checkers, terminology manager dictionaries on CD-rom, terminology databases, full-text search tools, project management software, translation memory managers (TMM). Systems that are nearly automatic as in machine translation, but allow user decisions for ambiguous cases. These are called sometimes human-aided machine translation. Some advanced computer-assisted translation solutions include controlled machine translation (MT). Integration of MT into computer-assisted translation has been implemented in various ways by various parties. Although this type of technology is neither widely known nor available to individual translators, carefully customized user dictionaries based on correct terminology significantly improve the accuracy of MT, and as a result, they improve the efficiency of translation process.

     Content management or CM is a set of technologies that the evolutionary life cycle of digital information. This digital information is also referred to as content or, to be precise, digital content. Digital content may take the form of text, such as documents, multimedia files, such as audio or video files, or any other file type that follows a content life cycle which requires management. The digital life content consists of 6 primary phases: create, update, publish, translate, archive and retrieve. A critical aspect of content management is the ability to manage versions of content as it evolves. Authors and editors often need to restore older version of edited products due to a process failure or an undesirable series of edit.

     Translation technology covers all the systems that are used for the translation process. Translation is the action of interpretation of the meaning of a text, and subsequent production of an equivalent text, also called a translation, that communicates the same message in another language. The text to be translated is called the “source text”, and the language it is to be translated into is called the “target language”; the final product is sometimes called the “target text”. Translation must take into account constraints that include context, the rules of grammar of the two languages, their writing conventions, and their idioms. With the advent of computers, attempts have been made to computerize or otherwise automate the translation of natural-language texts (machine translation) or to use computers as an aid to translation (computer-assisted translation).

 

Sources:

*Machine translation. (2008, April 19). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:47, April 21, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Machine_translation&oldid=206756422

*Computer-assisted translation. (2008, April 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:48, April 21, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Computer-assisted_translation&oldid=206481669

*Content management. (2008, April 19). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:49, April 21, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Content_management&oldid=206669339

*Translation. (2008, April 21). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:49, April 21, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Translation&oldid=207111486