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Sophia Dias
Professor Jeanette Novakovich
English 213/4 D
21 February 2011
The Benefits of Translation Tools
In a professional world where productivity and revenue are most important, it remains
essential for qualified workers to stay up-to-date on the tools that assist them in their profession.
The translation field benefits from an increase in new software that makes work-related tasks
easier to manage. Computer-assisted translation (i.e. CAT), which is “translation with the aid of
computer programs... designed to reduce the translator’s workload and increase consistency”
(Glossary 4), consists of a wide range of tools that permit translators to increase the quality of
their work. CAT tools differentiate themselves from machine translation (such as Google’s
automatic translation program) because they do not contain a ready-made dictionary in two
languages. The translator creates his or her own dictionary by feeding the CAT tool (or more
precisely, the translation memory, which is one of the features of the CAT tool) a text in the
original language as well as its translated version. The program then finds the equivalent
segments (strings of words, not only single words) throughout the text, thus enabling the
translator to produce a uniform translation (Cocci). Computer-assisted translation tools benefit
translators because most of them have terminology features, their variety suits each translator’s
needs, and they significantly improve a text’s consistency. Thus, every translator should own a
CAT tool.
First of all, even though countless types of CAT tools exist on the market, most of them
share one common characteristic: a terminology base. Since one of translators’ most timeconsuming tasks consists of terminology research, (around 75 percent of the translation process
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is devoted to it) (Mostafa), the fact that most CAT tools include a term base option greatly
facilitates the translator’s work. In addition to including a term in the source language (the
language that needs to be translated) accompanied by its equivalent in the target language (the
language of the finished product), term bases allow translators to add examples, contexts and
pictures that further illustrate the concept (Cocci). What’s more, translators get to personalize
their term bases and sort them according to each client or even each specialty (Mostafa). In other
words, if a certain client uses specific terminology in a given field, translators may draw upon
their term base in order to use the appropriate terminology for their client, thus increasing the
translation’s quality and the fidelity to the customer’s practices. Therefore, term bases are one of
the features that make CAT tools essential to translators.
CAT tools do not only contain term bases; they include many more features that suit
every translator’s needs. The creators of CAT tools thought of every useful aspect in the
translation process and incorporated each of them into their software in order to best assist the
professional linguist in his or her work. Some of CAT tools’ main features consist of project
management systems (software that permits a translator to sort his or her work in varied ways),
conversion tools (which convert files into different formats, thus permitting the translator to
work in manageable formats that his or her clients use), and word counts that apply to programs
other than Word, for example PowerPoint and PDF documents (in fact, not all programs contain
word count options, which is challenging for translators because they usually use the number of
words to bill their work) (Zetzsche 201). In addition, not all CAT tools contain the exact same
features, so it is possible to find the tool that exactly meets the translator’s needs, according to
his or her preference. For example, translators using the CAT tool Wordfast Classic mainly work
with Microsoft Word documents; those who usually translate specialized texts would use the
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most popular CAT tool today, Trados; and professionals working with DéjàVu would be
equipped to work with a wide variety of document formats, including websites (Cocci). Those
examples were some of the few that illustrate the ways CAT tools cater to translators’ needs.
Finally, the use of CAT tools significantly improves translators’ consistency. The
software, most commonly known as a translation memory (see introduction), stores original texts
as well as their translation. Translation memories scan the aligned documents (the original and
the translation) and locate the equivalent terms in order to translate them in the same way. This
feature is practical for repetitive texts, such as instruction manuals, or for specialized texts (in the
field of medicine or technology, for example) because the same terms are very likely to return
(Mostafa). In addition, the texts that accumulate in the translation memory remain useful for
future translations: if, for instance, a translator worked on the 2009 version of a user manual and
has to translate the 2010 version, he or she could consult the translation memory, which stored
the previous version as well as the translated one, and extract the equivalent terms in order to
translate the current document (Cocci). As a result, the quality of the work improves because the
translator does not end up using different terms to describe the same concept. Consequently,
translators who wish to improve their consistency should use CAT tools to assist them in their
work.
In conclusion, the advantages of CAT tools are too numerous to ignore. In fact, their term
base features, great variety and the way they improve a professional’s consistency are only some
of the reasons why most translators have started using these tools and show no sign of stopping.
Computer-assisted translation has certainly evolved and continues to aid translators in countless
ways. Would software and computers ever have a chance of replacing human beings one day?
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Works Cited
Cocci, Lucia. “CAT Tools for Beginners.” TranslationDirectory. N.p. Jan. 2010. Web. 11 Feb.
2011.
“Glossary of Translation & Interpreting: Terms & Definitions.” Babel-linguistics. Babel
Linguistics Inc. N.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2011.
Mostafa, Noha. “Advantages of Human Translation & CAT Tools.” EzineArticles. N.p. N.d.
Web. 11 Feb. 2011.
Zetzsche, Jost. The Translator’s Toolbox: A Computer Primer for Translators. Version 8.
International Writer’s Group, LLC, Nov. 2009. Web.