Where Do Translators Fit Into MT ? Panel

1. At the last MT Summit, Martin Kay stated that there should be “greater attention to empirical studies of translation so that computational linguists will have a better idea of what really goes on in translation and develop tools that will be more useful for the end user.” Does this mean that there has been insufficient input into MT processes by translators interested in MT? Does it mean that MT developers have failed to study what translating actually entails and how translators go about their task? If either of these is true, then to what extent and why? New answers and insights for the MT profession could arise from hearing what human translators with an interest in the development of MT have to say about these matters. It may well turn out that translators are the very people best qualified to determine what form their tools should take, since they are the end users. 2. Is there a specifically “human” component in the translation process which MT experts have overlooked? Is it reasonable for theoreticians to envision setting up predictable and generic vocabularies of clearly defined terms, or could they be overlooking a deep-seated human tendency towards some degree of ambiguity--indeed, in those many cases where not all the facts are known, an inescapably human reliance on it? Are there any viable MT approaches to duplicate what human translators can provide in such cases, namely the ability to bridge this ambiguity gap and improvise personalized, customized case-specific subtleties of vocabulary, depending on client or purpose? Could this in fact be a major element of the entire translation process? Alternately, are there some more boring “machine-like” aspects of translation where the computer can help the translator, such as style and consistency checking? 3. How can the knowledge of practicing translators best be integrated into current MT research and working systems? Is it to be assumed that they are best employed as prospective end-users working out the bugs in the system, or is there also a place for them during the initial planning phases of such systems? Can they perhaps as users be the primary developers of the system? 4. Many human translators, when told of the quest to have machines take over all aspects of translation, immediately reply that this is impossible and start providing specific instances which they claim a machine system could never handle. Are such reactions merely the final nerve spasms of a doomed class of technicians awaiting superannuation, or are these translators in fact enunciating specific instances of a general law as yet not fully articulated? Since we now hear claims suggesting that FAHQT is creeping in again through the back door, it seems important to ask whether there has in fact ever been sufficient basic mathematical research, much less algorithmic underpinnings, by the MT Community to determine whether FAHQT, or anything close to it, can be achieved by any combination of electronic stratagems (transfer, AI, neural nets, Markov models, etc.). Must translators forever stand exposed on the firing line and present their minds and bodies to a broadside of claims that the next round of computer advances will annihilate them as a profession? Is this problem truly solvable in logical terms, or is it in fact an intractable, undecidable, or provably unsolvable question in terms of “Computable Numbers” as set out by Turing, based on the work of Hilbert and Gödel? A reasonable answer to this question could save boards of directors and/or government agencies a great deal of time and money.