This article conducts a meta-analysis of existing research to theorize how machine translation (MT) may help resolve underlying contradictions in the development sector that preclude the UN’s 10th Sustainable Development Goal: to reduce inequality within and among countries. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) frequently work in dominant languages and neglect marginalized languages, reinforcing power imbalances between the Global North and Global South in development planning. MT between marginalized languages may improve collaboration between local communities to redress shared disadvantages. As an example, the article hypothesizes a sustainable, “low-tech” MT system pivoting through Spanish to translate between three Mayan languages in Guatemala: K’iche’, Q’eqchi’, and Mam. First, the article theorizes three key dimensions comprising the overall sustainability of low-resource MT in development: quality, social, and environmental. It then evaluates the sustainability of various MT architectures. Finally, it reaffirms the ability for indirect translation (classic pivot-based MT) to facilitate MT between low-resource languages.
本文对现有研究进行了荟萃分析,以理论化机器翻译(MT)如何有助于解决发展部门的潜在矛盾,这些矛盾阻碍了联合国第十项可持续发展目标的实现:减少国家内部和国家之间的不平等。非政府组织经常使用主流语言而忽视边缘语言,加剧了全球北方和全球南方在发展规划中的权力不平衡。边缘化语言之间的机器翻译可以改善当地社区之间的合作,以纠正共同的劣势。作为一个例子,文章假设了一个可持续的,“低技术”的机器翻译系统,通过西班牙语在危地马拉的三种玛雅语言之间进行翻译:K ' iche ', Q ' eqchi '和Mam。首先,本文从质量、社会和环境三个维度对低资源MT在发展中的整体可持续性进行了理论分析。然后评估各种MT架构的可持续性。最后,它重申了间接翻译(经典的基于支点的机器翻译)促进低资源语言之间机器翻译的能力。
{"title":"Theorizing sustainable, low-resource MT in development settings","authors":"Matt Riemland","doi":"10.1075/ts.22018.rie","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.22018.rie","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article conducts a meta-analysis of existing research to theorize how machine translation (MT) may help resolve underlying contradictions in the development sector that preclude the UN’s 10th Sustainable Development Goal: to reduce inequality within and among countries. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) frequently work in dominant languages and neglect marginalized languages, reinforcing power imbalances between the Global North and Global South in development planning. MT between marginalized languages may improve collaboration between local communities to redress shared disadvantages. As an example, the article hypothesizes a sustainable, “low-tech” MT system pivoting through Spanish to translate between three Mayan languages in Guatemala: K’iche’, Q’eqchi’, and Mam. First, the article theorizes three key dimensions comprising the overall sustainability of low-resource MT in development: quality, social, and environmental. It then evaluates the sustainability of various MT architectures. Finally, it reaffirms the ability for indirect translation (classic pivot-based MT) to facilitate MT between low-resource languages.","PeriodicalId":43764,"journal":{"name":"Translation Spaces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46382426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Finnish Tax Administration’s OmaVero (OV) e-service is an example of an organisational software development and text production process in which translation plays a significant role. In this article, the concept of materiality is utilised to analyse how aspects of the wider process affect the form and content of OV translations. A distinction is made between the translations’ production and distribution process, the effects of the former being manifested mainly through the use of digital translation tools and those of the latter through the conventions of OV software development. A material analysis reveals a conflict in how these two processes treat language as a textual element: the production process downplays and obscures the connection between language content and its textual environment, while the distribution process attaches great importance to this relationship. This demonstrates how a material perspective can introduce useful nuance into analyses of textual communication processes in translation studies.
{"title":"How production and distribution processes shape translations in organisations","authors":"R. Haapaniemi","doi":"10.1075/ts.22038.haa","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.22038.haa","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The Finnish Tax Administration’s OmaVero (OV) e-service is an example of an organisational software development and text production process in which translation plays a significant role. In this article, the concept of materiality is utilised to analyse how aspects of the wider process affect the form and content of OV translations. A distinction is made between the translations’ production and distribution process, the effects of the former being manifested mainly through the use of digital translation tools and those of the latter through the conventions of OV software development. A material analysis reveals a conflict in how these two processes treat language as a textual element: the production process downplays and obscures the connection between language content and its textual environment, while the distribution process attaches great importance to this relationship. This demonstrates how a material perspective can introduce useful nuance into analyses of textual communication processes in translation studies.","PeriodicalId":43764,"journal":{"name":"Translation Spaces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41350802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Attempts to define the concept of translation have historically both reflected and driven developments and demarcations in the field. In light of the ubiquitous rise of machine translation (MT), the current article considers how definitional approaches to translation that preceded the MT era, and were formulated with human translation in mind, correspond with today’s MT. The article engages with two influential definitional strands in the discipline: a-priori prescriptive definitions, and descriptive definitions focused on the reception of translations. The general compatibility of both definitional approaches with MT, notwithstanding some empirical and moral criticisms pertaining to the first approach, encourages us to conceive of MT as a full-fledged translational object of inquiry, fully at home in translation studies. Finally, the article suggests that shifts in the professional status of human translators may lead to new definitions, aimed at differentiating human from machine translation by focusing on the notion of (conscious) agency.
{"title":"The position of machine translation in translation studies","authors":"Omri Asscher","doi":"10.1075/ts.22035.ass","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.22035.ass","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Attempts to define the concept of translation have historically both reflected and driven developments and\u0000 demarcations in the field. In light of the ubiquitous rise of machine translation (MT), the current article considers how\u0000 definitional approaches to translation that preceded the MT era, and were formulated with human translation in mind, correspond\u0000 with today’s MT. The article engages with two influential definitional strands in the discipline: a-priori prescriptive\u0000 definitions, and descriptive definitions focused on the reception of translations. The general compatibility of both definitional\u0000 approaches with MT, notwithstanding some empirical and moral criticisms pertaining to the first approach, encourages us to\u0000 conceive of MT as a full-fledged translational object of inquiry, fully at home in translation studies. Finally, the article\u0000 suggests that shifts in the professional status of human translators may lead to new definitions, aimed at differentiating human\u0000 from machine translation by focusing on the notion of (conscious) agency.","PeriodicalId":43764,"journal":{"name":"Translation Spaces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45220683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The advent of AI-supported, cloud-based collaborative translation platforms have enabled a new form of online collaborative translation – ‘concurrent translation’ (CT). CT refers to commercial translation performed on such platforms by multiple agents (translators, editors, subject-matter experts etc.) simultaneously, via concurrent access. Although the practice has recently gained more ground, research on CT is scarce. The present article reports on selected key findings of a study that investigates translators’ experiences with CT via a survey of 804 professional translators working in CT mode across different commercial platforms. Despite the affordances such as peer learning, positive competition, speed, flexibility of the volume of work and working time, and reduced responsibility and reduced stress, CT workflow comes with its substantial challenges such as time pressure, negative competition, reduced self-revision and research, all of which result in quality compromised for speed.
{"title":"Concurrent translation on collaborative platforms","authors":"J. Gough, Ö. Temizöz, G. Hieke, Leonardo Zilio","doi":"10.1075/ts.22027.gou","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.22027.gou","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The advent of AI-supported, cloud-based collaborative translation platforms have enabled a new form of online collaborative translation – ‘concurrent translation’ (CT). CT refers to commercial translation performed on such platforms by multiple agents (translators, editors, subject-matter experts etc.) simultaneously, via concurrent access. Although the practice has recently gained more ground, research on CT is scarce. The present article reports on selected key findings of a study that investigates translators’ experiences with CT via a survey of 804 professional translators working in CT mode across different commercial platforms. Despite the affordances such as peer learning, positive competition, speed, flexibility of the volume of work and working time, and reduced responsibility and reduced stress, CT workflow comes with its substantial challenges such as time pressure, negative competition, reduced self-revision and research, all of which result in quality compromised for speed.","PeriodicalId":43764,"journal":{"name":"Translation Spaces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46881434","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lucas Nunes Vieira, C. O’Sullivan, Xiaochun Zhang, Minako O’Hagan
The concept of privacy is central to technology use, but in machine translation (MT) research the meaning of privacy, and what it represents to everyday MT users, are both often left unquestioned. This article examines user conceptualisations of privacy and their implications for the understanding of human-MT interaction. It draws on the privacy literature, on an online forum and on a survey of MT users. The findings show that while users have concerns about sharing information such as passwords, images, and contact details with MT providers, some of them can conversely see MT as a technology that provides privacy. The article discusses these findings in relation to the informational and relational dimensions of privacy. It argues that relational privacy, and the interpersonal exchanges for which MT can be used as a substitute, should be considered more explicitly in discussions of the societal implications of MT technology.
{"title":"Privacy and everyday users of machine translation","authors":"Lucas Nunes Vieira, C. O’Sullivan, Xiaochun Zhang, Minako O’Hagan","doi":"10.1075/ts.22012.nun","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.22012.nun","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The concept of privacy is central to technology use, but in machine translation (MT) research the meaning of privacy, and what it represents to everyday MT users, are both often left unquestioned. This article examines user conceptualisations of privacy and their implications for the understanding of human-MT interaction. It draws on the privacy literature, on an online forum and on a survey of MT users. The findings show that while users have concerns about sharing information such as passwords, images, and contact details with MT providers, some of them can conversely see MT as a technology that provides privacy. The article discusses these findings in relation to the informational and relational dimensions of privacy. It argues that relational privacy, and the interpersonal exchanges for which MT can be used as a substitute, should be considered more explicitly in discussions of the societal implications of MT technology.","PeriodicalId":43764,"journal":{"name":"Translation Spaces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43759883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The genre of self-help often is nurtured – or hijacked – from highbrow literary traditions such as conduct literature and sacred texts. Translation is the mechanism whereby an ‘esotouristic’ or new-ageified text travels in ready consumability, a commercializing process that asserts forms that themselves are ideological, and dramatically shifts ‘mirrors for princes’ and works considered ‘high literature’ to works of mass marketability. The branding of yogic and Kabbalistic texts, and of authors Kahlil Gibran, Baltasar Gracián, Rumi, and Sun Tzu, is analyzed in this light. I object to the ‘timeless classic’ positioning of texts that deterritorializes, dehistoricizes, and deculturizes, and map these publications as forms of manipulation, especially exoticizing, genre shifting, radical recontextualizing, and allegorizing. The resulting hyper-acceptability of the distorted products for a self-helpified readership calls into question the translator’s complicity in appropriative, otherized cultural production.
{"title":"Transnational wisdom literature goes pop in translation","authors":"K. Washbourne","doi":"10.1075/ts.21047.was","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.21047.was","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The genre of self-help often is nurtured – or hijacked – from highbrow literary traditions such as conduct literature and sacred texts. Translation is the mechanism whereby an ‘esotouristic’ or new-ageified text travels in ready consumability, a commercializing process that asserts forms that themselves are ideological, and dramatically shifts ‘mirrors for princes’ and works considered ‘high literature’ to works of mass marketability. The branding of yogic and Kabbalistic texts, and of authors Kahlil Gibran, Baltasar Gracián, Rumi, and Sun Tzu, is analyzed in this light. I object to the ‘timeless classic’ positioning of texts that deterritorializes, dehistoricizes, and deculturizes, and map these publications as forms of manipulation, especially exoticizing, genre shifting, radical recontextualizing, and allegorizing. The resulting hyper-acceptability of the distorted products for a self-helpified readership calls into question the translator’s complicity in appropriative, otherized cultural production.","PeriodicalId":43764,"journal":{"name":"Translation Spaces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44975527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This research aims to account for readers’ perception of second-person pronouns and to test their effectiveness in enhancing reader memory in English-Chinese advertisement translation. We conducted an experiment in which 62 participants read the Chinese translations of 16 previously unseen English print advertisements. Two parallel Chinese versions were prepared for the experiment, one with second-person reference and the other without. The participants were first asked to read the translations and indicate which version they liked better. Two weeks later, they were divided into two groups and asked to rate their memory of the two Chinese versions. Statistical analysis shows that the ratings of the second-person version are significantly higher, which implies that second-person reference is effective in enhancing the participants’ memory.
{"title":"The effectiveness of second-person reference in enhancing reader memory in English-Chinese advertisement\u0000 translation","authors":"Yin Cui, Tianyun Li","doi":"10.1075/ts.21033.cui","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.21033.cui","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This research aims to account for readers’ perception of second-person pronouns and to test their effectiveness\u0000 in enhancing reader memory in English-Chinese advertisement translation. We conducted an experiment in which 62 participants read\u0000 the Chinese translations of 16 previously unseen English print advertisements. Two parallel Chinese versions were prepared for the\u0000 experiment, one with second-person reference and the other without. The participants were first asked to read the translations and\u0000 indicate which version they liked better. Two weeks later, they were divided into two groups and asked to rate their memory of the\u0000 two Chinese versions. Statistical analysis shows that the ratings of the second-person version are significantly higher, which\u0000 implies that second-person reference is effective in enhancing the participants’ memory.","PeriodicalId":43764,"journal":{"name":"Translation Spaces","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48657400","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}