What motor vehicles and translation machines have in common - a first step towards a translation automation taxonomy

Abstract

In society in general and in professional translation in particular, translation is increasingly automated.However, in Translation Studies, we lack an updated and future-proof taxonomy of translation automation to understand the evolving and dynamic relationship between humans and digital technologies and to identify different levels of translation automation. In the field of driving automation, the Society of Automotive Engineers has established an influential and widely applied taxonomy of six levels of automation, ranging from no automation to fully automated driverless cars. Taking a first step towards providing a taxonomy of translation automation, the paper proposes and discusses a similar taxonomy of six levels of translation automation.