Machine Translation: a Brief History

The translation of natural languages by machine, first dreamt of in the seventeenth century, has become a reality in the late twentieth. Computer programs are producing translations-not perfect translations, for that is an ideal to which no human translator can aspire; nor translations of literary texts, for the subtleties and nuances of poetry are beyond computational analysis; but translations of technical manuals, scientific documents, commercial prospectuses, administrative memoranda, medical reports. Machine translation is not primarily an area of abstract intellectual inquiry but the application of computer and language sciences to the development of systems answering practical needs. After an outline of basic features, the history of machine translation is traced from the pioneers and early systems of the 1950s and 1960s, the impact of the ALPAC report in the mid-1960s, the revival in the 1970s, the appearance of commercial and operational systems in the 1980s, research during the 1980s, new developments in research in the 1990s, and the growing use of systems in the past decade. This brief history can mention only the major and most significant systems and projects, and for more details readers are referred to the publications listed. 1. Basic features and terminology The term 'machine translation' (MT) refers to computerized systems responsible for the production of translations with or without human assistance. It excludes computer-based translation tools which support translators by providing access to on-line dictionaries, remote terminology databanks, transmission and reception of texts, etc. The boundaries between machine-aided human translation (MAHT) and human-aided machine translation (HAMT) are often uncertain and the term computer-aided translation (CAT) can cover both, but the central core of MT itself is the automation of the full translation process. Although the ideal goal of MT systems may be to produce high-quality translation, in practice the output is usually revised (post-edited). It should be noted that in this respect MT does not differ from the output of most human translators which is normally revised by a second translator before dissemination. However, the types of errors produced by MT systems do differ from those of human translators (incorrect prepositions, articles, pronouns, verb tenses, etc.). Post-editing is the norm, but in certain circumstances MT output may be unedited or only lightly revised, e.g. if it is intended only for specialists familiar with the text subject. Output might also serve as a rough draft for a human translator, i.e. as a 'pre-translation'. The translation quality …