Translation, interpreting and new technologies

Abstract

The translation of written language, the translation of spoken language and interpreting have traditionally been separate fields of education and expertise, and the technologies that emulate and/or support those human activities have been developed and researched using different methodologies and by different groups of researchers. Although recent increase in synergy between these well-established fields has begun to blur the boundaries, this section will adhere to the three-fold distinction and begin by giving an overview of key concepts in relation to written-language translation and technology, including computer-assisted translation (CAT) and fully automatic machine translation (MT). This will be followed by an overview of spoken-language translation and technology, which will make a distinction between written translation products (speech-to-text translation, STT) and spoken translation products (speech-to-speech translation, SST). The key concepts of information and communications technology (ICT) supported interpreting, which is currently separate from the technological developments in written-and spoken-language translation, will be outlined in a third section and a fourth will provide an overview of current usages of translation and interpreting technologies. INTRODUCTION/DEFINITIONSThe translation of written language, the translation of spoken language, and interpreting have traditionally been separate fields of education and expertise, and the technologies that emulate and/or support those human activities have been developed and researched with different methodologies and by different groups of researchers. A recent increase in synergy effects between these well-established fields has begun to blur the boundaries. However, this section will adhere to the three-fold distinction and begin by giving an overview of key concepts in relation to written-language translation and technology, including computer assisted translation (CAT) and fully automatic machine translation (MT) in section 1.1. This will be followed by an overview of spoken-language translation and technology in section 2.2, where a distinction will be made according to whether the translation product is in a written form (speech-to-text translation, STT) or in a spoken form (speech-to-speech translation, SST). The key concepts of ICT-supported interpreting, which is currently separate from the technological developments in written-and spoken-language translation, will be outlined in section 1.3, followed by an overview of current usages of translation and interpreting technologies in section 1.4. Written-language translation and technologyThere is a great range of MT systems, based on different philosophies and computer algorithms, with different advantages and disadvantages, but a feature they all share is that they are normally used as fully automatic devices, translating a source text into a target language without human intervention. In contrast to this, human translation, or for short simply translation, is an exclusively human activit...

Student Performance in Emergency Remote Learning and Assessment in Simultaneous Interpreting Training

“…The development of ICT influenced the interpreting profession and the introduction of video-mediated interpreting mostly by multi-national organisations. One of the earliest experiments was organised by UNESCO in 1976 linking the headquarters in Paris with a conference centre in Nairobi (Carl & Braun, 2017). This experiment pushed other organisations to trial online interpreting and a variety of ICT systems.…”

Tecnologías de la interpretación

“…Although it is difficult to determine whether this is due to the immediate response to Fantinuoli's call for the "upcoming technological turn" he announces in the first chapter of his book (one that should be taken by the interpreting community) or to the mere pressure of an explosive paradigm shift (discussed below), the truth is that in the space of just one year not only the first monograph on the topic but also two special editions in journals (Pokorn and Mellinger in 2018 in Translation and Interpreting Studies were published, together with this edition of Tradumàtica in 2019. Moroever, one of the most active researchers in interpreting technologies, Sabine Braun, wrote one chapter on the matter for the Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies and Linguistics (Carl and Braun: 2018) and another for the Routledge Handbook of Translation and Technology (Braun: 2019); and specific articles and industry reports (such as The Interpreting Index 2019 and Interpreting across the globe by Nimdzi, Hickey 2019a y 2019b) have also seen the light. Witnessing such production in a very short period of time clearly proves that the combination of interpreting and technology has become an attractive formula for researchers.…”