The future of translation technology: Towards a world without Babel

Abstract

Technology has revolutionized the field of translation, bringing drastic changes to the way translation is studied and done. To an average user, technology is simply about clicking buttons and storing data. What we need to do is to look beyond a system’s interface to see what is at work and what should be done to make it work more efficiently. This book is both macroscopic and microscopic in approach: macroscopic as it adopts a holistic orientation when outlining the development of translation technology in the last forty years, organizing concepts in a coherent and logical way with a theoretical framework, and predicting what is to come in the years ahead; microscopic as it examines in detail the five stages of technology-oriented translation procedure and the strengths and weaknesses of the free and paid systems available to users. The Future of Translation Technology studies, among other issues: The Development of Translation Technology, Major Concepts in Computer-aided Translation, Functions in Computer-aided Translation Systems, A Theoretical Framework for Computer-Aided Translation Studies, The Future of Translation Technology. This book is an essential read for scholars and researchers of translational studies and computational linguistics, and a guide to system users and professionals.