Translation as a Profession (Benjamins Translation Library)

294 Translation as a ProfessionTranslators will also have to accept that MT systems will gradually take overall the areas where they are likely to be cost-effective MLIS Project compendiaclearly show which way efforts are pointing. One project, for instance, aimsto automate the translation of financial statements by applying a specialisedtranslation memory, while another aims to automate the translation of contracts,etc. These are often highly specialised and highly lucrative niche markets (thetranslators’ bread and butter) and it could well lead to a situation where thetranslator will be reduced to translating anything the machine is not (yet) ableto translate (or not able to translate cost-effectively), rather than what has beenthecaseuptonow,i.e. the machine being fed materials that translators findtoo tedious or repetitive or ‘cheap’ to tackle. Specialisation generally means wideuse of language stereotypes, and therefore more potential for computer-assistedprocessing, and the lucrativeness is also attractive to MT system designers andmanufacturers.No one really knows what lies in store for the translator, but in all likelihood,this is just the beginning of a major revolution in the profession and in the waytranslators actually go about translating. The amount of translation done by, orassisted by, MT systems will necessarily increase as will the volume of work done byhuman translators. The effort put into developing machine translation will carryon apace and so will the amount of investment: no country or R&D communitycan afford to be seen to give up the quest. None of the economically developedcountries wants to be left behind in the race to develop and improve viable HumanLanguage Technology systems, and in particular machine translation systems.Major advances have been made over the past fifty years, and particularly in the lastfifteen years: translation between multiple language pairs is now possible thanks tothe use of pivot languages; equivalent term substitution is now (almost) infallible;algorithms have been written to deal with source material devoid of meaningambiguity and cultural idiosyncrasies; realistic, gradually attainable objectives arenow being set and have replaced the utopian aims of fifty years ago. In any case,the moment translators find out whether MT should be seen as an ally or a rival,itwillbetoolatetodoanythingaboutit.But the real question is not whether translators should fear automation: thishas already brought the profession major benefits in terms of productivity gainsand eliminating repetitive and tedious task. The question is: where will the processof automation stop? The answer, as already noted, will give the measure of whatwill be left to human translators.3.3 Where will it all end?Still, when it comes to the crunch, machine translation systems are perhaps a lesserevil than mad scientists. . . A team of scientists has apparently set out to develop a