With the development of artificial intelligence technology, machine translation occupies an increasingly important position in our daily work. More and more translators are using machine translation to complete the first draft and then "refine" it to complete the translation. We call this process "MT editing".
However, in the follow-up review process, some inexplicable problems can often be found, and after tracing the cause, it is found that the translator was brought to the "pit" by some errors in the machine translation. These mistakes are usually similar to those of the "main owner", which is very difficult to detect, and it is easy for the interpreter to fall into the trap if he is not careful.
In this article, the author will give several examples of "pits" that are turned over for your reference.
Example 1:
Original:By providing sound includedRemindersand lightsRemindersof combinationsReminderscan communicate with motorists in a friendly mannerRemindersIntention.
Machine Translation:by providing a combinedreminderthat includes soundremindersand lightreminders, the driver 'sreminderintent can be communicated friendly
Manual Correction:by providing a combination of soundwarningand lightwarning, the driver’swarningintention can be conveyed in a friendly manner.
Analysis:In machine-translated texts, "reminders" are processed as "reminders"; However, in the Chinese context, not all "reminders" mean "evoke memory", and may also mean "warning", "alert", "alarm", etc. The following is a brief distinction between these English words:
remindEmphasizing reminding someone before the deadline is often a way to help people remember what's coming or needs to be done. For example, birthday reminders set in the phone's calendar, etc. For example: let me remind you about our meeting tomorrow at 10 am.
warningEmphasis on potential hazards is often used to indicate a possible adverse event and remind people to take the necessary precautions. For example, in Example 1, the "reminder" is actually to turn on the double flash or honk the horn during driving, and its function is to warn other vehicles to pay attention to avoidance, etc. Another example: there was a warning sign indicating a sharp turn ahead.
alertEmphasize informing to get attention. "Alert" can refer to a variety of situations, including emergency notices, alerts, or warnings, but it does not necessarily imply danger or urgency. For example, The Weather Forecast issued a storm alert.
alarmWarnings in emergency situations are emphasized, often accompanied by urgent operational needs. An "alarm" may include sound, light, or other noticeable signals to ensure that people respond quickly. For example, warnings in the event of a disaster such as a fire require people to be able to evacuate urgently. For example: the fire alarm went off, and everyone evacuated the building.
Example 2:
Original:Some of the images were captured for gesture**.
Machine Translation:part of the image isinterceptedfor pose prediction.
Manual Correction:a part of the image iscroppedfor pose prediction.
Analysis:The original meaning of "intercept" is "interception, interception", and "intercept an image" means "intercept and block the screenshot image to interrupt its transmission process". However, what is described in the original text is the extraction of a specific part from the original image, which is the editing of the image for further processing or analysis, so as to achieve the pose**. In image editing, "crop an image" refers to extracting a specific part of an image by removing the unwanted parts of the image. Therefore, "crop" should be used for "interception" here.
Example 3:
Original:Generate the rotation and scale of the target objectDeformationProcess the results.
Machine Translation:generating adeformationprocessing result of rotation, scaling, etc. of a target object.
Manual Correction:generating atransformationprocessing result of rotation and scaling of a target object.
Analysis:"Transformation" refers to different types of operations such as rotation and scaling while maintaining the basic geometric properties of the image (such as angle and scale). Obviously, "transformation" is the right choice in this example sentence. Whereas, "deformation" usually refers to a non-rigid, non-proportional change in shape, such as distorting, stretching, or changing the structure of an image element, which does not fit the scene described in the example sentence. This type of error is very common in MT and should be taken seriously during the post-MT editing process.
Example 4:
Original:R1 is vinyl, R2 is hexyl, and R1 is betweenPair by two, r2Pair by two
Machine Translation:r 1 is a vinyl group, r 2 is a hexyl group, andtwo pairs of bits between r 1 and r 2 are aligned in pairs.
ArtificialFixes:r1 is vinyl, r2 is hexyl,both r1 is in para-position, and both r2 is in para-position.
Analysis:What I want to say here is that two r1s are in counterpoint and two r2s are in counterpoint. In chemistry, if two substituents are in an adjacent position, they are ortho-position; The position that is spaced apart is the meta-position; The relative position is the para-position. Machine translation translates "align" directly to "align", which can be difficult to discern if the translator lacks the appropriate technical knowledge. Therefore, as a translator, you need to be more cautious when encountering words from unfamiliar fields, keep doubts about the machine translation, and verify it repeatedly to ensure the quality of the translation.
As can be seen from the above cases, while machine translation brings convenience to translation work, it may also bring a variety of potential errors. Translators are not careful, and it is easy for them to leave such mistakes in the submitted translation, leaving a black history for themselves. Therefore, when using machine translation as the translation manuscript, we must always be vigilant, not blindly trust the machine translation results, do a good job of terminology query, and carefully check to ensure the accuracy and rigor of the translation.