Translation Memory: To Be or Not to Be
Translation memory (TM) technologies, the most widely used toolkits in the localization of digital information at HQ-translate agency, enable the translation and cultural accommodation 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 short pieces, generally one sentence long. Today the most popular CAT tools: TRADOS, Déjà vu, Wordfast. The pros of using translation memory systems are fairly obvious: they increase the translator’s productivity and enhance translation quality by proving that terms and expressions are used consistently within and across translation works. Users in governmental and cross-border companies convey a 25–60% rise in productivity. Yet, it must be stated that the use of TM systems may also have negative effects on translation quality. One of the major contras of TM systems is that they usually work at sentence level. That’s why, there is a serious danger that the translator will focus too much on standalone sentences, possibly disregarding the contexts in which the sentences are incorporated. Moreover, the matching algorithms of TM systems are based on very simple formal criteria, such as the similarity of character strings. That’s why, the human translator’s notion of the grade of similarity between a segment to be translated and a part retrieved from the storage base may differ considerably from the degree of similarity calculated by the TM system. This may lead to situations wherein exact matches result in wrong translations, or one translation of a fuzzy match requires little or no adjustment but another fuzzy match with the same similarity level 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 vices, it should be noted that TM systems generally integrate into the translation workflow comparatively smoothly. These CATs leave human translators in control of the actual translation process, while free them from routine work and supporting translation as a creative job whenever the linguistic resourcefulness of a human translator is required. For more info, visit us at: HQ-translate company