Part of
Border Crossings: Translation Studies and other disciplinesEdited by Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer
[Benjamins Translation Library 126] 2016
► pp. 205–224
Edited by Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer
[Benjamins Translation Library 126] 2016
► pp. 205–224
Computer science and translation
Natural languages and machine translation
The authors present how computer scientists adapted concepts inspired by the process of translation between natural languages, and applied them to programming computers. Computers, being tireless interpreters of commands, raise some interesting questions for translation studies: what knowledge is necessary for the translation process? To what extent can it be automated? Does translation necessarily imply understanding of both source and target text? After a brief history of programming languages, the authors compare them with human languages and show how they differ in terms of context and ambiguity. They then show how machine translation, the most visible intersection between translation studies and computer science, has evolved from a cryptographer’s need to an almost everyday appliance. This evolution has been mostly technologically driven, often in spite of human translators and raises important questions regarding the future of translation studies.
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Cited by
Cited by 5 other publications
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2019. Ambiguity matters in linguistics and translation. Slovo.ru: Baltic accent 10:3 ► pp. 81 ff. 
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2021. Minako O’Hagan (ed): The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Technology. Machine Translation 35:4 ► pp. 745 ff.
St. André, James
2023. Implications of computer code translation for translation studies. Translation Studies 16:2 ► pp. 195 ff.
Taivalkoski-Shilov, Kristiina
2019. Ethical issues regarding machine(-assisted) translation of literary texts. Perspectives 27:5 ► pp. 689 ff.
Witt, Alice, Anna Huggins, Guido Governatori & Joshua Buckley
2023. Encoding legislation: a methodology for enhancing technical validation, legal alignment and interdisciplinarity. Artificial Intelligence and Law
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.