Decision-making, Risk, and Gist Machine Translation in the Work of Patent Professionals

摘要

This is the first study on how patent professionals use gist machine translation (MT) in their work. Inductive, qualitative research methods were adopted to explore the role of gist MT specifically in decision-making. Results show that certain decisions by patent professionals rely on gist MT, that the decision to involve human translation is often based on a risk assessment, and that certain factors in the patent environment give affordances for the use of gist MT. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on patent MT users and on gist MT users in general.