A Study On The Impact Of Machine Translation Software Towards Technical Translation: With Special Reference On English To Sinhala Category

Abstract

A software capable of conducting a flawless automatic translation between natural languages independent of human interference could be termed as Machine Translation (MT) or Fully Automated Translation (FMT). As a subfield of Computational Linguistics, Machine translation has continuously evolved with time to connect numerous communities around the world through its technological advancements. It is certain that machine translation techniques contribute in minimizing the complexity and ambiguity of source texts and thus enhances the readability and understandability of texts while making the translation process smooth. In this study, mainly the most prominent MT tools used at present in the Sri Lankan context by the freelance translators such as Google Translate and online translator of the Akura Sinhala Dictionary App are discussed along with their strengths and weaknesses. A special emphasis is given towards the intralingual translation from English to Sinhala and the problems encountered by freelance translators such as the difficulty in translating combined and complex source sentences as well as, certain technical phrases and terms. For this purpose, the data were gathered through analyzing 100 combined and complex English sentences translated to Sinhala by the translators and via the said MT software. Freelance translators in the profession, mostly deal with parallel sentences rendered by MT software, as it translates based on its Translation Units (TU). Hence a freelance translator must edit such a translation grammatically and make it free from interpretational errors, working to mold a better translational output. Moreover, the objective of the study is to highlight the significance of human translators in assuring the accuracy, consistency and quality of instant translations delivered by the considered MT software. Nevertheless, considering as a whole, 'Will Machine Translation software replace human translators around the world in near future?' still seems to be a controversial question owing to the impaired quality of output it persists to render