Филологические науки/6.Актуальные проблемы
перевода
Ст. преподаватель
Лазухина Л.В.
Костанайский
государственный университет имени А. Байтурсынова, Казахстан
MACHINE
TRANSLATION OF TEXTS ON SPECIALTIES
One of the relevant
objectives at the present stage of teaching professionally-oriented foreign
language is to teach students reading and translating the specialized and
scientific literature to obtain information from foreign-language sources for
the purpose of its use in professional work. To carry out this task, teachers
widely use modern computer capabilities.
The advent of
computers and new information technologies contributed to the facilitation and
acceleration of the process of working with all the documents, with any kind of
information, as well as the facilitation and acceleration of the translation
process. There came new, electronic translation tools.
Under the new,
electronic translation tools simplifying and speeding up the process, are
implied the programs of machine translation and computer translation tools,
i.e., it is referred to the machine automatic translation and machine-aided
translation. [5] Do not confuse these concepts. Very often, instead of
"machine" it is used the word "automatic", and it does not
affect the meaning. However, the term "automated translation" has a
very different meaning. It is essential that students using computer
translation have a clear understanding of this difference and of the functions
of these electronic tools.
Machine
translation is the process of translating texts from one language to another
using a special computer program. It is implemented by the program
independently, albeit with the subsequent editing by a translator. As for
automated translation, these programs simply help a person to translate texts.
They are just tools – dictionaries, databases, glossaries, facilitating and
accelerating the traditional process of translation. The purposes of their use
are also different. Automation has the purpose of facilitating the translation
process, the reduction of translation time, while the machine translation
technology is used to minimize human involvement in the process, and ideally
altogether to exclude him from this process. [2] However, at this stage of the
technology development it is not achievable, although the improvement of these
programs does not stop.
It is
indisputable that the machine translation and computer tools are solutions that
are able to make the translation process more efficient, i.e., faster and less
expensive. But, if the computer tools really accelerate the translation
process, the efficiency of machine translation systems is still in question,
despite the development of modern technologies. Therefore, translation done
with machine cannot be considered as an "ultimate product" in any
case, it needs serious revision.
Students should know that there are
still no programs that can give fully adequate translation of foreign-language
texts.
Therefore,
performing the translation with the aid of the machine, it is necessary to
check the translated text to correct all errors and omissions there.
It can be
recommended to students to use on-line Google translator. But, most likely,
they already use it, because at the moment it is the most popular translator.
It is very convenient that it has a function "Listen to text" for
introductory text, as well as for the translated one. Also, they carry out the
continuous improvement of this program, it has an option "Help to improve
Google translator" and the press "Error?" which allows to make
corrections in automatic translation. They can also use a translator of the
company PROMT "Translate. ru"; one of the additional functions is spell checking there.
It is natural
that correcting the translation from a foreign language into Russian or their
native language, students have fewer difficulties than with the reverse
translation. To eliminate some of these translation difficulties from native to
foreign language the following rules can be recommended:
- do not use long, complex sentences
with participial constructions and verbal adverb phrases;
- use short, clear sentences with
the correct word order;
- do not use, if possible,
polysemantic words, or bring them to a minimum;
- use instead of emotionally colored
expressions and set phrases neutral language.
- use scientific or official writing
style and technical terms to translate the information of a professional
character.
It is known that
the translation of scientific texts or texts on specialties or by means of an
automatic translator has fewer errors than the translation of literary texts.
Almost always the texts of the first kind have the correct grammatical
structure, they rarely contain terms which have several meanings, and they are
intended to transmit facts, not emotions, shades of feelings and moods, like
literary texts. As a rule, they don’t contain idiomatic expressions. However,
when adjusting the machine translation of
special texts students often have difficulties of another nature. They are
often caused by the short of professional knowledge and lack of professional
experience, especially when specific terms have multiple meanings. In this
case, it is necessary to remind students about automated translation tools and
the opportunity to find any definition of any term, the plan any device, a
description of any phenomenon on the Internet.
A good helper in
the translation of specialized texts is the online dictionary Multitran, where
you can find not only the translation of individual words and terms, but also
translation, and often the explanation, of word combinations and entire
concepts.
In addition, this
site has a forum where they can discuss with other translators the meaning of a
word or expressions not found in the dictionary, ask for help with the
translation of an incomprehensible sentence or a context. Specialized
dictionaries can also be found on the website Mail. ru, or they can use ABBYY
LINGVO dictionaries.
In conclusion, it
can be said that, despite some shortcomings of the machine translation,
computer programs and online translators are good helpers in the translation of
special literature: they accelerate the process of translation. Furthermore,
the skills of working with automatic translation can be useful for students
when they become experienced professionals, and it will be sufficient for them
to understand the total content of the translated foreign language source to
determine what it is referred to.
1. Kulagina, O.S. On the Lyapunov’s role in the
development of works on machine translation in the USSR. [Text] O.S. Kulagina
in the book "Essays on the history of computer science in Russia." –
Novosibirsk, 1998.
2. Solovieva, A.V. Professional translation with the
aid of a computer. [Text] / A.V. Solovyova. – SPb.: Peter, 2008. – 160 p.
3. Retsker, Ya.I. The Translation theory and the
practice of translation. [Text]: Essays on linguistic theory of translation /
Ya.I. Retsker. – M .: Valent, 2004. –
244 p.
4. Machine Translation [electronic resource] // URL:
http://www.baidak.com/blog/machine-translation
5. All about machine translation [electronic resource]
// All about computers – URL: http://www.computerbild.ru
6. Machine translation - the present and the future
[electronic resource] // Inyazservis – URL:
http://inyazservice.narod.ru/mashinnyi_perevod.html
7. Machine Translation [electronic resource] //
Encyclopedia – URL: http://www.lomonosov-fund.ru/enc/ru/encyclopedia