By definition, Translation Memory, or TM, is the computer
memory that remembers previous translations of source and target
language source strings. TM is essentially a database where
bilingual text strings, called segments, are stored. Contrary
to machine translation where complex algorithms are developed
to make computer think like humans in processing natural languages,
TM simply stores the bilingual pairs that a real human translator
produces during translation. A TM file contains a table of source
language and target language text strings in corresponding cells.
During translation a TM tool will first look up a text segment
in a TM database to see if such a segment already exists. If
so, the tool alerts the human translator that a match has been
found. The translator can then verify the translation within
the given context and select the given translation instead of
translating each segment from scratch.
Sometimes the source string and the target string are close,
but not exact, matches. These matches are called "fuzzy
matches". Though not word-for-word the same, these
"fuzzy matches" are nonetheless helpful.
Usually in this case, the human translator can still use the
translation by only modifying the target text slightly and giving
the translation a context appropriate, native-speaker sound
instead of translating from each segment from scratch. Reusing
previous translation segments is called TM leverage.
What are the benefits of TM?
Compared to conventional translation,
TM leverage delivers three important benefits:
1. Reduced overall project cost.
2. Increased translation consistency.
3. Shorten translation cycle.
TM technology has matured substantially as the localization
industry has evolved. Today, most TM tools are packed with
sophisticated features that go far beyond just storing and
leveraging translation pairs. Most TM tools today support
multilingual terminology management, an in-context view of
software user interface during translation and translation
workflow management, to name just a few. TM is also very helpful
for finding the appropriate terminology, or dealing with difficult
sentence structures. TM is able to store all previous solutions
that have been discovered and adopted in the past to assist
the translator and save them time. Now the TM tool is even
more powerful and is capable of helping translators and localization
specialists by providing even more features. Functions such
as autotext and automatic functions for checking formatting
tags, numbers, and terminology make TM an even more powerful
tool. While a full description of these advanced features
is beyond the scope of the L10NWorks Website, there is widely
available information from the different TM tool publishers
and over the Internet.
For more information about CSOFT's L10N Solutions, please click
here.
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