Translation Memory: Yes or No
Translation memory (TM) arrangements, the most widely used toolkits in the localization of digital information at HQ-translate agency, enable the linguistic transition and cultural 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 smaller items, generally one sentence long. Today the most popular CAT tools: TRADOS, Déjà vu, Wordfast. The advantages of using translation memory systems are fairly obvious: they increase the translator’s productivity and improve translation quality by securing that terms and phrases are used consistently within and across translations. Users in governmental and international agencies report a 25–60% rise in efficiency. Yet, it must be stated that the use of TM systems may also have negative effects on translation quality. One of the major discouraging things of TM systems is that they usually operate at sentence level. Thus, there is a real danger that the translator will focus too much on separated 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. Therefore, the human translator’s notion of the grade of similarity between a piece to be translated and a piece retrieved from the database may differ considerably from the level of similarity calculated by the TM system. This may cause situations wherein exact matches imply wrong translations, or one translation of a fuzzy match requires little or no adjustment but another fuzzy match with the same similarity grade 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 negative sides, it should be noted that TM systems generally integrate into the translation run comparatively smoothly. These CATs leave human translators in control of the actual translation process, while relieving them from routine work and supporting translation as a creative job whenever the linguistic resourcefulness of a human nature is required. For more info, visit us at: HQ-translate company
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