Traducción Téctica y Cientifica: Exposition

3.6 about Technical Translation

First of all, I'm going to begin by stating the obvious, and that is the concept of translation. So, in brief, translation is the transferring of ideas and/or information set down by an author from a source language into a target language in an efficient way. 

That being said, not all texts to be translated are of the same nature. Some of them are more challenging than others, and good examples of source language texts that require a really careful approach by the translator are those which contain technical language.

Technical translations are required when new ideas are being described, and for the rendering of these ideas the translator has to come up with new, invented words, or else to manage to use the preexisting ones in such a way that they express effectively what is intended on the original text. Here, the technical translator can do his job with much more ease than a regular one. However, he must never take anything for granted, and should always proceed cautiously because even a tiny mistake could ruin the meaning of the whole text.

In the case in which a translator is assigned to translate from a field he has no expertise on, it is imperative to request the help of an expert, or if possible, even work with him in partnership.

3.8 about Computer Translation
We could argue that since almost the invention of computers, or maybe since the production of modern software started linguists and programmers have worked in partnership to develop computer programs capable of translating from one language into another.

One method they have attempted to develop into software is based on an artificial intermediate computer language. By encoding and decoding linguist symbols through this intermediate language, this software renders the text from the source language into the target language. However, this system has still a long way to go as the results are still not completely satisfactory. In this regard, one of the most significant downsides of computer translation is that it can hardly process syntax and has often trouble with words with several meanings.

In reality though, a computer translation that is "raw" when it comes to syntax, but that is roughly accurate in word-by-word translation is considerable help to a person with rudimentary knowledge of the foreign language and relevant technical background, who can then edit the translation into a comprehensible text.

All in all, computer translation requires an immense amount of data as well as great logical clarity, both of which are still in an early stage. Therefore, it could take some years until computer translation without the logical thinking of a person becomes truly viable.