Computerized Translation Process (experience of Argonaut' Translation Center) Oleg Vigodsky Gleb Yalchik

Translation Center Translation Subjects –Telecommunications –Hardware & Software –Electronics –Mechanics Software Localization DTPs used –Microsoft Word –Corel Ventura –QuarkXpress –Page Maker –Frame Builder –Frame Maker –Interleaf Features –Large volumes ( pages/month/person) –Terminology development together with customers –Using MT –Using TM –Update documentation

One of principal concepts is to separate translation from DTP activities. In our case, a text to be translated is extracted from a source file. As a result, we get a normal ASCII file (all the service information is stored in a special service file). Thus, a translator simply translates the text and does not deal with formatting. Usually, this ASCII file format does not depend on the source file.

Splitting operations Исходный документ Source document (in DTP format) Исходный документ Text to be translated (ASCII) Исходный документ Service information Исходный документ Translatedt ext (ASCII) Исходный документ Source document (in DTP format)

Splitting operations Batch processing Machine translation Post - editing Post - processing The translation process involves base steps as follows:

Splitting operations Исходный документ Source document (in DTP format) Исходный документ Text to be translated (ASCII) Исходный документ Service information Исходный документ Translatedt ext (ASCII)

Splitting operations Исходный документ Translated document (in DTP format) Исходный документ Service information Исходный документ Translated text (ASCII) Исходный документ Target document (in DTP format) After post-editing, a text and service information are combined so to get a target document in a source file format (DTP)

Translation process steps Extracting text (splitting) Additional filtering Text translation Restoring source file format (unsplitting) DTP Proof-reading (hard copy)

File Formats RTF MIF HTML SGML Interleaf TROFF/NROFF

To improve a translation comfortability and capacity, a Translator Workbench based on MultiEdit 7.0 word processor was created. This word processor was selected taking into account such its features as open structure and expandability. As a result, some extra services (in addition to default text processing features) are supported, particularly synchronous scrolling of source and target files, color coding, powerful terminology search service, etc.

Structure of Translator Workbench

MultiEdit features Multiple file search/replace Regular expressions Color coding Expandability –Synchronous scrolling –Additional text buffers –Accessing remote dictionaries

Machine Translation application

PROMT (PROject MT, St.-Petersburg, Russia) machine translation (MT) software is one of major components in Argonaut Translation Center.

Main MT requirements correct handling of grammar rules appropriate using of several dictionaries (including their customization) saving source file format to be translated

What information is put into a MT dictionary? The quality of MT output is significantly depend on how good a MT dictionary (ies) is (are) customized. In addition to a General Vocabulary, specialized dictionaries are to be used (they cover both a topic and document related terminology).

What information is put into a MT dictionary? General vocabulary Basic subject related terminology Documentation specific terminology Frequently used phrases (so called microsegments)

Sample microsegments it is assumed that - предположим, что if otherwise not specified - если не указано иное note that - следует отметить, что this command displays/enters/deletes - по этой команде отображается/вводится/удаляется the following window is appeared - появляется следующее окно

What is necessary to efficiently customize a MT dictionary? Translation subject Base grammar rules Continous dictionary development and update Avoid 'garbage'

In our opinion, one of specialized MT dictionary's quality parameters is a share of (multiple) word collocations. An individual customization of any specialized MT dictionary is related directly to a number of word collocations which are specific to a translation subject in question.

Number of words in MT dictionaries

MT system benefits Post-editing (after MT operation) is simplified Management of terminology and style consistency Generation of online dictionaries (for further post-editing) Adaptation of new stuff is simplified

Translation Memory (ТМ) system is one of major translation tools. We use a Transit (STAR) TM system.

Using Translation Memory

Translation Memory features Reuse of text segments (sentences) previously translated Management of terminology Management of style Management of layout Improved comfortability for translators

TM principle Исходный документ Source document (in DTP format) Текст содержа- щийся в документе Текст included в документе Text included in document Слово содержа- щийся стражник красный Word included watchguard red Текст содержа- щийся в документе Text included in document Текст содержа- щийся в документе Text included in document Исходный документ Documentt ranslated (in DTP format) filtering segmentation pretranslation translation saving

Transit: operations filtering segmentation pre-translation translation verification saving

We integrated МТ (PROMT) и ТМ (Transit) systems into a single translation process. A file to be translated is first processed by Тranslation Memory, and then segments which are not pre- translated are processed by MT system. After completing these steps, the prepared file is provided to a translator for its post-editing.

MT and TM integration

Transit integration Исходный документ Source document (in DTP format) Исходны й документ Text to be translated (ASCII) Исходный документ Service informationSS Исходный документ Translated text (ASCII) Исходный документ Source document (in DTP format) TRANSIT

Transit integration TRANSIT Text to be translated (ASCII) segmentationpretranslation pretranslated not identified To translator МТ output MT

Transit integration Исходный документ Translated document (in DTP format) Исходный документ Service information Исходный документ Translated text (ASCII) Исходный документ Target document (in DTP format) After post-editing, a text and service information are combined so to get a target document in the source file format (DTP)

Summary Our translation process allows to: –Significantly accelerate a translation capacity, –Make translation activities more comfortable, –Minimize manual activities, –Improve quality/consistency of documents translated

For contacts: Argonaut' Translation Center 2 Blagodatnaya ul., Saint-Petersburg Russia Tel: Fax: