The language industry is the sector of activity dedicated to designing, producing, and marketing tools, products, or services related to computerized language processing.[1] It is a part of the information technology industry, but also draws upon the fields of linguistics, lexicography, software engineering, artificial intelligence, and interface design.[2]
Contents |
Services
The scope of services in the industry includes:
- translation
- editing, reviewing, proofreading (including CAR)
- CAT tools
- terminology extraction
- language localisation
- software localisation
Evolution
Translation as an activity exists at least since mankind started developing trade millennia ago; so, if we include interpreting, it is no exaggeration to say that the origins of language industry are older than those of written language.
Modern language industry has developed rapidly following availability of the internet. Achievements of the industry include the ability to quickly translate long texts into many languages. This has created new challenges as compared with the traditional activity of translators, such as that of quality assurance. There are some quality standards such as EN 15038 in Europe and ASTM F2575-06 in the USA.[3]
There are language industry companies of different sizes; none of them is dominant in the world market so far.[4]
There are human resources in translation of very different levels; internet has gathered professional translators, students, language teachers and professionals from other disciplines, all of them offering translation services.
One field of research in the industry includes the possibility of machine translation fully replacing human translation.[5]
Controversies
Rates for translation services are a big discussion topic nowadays,[6] as several translation outsourcers are said to go in search of cheap labor. Professional associations try to put a stop to this development.[7] Currency fluctuation is yet another important factor.[8]
Apart from this, phenomenons such as crowdsourcing are seen in big-scale translations,[9] which has given place to several polemics[10] and even criticism from the American Translators Association.[11]
A polemic case popped up when US President Barack Obama called in favor of automatic translation.[12][13]
References
- ^ "Glossary - Translation Bureau". Public Works and Government Services Canada. http://www.btb.gc.ca/btb.php?lang=eng&cont=700#l. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
- ^ "Language Industry Monitor". http://www.lim.nl/monitor/. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
- ^ "BS EN 15038:2006 Translation services. Service requirements". BSI Group. http://www.bsi-global.com/en/Shop/Publication-Detail/?pid=000000000030122045/. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
- ^ "Ranking of Top 25 Translation Companies". Common Sense Advisory. http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/members/res_cgi.php/080528_QT_2008_top_25_lsps.php. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
- ^ Paul, Michael; Andrew Finch, Eiichiro Sumita. Reducing Human Assessment of Machine Translation Quality to Binary Classifiers. http://www.mt-archive.info/TMI-2007-Paul.pdf. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
- ^ Why are rates so low?
- ^ A new T&I association is born
- ^ Rates for translation services to go up?
- ^ Collaborative translation and crowdsourcing (in English and Portuguese)
- ^ Translators group against crowdsourcing in for-profit companies
- ^ Thoroughly unprofessional practices (Letter from ATA to LinkedIn)
- ^ White House Challenges Translation Industry to Innovate
- ^ Letter from ATA to President Obama
External links
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