MT and translating ideas

摘要

I Language is the last real barrier to expedit-ing localization processes, and computers now appear set to break that too, crunching words as they do numbers. However, excitement about fresh translation productivity gains needs to be tempered a bit. The reductionism that has enabled the industrialization of many other processes cannot wholly succeed with language, since words alone are not perfect quantizers of meaning. Refusal to understand this risks the disappearance of translation professionals - language engineers who ensure that intelligibility arrives safe and secure into a new linguistic home.