TransRouter : a decision support tool for translation managers

MT Summit VII Sept. 1999 TransRouter: a decision support tool for translation managers. The TransRouter Consortium1: Contact author: Margaret King TIM/ETI (ex-ISSCO) University of Geneva 54 rte des Acacias CH-1127 Carouge, Geneva Switzerland email: Margaret.King@issco.unige.ch Abstract. Translation managers often have to decide on the most appropriate way to deal with a translation project. Possible options may include human translation, translation using a specific terminology resource, translation in interaction with a translation memory system, and machine translation. The decision making involved is complex, and it is not always easy to decide by inspection whether a specific text lends itself to certain kinds of treatment. TransRouter supports the decision making by offering a suite of computer based tools which can be used to analyse the text to be translated. Some tools, such as the word counter, the repetition detector, the sentence length estimator and the sentence simplicity checker look at characteristics of the text itself. A version comparison tool compares the new text to previously translated texts. Other tools, such as the unknown terms detector and the translation memory coverage estimator, estimate overlap between the text and a set of known resources. The information gained, combined with further information provided by the user, is input to a decision kernel which calculates possible routes towards achieving the translation together with their cost and consequences on translation quality. The user may influence the kernel by, for example, specifying particular resources or refining routes under investigation. The final decision on how to treat the project rests with the translation manager. 1. Introduction. Introducing modern technology into traditional work has far reaching consequences on the way that work is done. We can already see how fundamental are the changes that can be brought about by thinking about how the introduction of text processing has revolutionised the work of document production, and about how the widespread use of PCs has further changed the nature of secretarial work. The secretary who once spent most of his working life laboriously producing clean typed documents from hand-written scribble or from a dictated tape may now only rarely if ever be called upon to carry out the same task, even using a text processor. The chances are that the original author will work directly onto his own computer, producing his own clean and printed copy. When we consider the introduction of modern technology into the more complex task of producing a translation, the scale of change increases and becomes more varied. The way the individual translator works will change dramatically if he starts to work with a translation memory system, for example and within the overall work flow of preparing and producing a translation new tasks will appear in the form of a need to create and maintain the resources required for translation technology systems to be useful. It is not even clear who should carry out some of these new tasks; new types of expertise may cause new professions to emerge. Such changes affect all translators, including both freelances and …

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