Third IATIS Regional Workshop – Western Balkans

1. Third IATIS Regional Workshop – Western Balkans Translator and Interpreter Training September 26, 2014 Faculty of Philosophy, Novi Sad

2. A Corpus-based Analysis of Translator Errors Influenced by CAT Tool Design:an experiment in back-translation by Aleksandar Kavgić & Randall A. Major

3. 1. Introductory Remarks

4. 1. Introductory Remarks • CAT Tools • Trados • Parallel Corpus • LF Aligner • CATMA • “Computer Aided Textual Markup and Analysis”

6. Stop! • No one really talks like this. • Discourse should be: • a cohesive, interwoven set of connected utterances • sentences should be an archipelago interconnected with bridges built from anaphoric references and links.

9. Training College Students to Be Translators • Undergraduate courses in translating various kinds of texts • Master level course in Information Technology and Translating • Question: why would students who produce (relatively) seamless translations on an undergraduate level, start producing choppy, disconnected ones in their IT&T course?

10. Could it be a problem of SOFTWARE?

12. 2. Background

13. 2. Background • SDL Trados - the industry standard software for producing coherent, terminologically consistent translations. • Combines a textual framework with Translation Memory and Terminology Management

14. Product Development and Changes • In 2011, Trados changed its long-running format from ST on top, TT on bottom to a side-by-side format.

15. Old Format (1)

16. Old Format (2)

17. New Format (1)

18. New Format (2)

20. CAT = tunnel vision?

21. Discussion (1) • Some people disliked the change: It takes the focus off the Translation Unit being worked on, and it’s got a distracting amount of external information all around the work area. • Some people liked the change: Finally you can see the larger context, both before and after, without scrolling around the document. And now you know at glance how much you still have to do to finish!

22. Discussion (2) • Three of the great things about Trados: • Absolute terminological consistency • Repetitive translation is made easier (catalogues, manuals, instruction booklets, diplomas, etc.) • Nothing gets skipped. Every TU must be translated in some way. • That makes it good even for fiction!

23. Discussion (3) • Since we were teaching them to use the old, Trados 7, is it possible that their choppy, disconnected FICTION translations were being caused by the TU focus? • Experiment to find out!

24. 3. Methodology

26. 3.1. Corpus: general Source text: Three unpublished short stories written in Serbian by our, at the time, undergraduate student (now MA track) Thank you, Maja!

27. 3.1. Corpus: general Source text: Three unpublished short stories written in Serbian by our, at the time, undergraduate student (now MA track) No copy-paste “translating” using online, previously made translations was possible → authentic student translations.

28. LF Aligner -

29. Olifant: 3 column “TM”

30. 3.1. Corpus: general

31. 3.1. Corpus: tagging scheme

32. 3.1. Corpus: tagging scheme TRANSLATION ERROS BACK TRANSLATION ERRORS Missing Element Word Order/Focus Error: unmarked > marked Word Order/Focus Error: marked > unmarked Punctuation Error Word Choice Error (word or phrase) • Missing Element • Word Order/Focus Error: unmarked > marked • Word Order/Focus Error: marked > unmarked • Punctuation Error • Word Choice Error (word or phrase) + source segment word/phrase

33. 3.1. Corpus: tagging scheme

34. INTER-ANNOTATOR AGREEMENT • Annotation was conducted by TWO ANNOTATORS: • Randy, a native speaker of (American) English • Saša (i.e. Aleksandar), a native speaker of Serbian • this enabled us to have a 360° view of the process • Inter-annotator agreement was achieved by joint annotation of the first section of the corpus: 1 disagreement in 20 tags (~95%)

35. 3.1. Corpus: tagging scheme

36. 3.2. Corpus: tagged version Remember, the corpus contained 1924 translation units (TUs).

37. 3.2. Corpus: tagged version

38. 4. FINDINGS

39. 4.1. General trends: (un)markedness Slight preference for unmarked, neutral word order?

40. Markedness in translation? • In this research we defined markedness as: • Any deviation from the manner of presenting information in a sentence which results in a change of the natural information focus in a language, or in amplification and/or down-toning of the naturally expected meaning • This generally includes changes of word order, as well as omissions and additions in translation that can have this effect

41. 4.1. General trends: unmarkedness Konačno je ona velika količina besaprema društvu i Ijudima koju je osećala biladovedena na neki razuman nivo. ↓ Finallythat great amount of angerthat she felt towards the society and people wasbrought down to a sensible level. ↓ Beskoji je osećala prema društvu i Ijudima je konačno sveden na podnošljivnivo.

42. 4.1. General trends: unmarkedness Da nema poeziju, mislila je, ne bi imala smisla da živi. ↓ If she hadn’t had poetry, she thought, her life would make no sense. ↓ Mislila je da za nju život ne bi imao nikakvog smisla da joj nije bilo poezije. Influence of CAT tools (tunnelling vision to 1 TU)?

43. 4.1. General trends: markedness Konobar je pogledao sa čuđenjem kada je sišla niz stepenice, prvi put primetivšikoliko je ona u stvari privlačna. ↓ When she was coming down the stairs the waiter looked at her amazed, noticingfor the first time how attractive she really was. ↓ Dok je silazila niz stepenice, konobar je pogleda u čudu, videći po prvi putkoliko je ustvari privlačna. Carry-over effect?

44. 4.2. General trends: =equivalence General consensus in literature on back translation: • back translation can neverfully reflect the original • 8% of back translations were exactreproductionsof the original, though • most are simple sentences, but a number of them are complex

45. 4.2. General trends: =equivalence Bilaje potpunoprazna. ↓ She was completely empty. ↓ Bilaje potpunoprazna.

46. 4.2. General trends: =equivalence Irena se plašila da je drži u naručju. ↓ Irena was scared to hold her in her arms. ↓ Irena se plašila da je drži u naručju.

47. 4.2. General trends: =equivalence Upisao je elektrotehniku, jer je oduvekvoleoprirodnepojave, fizičkeproceseielektroniku. ↓ He enrolled on the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, because he always liked natural occurrences, physical processes and electronics. ↓ Upisao je elektrotehniku, jer je oduvekvoleoprirodnepojave, fizičkeproceseielektroniku. Influence of CAT tools?

48. 4.3. The old axiom is wrong? Translators are, obviously, better at translating into their non-mother tongue.

49. Carry-over effect?orThe old axiom of translation is wrong?

50. Actually, our data supports claims made by Nike Pokorn…