Usage of TM: Pros and Cons
Translation memory (TM) techniques, the most widely used toolkits in the localization of digital information at HQ-translate agency, enable the proofreading and cross-border compliance 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 text has been broken down into short portions, generally one sentence long. Today the most popular CAT tools: TRADOS, Déjà vu, Wordfast. The advantages of using CAT systems are fairly obvious: they increase the translator’s productivity and increase translation quality by ensuring that terms and phrases are used consistently within and across translation works. Users in business and transnational companies submit 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 operate at sentence level. Therefore, there is a real danger that the translator will focus too much on isolated sentences, possibly disregarding the contexts in which the sentences are built-in. Moreover, the matching algorithms of TM systems are based on very easy formal criteria, such as the similarity of character strings. Thus, the human translator’s notion of the level of similarity between a segment to be translated and a segment retrieved from the storage base may differ considerably from the grade of similarity calculated by the TM system. This may follow 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 contras, it should be noted that TM systems generally build into the translation run relatively smoothly. These CATs leave human translators in control of the actual translation process, while liberating them from routine work and keeping translation as a creative activity whenever the linguistic resourcefulness of a human nature is required. For more information, visit us at: HQ-translate company