Language industry
Encyclopedia
The language industry is the sector of activity dedicated to designing, producing, and marketing tools, products, or services related to computerized language processing
. It is a part of the information technology industry, but also draws upon the fields of linguistics
, lexicography
, software engineering
, artificial intelligence
, and interface design
.
millennia ago; so, if we include interpreting
, it is no exaggeration to say that the origins of language industry are older than those of written language
.
Modern language industry has developed rapidly following availability of the internet
. Achievements of the industry include the ability to quickly translate long texts into many languages. This has created new challenges as compared with the traditional activity of translators, such as that of quality assurance
. There are some quality standards
such as EN 15038
in Europe and ASTM F2575-06 in the USA.
There are language industry companies of different sizes; none of them is dominant in the world market so far.
There are human resources in translation of very different levels; internet has gathered professional translators, students, language teachers and professionals from other disciplines, all of them offering translation services.
It is extremely easy to offer translation services online. All one needs is a website and access to a translator database, which has created an insurgence of new small translation agencies all over the world. This, in turn, has made it very difficult to buy translation services as all these tens of thousands of translation agencies offer a practically identical service offering. All one has to do is search for translation companies online to see how similar these different options actually are. To drill down to the language and industry expertise that are needed, consumers and business users alike can use tools like Translizer
to do a precision search based on competencies rather than just "translation". This development has made it much easier to avoid the common pitfalls of buying translations.
One field of research in the industry includes the possibility of machine translation
fully replacing human translation.
try to put a stop to this development. Currency fluctuation is yet another important factor.
Apart from this, phenomenons such as crowdsourcing
are seen in big-scale translations, which has drawn criticism from the American Translators Association
.
US President Barack Obama
drew criticism after calling for automatic translation.
Language processing
Language processing refers to the way human beings process speech or writing and understand it as language. Most recent theories back the idea that this process is made completely by and inside the brain.- Spoken language :...
. It is a part of the information technology industry, but also draws upon the fields of linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, lexicography
Lexicography
Lexicography is divided into two related disciplines:*Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries....
, software engineering
Software engineering
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
, artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
, and interface design
Interface design
Interface design deals with the process of developing a method for two modules in a system to connect and communicate. These modules can apply to hardware, software or the interface between a user and a machine...
.
Services
The scope of services in the industry includes:- translationTranslationTranslation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
- editing, reviewing, proofreadingProofreadingProofreading is the reading of a galley proof or computer monitor to detect and correct production-errors of text or art. Proofreaders are expected to be consistently accurate by default because they occupy the last stage of typographic production before publication.-Traditional method:A proof is...
(including CARComputer-assisted reviewingComputer-assisted reviewing tools are pieces of software based on text-comparison and analysis algorithms. These tools focus on the differences between two documents, taking into account each document's typeface through an intelligent analysis....
) - Language interpretation
- CAT tools
- terminology extractionTerminology extractionTerminology mining, term extraction, term recognition, or glossary extraction, is a subtask of information extraction. The goal of terminology extraction is to automatically extract relevant terms from a given corpus....
- language localisationLanguage localisationLanguage localisationThe spelling "localization", a variant of "localisation", is the preferred spelling in the US and Canada. is the second phase of a larger process of product translation and cultural adaptation to account for...
- software localisation
- Machine translationMachine translationMachine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of computer software to translate text or speech from one natural language to another.On a basic...
Evolution
Translation as an activity exists at least since mankind started developing tradeTrade
Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...
millennia ago; so, if we include interpreting
Interpreting
Language interpretation is the facilitating of oral or sign-language communication, either simultaneously or consecutively, between users of different languages...
, it is no exaggeration to say that the origins of language industry are older than those of written language
Written language
A written language is the representation of a language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will instinctively learn or create spoken or gestural languages....
.
Modern language industry has developed rapidly following availability of the internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. Achievements of the industry include the ability to quickly translate long texts into many languages. This has created new challenges as compared with the traditional activity of translators, such as that of quality assurance
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance, or QA for short, is the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service or facility to maximize the probability that minimum standards of quality are being attained by the production process...
. There are some quality standards
Translation-quality standards
Like any supplier of goods or services, a translator potentially bears ethical and legal obligations toward his patron or employer. Lately, this has turned out to be of enormous importance with the development of language industry at global scale...
such as EN 15038
EN 15038
EN15038 is a quality standard developed especially for translation services providers. The EN15038 standard ensures the consistent quality of the service...
in Europe and ASTM F2575-06 in the USA.
There are language industry companies of different sizes; none of them is dominant in the world market so far.
There are human resources in translation of very different levels; internet has gathered professional translators, students, language teachers and professionals from other disciplines, all of them offering translation services.
It is extremely easy to offer translation services online. All one needs is a website and access to a translator database, which has created an insurgence of new small translation agencies all over the world. This, in turn, has made it very difficult to buy translation services as all these tens of thousands of translation agencies offer a practically identical service offering. All one has to do is search for translation companies online to see how similar these different options actually are. To drill down to the language and industry expertise that are needed, consumers and business users alike can use tools like Translizer
Translizer
Translizer Group, commonly known as Translizer, is an international technology company with offices in Portsmouth, United Kingdom and Houston, Texas. Translizer's core operation is the facilitation of foreign language translation through an aggregator search function similar to sites like...
to do a precision search based on competencies rather than just "translation". This development has made it much easier to avoid the common pitfalls of buying translations.
One field of research in the industry includes the possibility of machine translation
Machine translation
Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of computer software to translate text or speech from one natural language to another.On a basic...
fully replacing human translation.
Controversies
Rates for translation services are a big discussion topic nowadays, as several translation outsourcers are said to go in search of cheap labor. Professional associations like IAPTIIAPTI
The International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters , an NPO, is a translators and interpreters association.-Organization:Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, it was established on 30 September, 2009, Saint Jerome's day...
try to put a stop to this development. Currency fluctuation is yet another important factor.
Apart from this, phenomenons such as crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....
are seen in big-scale translations, which has drawn criticism from the American Translators Association
American Translators Association
The American Translators Association was founded in 1959 and is now the largest professional association of translators and interpreters in the United States with more than 10,000 members in 90 countries....
.
US President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
drew criticism after calling for automatic translation.