英文Engish 英语翻译transatin 翻译质量aity 质量品质aity 质量.doc

CHIN 410 Chinese Information Processing Unit 8 Using Web-Based Automatic Translation Services Concepts What is Automatic Translation? Automatic translation (AT) or machine translation (MT) is the use of a computer program to translate input text from one national language to another while maintaining the original document format. For general idea of machine translation, one can refer to Arnold et al (1994) who described history, practice, problems and new directions in machine translation. What is WBAT (web based automatic translation)? Recently, with the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web, the automatic translation was regaining attention. Web-Based Automatic Translation Programs are beginning to appear. The reason for this change is there is a need to translate web pages in all languages. Korpela (1999) pointed out that “automatic translation is the only feasible way of access to anyone who does not know well the language in which the document was written. If a document exists in Portuguese only and you dont know Portuguese, you either utilize automatic translation or you cant read the document at all, except in rare cases where you can afford to order a man-made translation or find someone who does the job for you for free.” Yahoo and some other sites offer what is sometimes called instant translation. Since language is heavily dependent on context and connoted as well as denoted meaning, a program needs to have access to such context as well as the ability to use it. Providing enough context is difficult, automatic language translation thus far seems to be successful only in limited and well-understood situations and as a first time-saving step toward translation (or post-editing) by a human being. (whatis?com, /) Questions to ask * Is the quality of AT or WBAT good enough for general use, and particularly for students learning purposes? * Should we, foreign language instructors, allow our students to use AT for learning purposes? * If yes, in