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What a professional translator should know about Machine Translation
Harold Somers — Professor Emeritus, University of Manchester
Machine Translation (MT), and in particular free online MT, is now firmly established as a viable, though flawed, technology. Professional translators have expressed reservations about MT throughout its 60-year history, fearing that it would take work away from them, and while in the past these fears were largely misplaced, recent developments suggest that translators should have a more reconciliatory approach to MT and see it as a "colleague" rather than a rival. This can come from better understanding of what MT can and, more importantly, cannot do.
Leaving aside tools for translators, such as Translation Memory, this talk focuses on full text MT, and aims to give translators that understanding by explaining in non-technical terms how MT works, clarifying its strengths and weaknesses, and thereby putting translators in a better position to advise potential customers about the use of MT instead of or, indeed, alongside, human translation and/or revision.