Computers in Translation : A Practical Appraisal

Translators, system designers, system operators and researchers present a comprehensive guide to machine translation: its history, its successes, its limitations and its potential.

Researchers have been attempting to develop systems that would emulate the human translation process for some forty years. What is it about human language that makes this such a daunting challenge? While other software packages have achieved rapid and lasting success, machine translation has failed to penetrate the worldwide market to any appreciable extent. Does this merely reflect a reluctance to adopt it, or does it signal a more fundamental and intractable problem? Computers in Translation is a comprehensive guide to the practical issues surrounding machine translation and computer-based translation tools. Translators, system designers, system operators and researchers present the facts about machine translation: its history, its successes, its limitations and its potential. Three chapters deal with actual machine translation applications, discussing installations including the METEO system, used in Canada to translate weather forecasts and weather reports,and the system used in the Foreign Technology Division of the US Air Force.