Soap and water or water and soap? The difference a (still) human translator can make…

Abstract

The world of professional translation is inextricably linked to the conquests of artificial intelligence (AI), and human translators need to use machine translation tools and translation memories to increase their productivity. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of the human translator in the translation process and, consequently, to adapt the training of young translators to the circumstances in which they will have to work in the future. Based on the work of final-year students of FLUP's Master's in Translation and Language Services, we carried out an analysis of several cases that revealed the weaknesses of machine translation systems, in order to illustrate how human intervention can contribute to a more efficient translation process and a higher quality of the final product and can also help translators focus their efforts on areas where human intervention is most valuable. If the translator is aware of the limitations of AI systems in advance and if he/she knows what are the most appropriate linguistic resources applied in the different text genres of specialised communication in the target culture and language, during the revision and post-editing process he/she may focus his efforts on areas where human intervention is most valuable: in producing texts that do not look like a translation and reveal the characteristic features of original, specialised discourse in the target culture and language. By paying special attention to pronominal anaphora, collocations, idiomatic expressions, or macro- and micro-textual conventions translators can optimize the revision process, increase productivity, and achieve improved translations in less time.