The challenges of machine translation of academic publications

D.A. Rew, University Hospital Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
N.G. Popova, Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation

Abstract:

Clear translation remains a major challenge to better communication and understanding of the international academic literature, despite advances in Machine Translation (MT). Automatic translation systems which captured the detail and the sense of any manuscript in any language for a reader from any other linguistic background would find global applications. In this article, we discuss the current opportunities and constraints to the wider use of machine translation and computer-assisted human translation (CAT). At the present stage of technology development, these instruments offer a number of advantages to specialists working with scientific texts. These include the facility to skim and scan large amounts of information in foreign languages, and to act as digital dictionaries, thesauri and encyclopaedia’s. Word-to-word and phrase-to-phrase translation between many languages and scripts is now well advanced.

To view full article - download PDF