ISHED IN LOCALISATION FOCUS VOLUME 3 ISSUE 1 MARCH 2004 57
A NEW DAWN FOR MT?
Reinhard Schälermost difficult answer of all, the alternative, i.e. quoting misleadingand simplified percentage figures, was not appropriate
and had caused, on previous occasions, much damage tothe MT community, undermining its reputation and credibility.
Not only are we now presented with yet another set of figuresintended to prove the success of MT, but also with thisnew vision that it is ok if MT produces bad translations.Apparently, the correct use of language does not matter aslong as it makes good business sense: MT is really our onlyhope to deal with the enormous volume of material that needs
to be translated in our globalised economy.Most US programmers understood, even in the early days,that people speak different languages and that there was aneed for what became known as localisation. It just took linguistssome time to explain to them that even little marks on
individual letters (accents and the like) can make a significant
difference in the meaning of otherwise identical words.
Finally, programmers agreed that 7-Bit ASCII was not sufficientto represent meaning in languages other than English –the day they did was truly a day for celebration.Are we now being told that language rules, syntax, grammarand terminology (never mind little marks on top of letters)do not really matter anymore because there is a business
imperative to use MT?
We are told that MT is most successfully being used, not bylanguage professionals, but by uninitiated office workers whojust want to get the gist of a document, sent to them in a languagethey do not understand. When it transpires that they arenot even able to determine the language that the original documentwas written in and therefore pick the wrong MT
engine, it does not raise a red flag in our mind but, rathersurprisingly, just causes the expert and his audience to pitythe poor simple-minded user.Listening to the experts, as a user and researcher, one cannotbut sense that this final “breakthrough” has just pushedthe bottom out of the barrel. It appears that the red light we
see on the horizon is the sun finally setting on MT, rather thanthe announcement of a new dawn for the realisation of one ofhumanity’s long cherished dreams. Reinhard Schäler is Director of the
Localisation Research Centre (LRC) basedat the Univerisity of Limerick, Ireland.He can be reached at reinhard.schaler
留学生作业代写@ul.ieMany thanks to Patrice Fanning for hercareful editing and proofing of this article.
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