Translation Software Technology Overview

Automatic translation software (also referred to as Machine Translation) systems use sophisticated translation technology with comprehensive dictionaries along with a collection of linguistic rules that translate one foreign language into another without relying on human translators.

An automatic translation software system interprets the structure of sentences in the source language (the language the user is translating
from) and generates a translation based on the rules of the target language (the language the user is translating to). The process involves breaking down complex and varying sentence structures; identifying parts of speech; resolving ambiguities; and synthesizing the information into the components and structure of the new language.

Automatic language translation software is considered a “gisting” application, producing translations that enhance the end-user’s understanding of the original document. It does not produce the same level of translation that a human translator could provide. The "gisting" level can be improved to publishable results with a combination of software and a human translator.

Types of Translation Technology

Dictionary-Based: This is also referred to as word for word translation. This is where a document is translated using dictionary filled with pre-translated terms. The software performs a search and replace of the individual words without regard to the context of the word and how it was used in the sentence. This is the least accurate form of automatic translation.

Dictionary-Based Context Sensitive: This is very close to the original word for word translation but with the improvement of being able to control the translations based on part of speech for each word. Example, if you have the word ‘ship’ in the dictionary, it can have two entries along with the part of speech for the word, one will be a noun and one will be a verb. When used in conjunction with Rule Based Translation software, the words surrounding ‘ship’ will determine if the translation should refer to a ship (noun) on the ocean, or to ship (verb) a package. This form of a dictionary increases the translation results dramatically.

Rule Based Translation: The translation engine uses a set of linguistic rules for each language. The rule based system analyzes every word, the sentence structure, grammar, punctuation and determine the translated results. By using the grammar rules of each language this form of translation produces a translation that can produce more fluid results retaining the meaning of the original sentence. For example, if the original language uses a different verb word order, with rule based it will change the order to the correct usage in the results.

Statistical Translation: This system is based on training. Out of the box the system cannot do any automatic translation until the system has been trained. To train the system, millions of previously translated documents are fed into the database in both languages. The software then looks for patterns and statistical relationships between the words.

There are pros and cons to this type of system, it requires heavy training and training can be expensive. If trained properly however, it can produce very good translations of even text that can be considered difficult for Rule Based systems.

Systran Technology
Systran utilizes a combination of technology in their translation engine. Rule based, context sensitive dictionaries and translation memory and with the release of version 6.0 in 2007 statistical methods. With the next versions you are sure to see more developments as the technology is improved.