Topic: “Computer translators. Text recognition systems.
Lesson Objectives:
- to help students gain an understanding of computer dictionaries and machine translation systems, to get acquainted with the capabilities of these programs, to teach how to use these programs. help students gain an understanding of OCR - text recognition programs, get acquainted with the capabilities of the program's data, teach to recognize scanned text, transfer and edit it in Word. education of information culture of students, attentiveness, accuracy, discipline, perseverance. development of cognitive interests, computer skills, self-control, ability to take notes.
Equipment:
board, computer, computer presentation.
Lesson plan:
1) Organizational moment. (1 min)
2) Actualization of knowledge. (5 minutes)
3) Theoretical part. (10 minutes)
4) Practical part. (15 minutes)
5) Homework (2 min)
6) Students' questions. (5 minutes)
7) The result of the lesson. (2 minutes)
During the classes:
I. Organizational moment.
Greeting, checking those present. Explanation of the lesson.
II. Knowledge update.
As you can see, in order to get an electronic, ready-to-edit copy of any printed text, the OCR program needs to perform a “chain” of many separate operations.
First you need to recognize the structure of the text on the page: select columns, tables, images, and so on. Next, the selected text fragments of the graphic image of the page must be converted to text.
If the source document has typographical quality (a fairly large font, no poorly printed characters or corrections), then the recognition problem is solved by comparing with a raster template. First, the bitmap of the page is split into individual character images. Then each of them is sequentially superimposed on the symbol templates available in the system memory, and the template with the least number of points different from the input image is selected.
When recognizing documents with low print quality (typewritten text, fax, and so on), the method of character recognition is used by the presence of certain structural elements in them (segments, rings, arcs, etc.).
Any symbol can be described through a set of parameter values that determine the relative position of its elements. For example, the letter "H" and the letter "I" consist of three segments, two of which are parallel to each other, and the third connects these segments. The difference between these letters is in the size of the angles that the third segment forms with the other two.
When recognizing by the structural method, characteristic details are distinguished in a distorted symbolic image and compared with the structural patterns of symbols. As a result, the symbol is selected for which the totality of all structural elements and their arrangement most of all corresponds to the recognized symbol.
The most common optical character recognition systems, such as ABBYY FineReader and CuneiForm from Cognitive, use both raster and structured recognition methods. In addition, these systems are "self-learning" (for each specific document, they create an appropriate set of character templates) and therefore the speed and quality of recognition of a multi-page document is gradually increasing.
You can purchase text recognition software separately or get it for free along with the scanner you bought.
Perhaps the most famous OCR software is ABBYY's FineReader. It is this program that is most often remembered when it comes to recognition systems.
FineReader allows you to recognize texts typed in almost any font, without prior training. A feature of the FineReader program is high recognition accuracy and low sensitivity to print defects, which is achieved through the use of "holistic purposeful adaptive recognition" technology.
FineReader has a ton of extra features that the average user may not need, but will impress certain groups of buyers. Thus, one of FineReader's trump cards is the support of an incredible number of recognition languages - 176, among which you will find exotic and ancient languages, and even popular programming languages.
But not all features are included in the simplest modification of the program, which you can get for free along with the scanner. Batch scanning, competent processing of tables and images - for all this it is worth purchasing a professional version of the program.
All versions of FineReader, from the simplest to the most powerful, share a user-friendly interface. To start the recognition process, you just need to put the document in the scanner and press the only button (Scan & Read wizard) on the program toolbar. All further operations - scanning, splitting the image into "blocks" and, finally, the actual recognition of the program will perform automatically. The user will only need to set the desired scanning parameters.
The quality of recognition largely depends on how good the image is obtained during scanning. Image quality is controlled by setting the basic scan parameters: image type, resolution, and brightness.
Scanning in gray is the optimal mode for the recognition system. In the case of scanning in gray mode, automatic selection of brightness is performed. If you want the color elements contained in the document (pictures, lettering and background colors) to be transferred to an electronic document with color preservation, you must select a color image type. Otherwise, use the gray image type.
The optimal resolution for ordinary texts is 300 dpi and 400-600 dpi for texts in small print (9 or less points).
Once page recognition is complete, FineReader will offer the user a choice: scan and recognize further (for a multi-page document) or save the resulting text in one of many popular formats - from Microsoft Office documents to HTML or PDF. You can, however, immediately transfer the document to Word or Excel, and already there correct all the recognition flaws (it is simply impossible to do without it). At the same time, FineReader fully preserves all the features of document formatting and its graphic design.
- Why do we need text recognition programs? How is text recognition done? What text recognition programs do you know? What did they use? What resolution is optimal for scanning text, images?
III. Practical part.
1. Working with a text translator (by cards)
2. Now let's practice working with ABBYY FineReader. We will use a simplified version of the program that comes with the scanner.
IV. Homework
Know what automatic text translation programs are, be able to work with these programs. Additional task: connect to the Internet and use any on-line translator to translate the text.
Know what text recognition programs are, be able to work with these programs. Additional task: install the OCR program at home and prepare an essay on any subject. Recognize text in OCR, edit and format in Word.
V. Students' questions.
Answers to students' questions.
VI. Summary of the lesson.
Summing up the lesson. Grading.
At the lesson, we got acquainted with computer translation programs for texts, learned how to translate words and text using a translator program.
At the lesson, we got acquainted with OCR programs, learned how to recognize a scanned image using ABBYY FineReader 5.0.
Letter No. 03-03-06/1/202 of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated April 20, 2012 explains that documents on foreign business trips can be translated by any employee of the company, and not necessarily by a professional translator. Do these clarifications apply to any primary documents in a foreign language? What is required from an ordinary employee of the company (except for his knowledge of a foreign language) to be able to translate documents? How should it be framed? What does the phrase "line-by-line translation" mean? Can tax inspectors require notarization of translated documents or certification by a professional translator in case of disputes during the audit?
Lyubov Artyukh, lead auditor of the Audit and Consulting Group, answers BANKO, www.bankoaudit.ru
The Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated April 20, 2012 No. 03-03-06 / 1/202 answered a specific question, however, its clarifications concern not only documents on foreign business trips, but in general primary accounting documents drawn up in foreign languages.
Such primary accounting documents can be: a cargo customs declaration (declaration for goods), international transport documents - waybills confirming the transfer of goods to the carrier (international air, road, railway waybills, bills of lading), commercial invoices, acceptance certificates - transfer of performed works (services), other documents drawn up in accordance with the customs of business turnover applied in a foreign state.
The Ministry of Finance of Russia expressed this point of view on the issue of translating documents drawn up in a foreign language earlier: Letters of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated 03.22.10 No. 03-03-06 / 1/168, dated 03.26. 03.11.09 No. 03-03-06/1/72, dated 14.09. 09 No. 03-03-05/170, dated February 16, 2009 No. 03-03-05/23.
According to paragraph 3, clause 9 of the Regulation on accounting and financial reporting in the Russian Federation, approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation of July 29, 1998 No. 34n, primary accounting documents drawn up in other languages must have a line-by-line translation into Russian.
Legislatively, the procedure for processing documents translated into Russian is not regulated.
If the translation is carried out by a specialist of the organization, then an order (another internal document) should establish the circle of persons who have the right to translate primary accounting documents into Russian, and fix the indicated translation responsibilities in their job descriptions.
In this case, the translation of the document should be done either on a photocopy of the document (line by line), or on a separately created sheet, in which the original lines of the document being translated should alternate with their translation.
It is advisable to affix the translated text of the document with the signature of the person who performed the translation.
As for the “line-by-line transfer”, it should be noted that in order to recognize expenses for the purposes of accounting and tax accounting, the details necessary to understand the content of the operation and evaluate its value in quantitative and value terms must be translated. Translation of information that is repetitive or not essential to support the expenditures incurred is not required.
For example, if an organization in the process of carrying out foreign economic activity uses standard documents, then in this case it is enough to translate into Russian the constant details of the standard form once, and then only translate the changing indicators of the document (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated 03.11.09 No. 03-03-¬ 06/1/725).
For air tickets and other transportation documents in a foreign language, translation of information that is not essential for confirming the expenses incurred (for example, the conditions for applying the fare, air transportation rules, rules for the carriage of baggage, other information) is not required (Letter of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated 03.22.10 No. 03- 03-06/1/168).
In some cases, translation of documents drawn up in a foreign language is not required.
Thus, line-by-line translation of documents having a unified international form is not required, in particular, air tickets used to certify passenger air transportation contracts (Joint Letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia and the Federal Tax Service dated April 26, 2010 No. ShS-37-3 / [email protected]).
Tax inspectors in the event of disputes during the audit are not entitled to require notarization of translated documents.
The demand for documents during a tax audit is regulated by Art. 93 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. According to paragraph 2 of clause 2 of article 93: “Documents on paper are submitted in the form of copies certified by the person being checked. It is not allowed to require notarization of copies of documents submitted to a tax authority (official), unless otherwise provided by the legislation of the Russian Federation.
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Currently, there are three types of machine translation systems:
Systems based on grammatical rules (Rule-Based Machine Translation, RBMT);
Statistical systems (Statistical Machine Translation, SMT);
hybrid systems;
Grammar-based systems analyze the text that is used in the translation process. Translation is made on the basis of built-in dictionaries for a given language pair, as well as grammars covering the semantic, morphological, syntactic patterns of both languages. Based on all this data, the source text is sequentially, sentence by sentence, converted into text in the required language. The basic principle of operation of such systems is the connection between the structures of the source and final texts.
Systems based on grammatical rules are often divided into three more subgroups - word-for-word translation systems, transfer systems and interlinguistic systems.
The advantages of systems based on grammatical rules are grammatical and syntactic accuracy, stability of the result, and the ability to adjust to a specific subject area. The disadvantages of systems based on grammar rules include the need to create, maintain and update linguistic databases, the complexity of creating such a system, as well as its high cost.
Statistical systems in their work use statistical analysis. A bilingual corpus of texts is loaded into the system (containing a large amount of text in the source language and its “manual” translation into the required language), after which the system analyzes the statistics of interlingual correspondences, syntactic constructions, etc. The system is self-learning - when choosing a translation option, it relies on previous statistics. The larger the vocabulary within a language pair and the more accurate it is, the better the result of statistical machine translation. With each new translated text, the quality of subsequent translations improves.
Statistical systems are quick to set up and easy to add new translation directions. Among the shortcomings, the most significant are the presence of numerous grammatical errors and the instability of translation.
Hybrid systems combine the approaches described earlier. It is expected that hybrid machine translation systems will combine all the advantages that statistical systems and rule-based systems have.
1.3 Classification of machine translation systems
Machine translation systems are programs that perform fully automated translation. The main criterion of the program is the quality of the translation. In addition, important points for the user are the convenience of the interface, the ease of integrating the program with other document processing tools, the choice of topics, and the dictionary replenishment utility. With the advent of the Internet, major machine translation vendors have incorporated Web interfaces into their products, while also integrating them with other software and email, allowing MT to be used to translate Web pages, email, and online conversations.
New members of CompuServe's foreign language forum often ask if anyone can recommend a good machine translation program for a reasonable price.
The answer to this question is invariably "no". Depending on the respondent, the answer may contain two main arguments: either that machines cannot translate, or that machine translation is too expensive.
Both of these arguments are valid to a certain extent. However, the answer is far from being so simple. When studying the problem of machine translation (MT), it is necessary to consider separately the various subsections of this problem. The following division is based on lectures by Larry Childs given at the 1990 International Conference on Technical Communication:
Fully automatic translation;
Automated machine translation with human participation;
Translation performed by a person using a computer.
Fully automated machine translation. This kind of machine translation is what most people mean when they talk about machine translation. The meaning here is simple: text in one language is entered into the computer, this text is processed and the computer outputs the same text in another language. Unfortunately, the implementation of this type of automatic translation faces certain obstacles that have yet to be overcome.
The main problem is the complexity of the language itself. Take, for example, the meanings of the word "can". In addition to the main meaning of the modal auxiliary verb, the word "can" has several official and slang meanings as a noun: "bank", "latrine", "prison". In addition, there is an archaic meaning of this word - "to know or understand." Assuming that the target language has a separate word for each of these values, how can a computer tell them apart?
As it turns out, some progress has been made in developing translation programs that discriminate meaning based on context. More recent studies in the analysis of texts rely more on probability theory. However, fully automated machine translation of texts with extensive subject matter is still an impossible task.
Automated machine translation with human participation. This kind of machine translation is now quite feasible. Speaking about machine translation with the participation of a person, they usually mean editing texts both before and after they are processed by a computer. Human translators change texts so that they can be understood by machines. After the computer has done the translation, people again edit the rough machine translation, making the text in the target language correct. In addition to this order of work, there are MT systems that require the constant presence of a human translator during translation to help the computer translate especially complex or ambiguous structures.
Human-assisted machine translation is applicable to a greater extent to texts with a limited vocabulary of narrowly limited topics.
The economics of using human-assisted machine translation is still debatable. The programs themselves are usually quite expensive, and some of them require special equipment to work. Pre and post editing needs to be learned, and it's not a pleasant job. Creating and maintaining databases of words is a laborious process and often requires special skills. However, for an organization translating large volumes of texts in a well-defined subject area, human-assisted machine translation can be a fairly cost-effective alternative to traditional human translation.
Translation performed by a person using a computer. With this approach, the human translator is placed at the center of the translation process, while the computer program is regarded as a tool that makes the translation process more efficient and the translation accurate. These are ordinary electronic dictionaries that provide a translation of the required word, making the person responsible for choosing the right option and the meaning of the translated text. Such dictionaries greatly facilitate the process of translation, but require the user to have a certain knowledge of the language and spend time on its implementation. And yet the translation process itself is greatly accelerated and facilitated.
Among the systems that help the translator in his work, the most important place is occupied by the so-called Translation Memory (TM) systems. TM systems are an interactive tool for accumulating pairs of equivalent text segments in the original language and translation in a database with the possibility of their subsequent search and editing. These software products are not intended to use highly intelligent information technologies, but, on the contrary, are based on the use of the translator's creative potential. In the course of work, the translator himself forms the database (or receives it from other translators or from the customer), and the more units it contains, the greater the return on its use.
Here is a list of the most famous TM systems:
Transit Swiss company Star,
Trados (USA),
Translation Manager from IBM,
Eurolang Optimizer of the French company LANT,
DejaVu from ATRIL (USA),
WordFisher (Hungary).
TM systems make it possible to exclude the repeated translation of identical text fragments. The translation of a segment is carried out by the translator only once, and then each subsequent segment is checked for a match (full or fuzzy) with the database, and if an identical or similar segment is found, then it is offered as a translation option.
Currently, developments are underway to improve the TM systems. For example, the core of Star's Transit system is based on neural network technology.
Despite the wide range of TM systems, they share a few common features:
Alignment function. One of the advantages of TM systems is the ability to use already translated materials on this topic. The TM database can be obtained by segment-by-segment comparison of the original and translation files.
Availability of import-export filters. This property ensures the compatibility of TM systems with a variety of word processors and publishing systems and gives the translator relative independence from the customer.
Mechanism for searching for fuzzy or complete matches. It is this mechanism that represents the main advantage of TM systems. If, when translating a text, the system encounters a segment that is identical or close to the previously translated one, then the already translated segment is offered to the translator as a variant of the translation of the current segment, which can be corrected. The degree of fuzzy matching is set by the user.
Support for thematic dictionaries. This feature helps the translator to stick to the glossary. As a rule, if a translated segment contains a word or phrase from a thematic dictionary, it is highlighted in color and its translation is offered, which can be inserted into the translated text automatically.
Means of searching for fragments of text. This tool is very handy when editing a translation. If in the process of work a more successful version of the translation of any fragment of the text was found, then this fragment can be found in all TM segments, after which the necessary changes are sequentially made to the TM segments.
Of course, like any software product, TM systems have their advantages and disadvantages, and their scope. However, with regard to TM systems, the main disadvantage is their high cost.
It is especially convenient to use TM systems when translating documents such as user manuals, operating instructions, design and business documentation, product catalogs and other documents of the same type with a large number of matches.
Documents drawn up in foreign languages, the travel agency should be translated into Russian. Otherwise, the expenses on them will not be accepted for tax purposes. However, sometimes translation is not needed. For example, if we are talking about the details of an electronic ticket encoded in Latin (letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated June 7, 2011 No. ED-4-3 / 8983).
The need for translation of documents
In accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 16 of the Law of the Russian Federation of October 25, 1991 No. 18071 “On the languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation”, official office work in organizations in our country is conducted in Russian.
And as enshrined in paragraph 9 of the Regulation on accounting and financial reporting in the Russian Federation, approved by order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated July 29, 1998 No. 34n, accounting of property, liabilities and business transactions (facts of economic activity) is recorded in the currency of the Russian Federation - in rubles .
At the same time, documentation of property, liabilities and other facts of economic activity, maintenance of accounting and reporting registers are carried out in Russian. Further it is said: primary accounting documents drawn up in other languages must have a line-by-line translation into Russian.
Based on these norms, the regulatory authorities conclude that primary documents, if they are drawn up in a foreign language, must be translated into Russian. This opinion is expressed, in particular, in the letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated November 3, 2009 No. 03-03-06 / 725, dated September 14, 2009 No. 03-03-05 / 170, dated February 16, 2009 No. 03- 03-05/23.
Although organizations manage to defend expenses in courts, which are confirmed by documents without translation (decrees of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow District dated April 21, 2011 No. KA-A40 / 2152-11, dated October 8, 2008 No. KA-A40 / 8061-08).
Also, arbitrators most often take the side of taxpayers, pointing out that the lack of translation of documents into Russian cannot serve as a basis for refusing to deduct VAT. An example of this is the resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow District of April 1, 2009 No. KA-A40 / 132809, of March 16, 2009 No. KA-A40 / 1450-09, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the West Siberian District of March 5, 2007 No. F04-979 /2007(31967-A45-14).
However, if the documents of the travel agency do not have a translation, it will most likely be necessary to defend the possibility of tax accounting for expenses or the right to a deduction in court. In this case, the outcome of the litigation may not be in favor of the taxpayer.
How to translate a document
The financial department clarifies that the translation can be done by both a professional translator and the organization itself, or rather, its employee (letters dated September 14, 2009 No. 03-03-05 / 170, dated March 20, 2006 No. 03-02-07 /1-66).
At the same time, the legislation does not establish how such a document should be drawn up. Therefore, it can be executed as a separate document or inscribed in Russian text on a photocopy of a foreign primary document.
It should be noted that the translation can also be performed by the organization that issued the primary document, for example, in the form of a certificate (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia No. 03-03-05 / 170).
When can you do without translation?
In some cases, documents will not need to be translated.
This does not need to be done, firstly, if you regularly receive standard documents from your foreign counterparties, in which only numerical indicators differ (number, date of the document, price, etc.), it is enough to translate the form of the document into Russian once. Explanations on this issue are given in the letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated November 3, 2009 No. 03-03-06/1/725.
Secondly, it is not required to translate information that is not essential for confirming the expenses incurred.
For example, the conditions for applying the fare, the rules of air transportation, the rules for the carriage of baggage. Officials of the main financial department drew attention to this in a letter dated September 14, 2009 No. 03-03-05 / 170.
Thirdly, there is no need to translate the formalized (encoded) details of an electronic ticket filled in using Latin characters (letters of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated June 7, 2011 No. ED-4-3 / 8983, dated April 26, 2010 No. ШС-37- 3/ [email protected]).
But when the values in the electronic ticket are actually indicated in a foreign language and do not coincide with the formalized (encoded) values or codes in accordance with the Unified International Codifiers, then these indicators (values) of the ticket are subject to translation into Russian.
Accounting for translation costs
In accounting, the costs of a travel company for payment for translation services are included in other expenses in the month in which they are provided. This is reflected in the debit entry of account 91 "Other income and expenses" (sub-account "Other expenses") and the credit of account 76 "Settlements with various debtors and creditors" (clauses 11, 16, 18 PBU 10/99 "Expenses of the organization").
Such expenses are also accepted for profit taxation purposes - as part of others as payment for information services (subclause 14, clause 1, article 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation) or as other other expenses. About this - in the letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia for Moscow dated May 26, 2008 No. 20-12 / 050126. True, this rule applies to the cost of a third-party translation.
Recall that in order to comply with the requirements of Article 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the costs of translating documents must be documented.
With the "simplification" to take into account such costs will not work. Since they are not provided for in the closed list of permitted expenses (clause 1 of article 346.16 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation).
Important to remember
The costs of third-party translation of documents can be deducted for income tax purposes. But it is impossible to accept them with a “simplification”.
Knowledge of foreign languages is not only a useful skill in everyday life, but also one of the main requirements when applying for a job. At present, the need for knowledge of one or even several foreign languages is becoming increasingly relevant.
The knowledge of the language (English or German) is necessary for the secretary not only when traveling on vacation abroad, but also when receiving business partners from abroad, in everyday life when reading news or watching movies. Therefore, a large number of routine routine and everyday operations that did not previously require knowledge of a foreign language, today, due to the development of international integration processes and the widespread desire of business for globalization, are becoming increasingly difficult if you rely on only one language.
Today, however, knowledge of foreign languages alone is not enough, since the volume of information that needs to be translated daily has increased significantly. At the same time, this task is being successfully solved, and it is not difficult for anyone to translate a contract or the content of a foreign site in just a few seconds. And all because in this case the translation program is engaged in translation: a person does not have time to blink an eye, and the translation is already ready.
Target This lesson is to help students get an idea about computer dictionaries and machine translation systems, to introduce the capabilities of these programs, to teach how to use these programs.
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Lesson topic: "Systems of machine translation of texts and computer dictionaries"
Lesson Objectives:
- to help students get an idea about computer dictionaries and machine translation systems, to acquaint them with the capabilities of these programs, to teach how to use these programs.
- development of cognitive interests, self-control, ability to take notes.
- education of information culture of students, attentiveness, accuracy, discipline, perseverance.
Lesson type: lesson learning new material
Equipment:
computer, projector, screen, computer presentation.
During the classes:
I. Org. moment
Greeting, checking those present.
II. Knowledge update
Knowledge of at least one foreign language is necessary today for everyone, like air. Especially for users: after all, it is impossible to avoid a collision with the English language when working on a computer. Well, if it only concerned files with documentation for programs (which traditionally no one reads in our country) or the names of program menus (which you can learn to navigate without knowing the language, by scientific poke and cramming).
It's bad if you don't know a foreign language... However, I'm sorry - in part - you can help by installing one of the specialized translation programs on your computer or using computer dictionaries.
Write down the topic of the lesson “Machine translation systems for texts
and computer dictionaries.
Today in the lesson you will get an idea about computer dictionaries and automatic text translation systems and get acquainted with the capabilities of these programs.
III. Introduction to new material
With the advent of writing, people received a powerful tool for storing knowledge and for communication. The first writings that have come down to us on the walls of temples and tombs tell about the deeds of kings and generals that took place many centuries ago. In addition, people recorded the results of economic activities in order to successfully trade, collect taxes, etc.
To facilitate written communication between peoples, the first dictionaries were created. One of these dictionaries was written by Sumerian priests on clay tablets. Each tablet was divided into two equal parts. On the one hand, a Sumerian word was written, and on the other, a word of a similar meaning in another language, sometimes with a brief explanation. From that time to the present day, the structure of dictionaries has not changed much.
Currently, there are thousands of dictionaries for translating between hundreds of languages (English-Russian, German-French, and so on), and each of them can contain tens of thousands of words.
In the paper version, the dictionary is a thick book with hundreds of pages, where searching for the right word is a rather laborious process.
The current globalization of our world leads to the need to exchange documents between people and organizations located in different countries of the world and speaking different languages.
Under these conditions, the use of traditional manual translation technology hinders the development of interethnic contacts. Manual translation of multi-page documentation requires a long time and high wages for translators. Translation of an e-mail received or a Web page viewed in a browser must be done immediately, and there is no opportunity and time to invite a translator.
Machine translation systems solve these problems.
With the advent of a personal computer, electronic dictionaries began to be created, which made it easier to find the right word and offered many new useful functions (voicing a word, searching for synonyms, etc.).
Machine translation technology has been gradually improved. And if the quality and speed of translation of the first systems left much to be desired, now a computer can really translate text from one language into another coherently. And more modern systems with acceptable quality translate 1 page of text in 1 second.
Computer dictionaries are multilingual.
They allow the user to select languages and the direction of translation (for example, English-Russian, Spanish-Russian, etc.)
In addition to the main dictionary of commonly used words, they can contain dozens of specialized dictionaries in areas of knowledge (technology, medicine, etc.)
Provide a quick search for dictionary entries.
Allows you to enter phrases and texts.
May be multimedia, i.e. provide the user with the opportunity to listen to words performed by speakers, native speakers.
Basic requirements for computer translators
Efficiency consists in the possibility of constant updating of vocabulary and thematic sections.
Flexibility designed for a specific subject area.
Speed - the possibility of auto-input and processing of text information from paper. One such system (OCR-System) replaces more than ten experienced typists every day.
Accuracy is literacy and adequate transfer of the meaning of the translated text into the target language.
Computer translation systems have their pros and cons.
pros
High translation speed. Computer translation systems allow you to translate multi-page documents at high speed.
Versatility.A professional translator, as a rule, has a specialization in translating texts on a certain subject. Translation programs allow you to translate technical documentation, business correspondence and other specialized texts with sufficient quality.
Low cost of translation. Using the services of professional translators, we are forced to pay money for each page of the translation. However, often there is no need to get a perfect translation of the text, but you need to catch the meaning of the sent letter or the content of the page on the Internet. In this case, the translation system will undoubtedly become a reliable and effective assistant.
Confidentiality. Many users regularly use machine translation systems to translate personal letters, because not every person is ready to give an outside translator personal correspondence or entrust the translation of commercial or financial documents.
On-line translation and translation of web content. Allows you to translate web pages in real time. Online translation services are always at hand and will help you quickly translate information at the right time. In addition, today, with the help of translation systems, you can translate the content of Internet pages and search engine queries.
Minuses
But these systems cannot be completely relied upon. They aremake semantic and stylistic errors and not applicable to translation of works of art, as they are not able to adequately translate metaphors, allegories and other elements of human artistic creativity.
This happens because they translate texts based on formal “knowledge”: the syntax of the language (the rules for constructing sentences), the rules of word formation and the use of dictionaries.
The use of machine translation without topic customization is the subject of many Internet jokes.
The phrase "Our cat gave birth to three kittens - two whites and one black", which the PROMT online translator turned into "Our cat gave birth to three kittens - two whites and one African American." If “African American” could still be made “black” by writing “black kitten”, then “cat” could not change gender: for example, female cat was translated as “female cat”.
The program does not recognize the context of the phrase and translates the terms verbatim, besides not distinguishing proper names from ordinary words. The same PROMT translator turns "Leo Tolstoy" into "Lion Thick" ("fat lion").
Google Translator, on the contrary, often took the word "rice" (rice) for the surname of the former US Secretary of State.
What to do to avoid such mistakes?
- Before you start translating, you needdefine text type, that is, from which area of human life it is represented (economics, sports, science, etc.). After all, each area has its own nuances and terms.
- Mistranslations are often caused by typos translated text. This also applies to recognized texts. Words with errors are marked by translators as unfamiliar, because they are not in dictionaries in this form. Worse if there iserrors in punctuation- one incorrectly placed comma can distort the translation of the entire sentence.
- Work with text snippets. Never translate the entire text at once. It will always contain words that are not in the dictionary and those that the system does not translate correctly.
Online computer translators on the Internet provide a choice of thematic dictionary and the direction of translation. They allow you to translate any text typed in the translation window or copied from the clipboard, web pages, including hyperlinks, as well as emails.
The most popular are Google,PROMT, Yandex.translation.
Translate.ru is the first Russian web service designed to translate text or web pages into other languages. When translating a single word, it produces a dictionary entry. Opened on March 6, 1998 by PROMT.
Yandex.Translation is a Yandex web service designed to translate part of a text or web page into another language. The system builds its correspondence dictionaries based on the analysis of millions of translated texts. The text for translation is first compared by the computer with the database of words, then with the database of language models, trying to determine the meaning of the expression in the context.
Google Translate is a Google web service designed to automatically translate part of a text or web page into another language. For some languages, translation options are offered to users, for example, for technical terms that should be included in future updates to the translation system. The service also includes the translation of the entire web page and even the simultaneous search for information with translation into another language.
Using a machine translation system can significantly reduce the time required to translate texts. The best among Russian machine translation systems arePROMT, ABBYY Lingvo, Multitran, SlovoEd.
Electronic dictionary ABBYY Lingvo. The multilingual version covers 15 languages. ABBYY Lingvo does not have a full-text translation function, but word-by-word translation of texts from the clipboard is possible.
Electronic dictionary Promt. PROMT offers translation programs and PROMT dictionaries for translating texts from English, German, French, Spanish and other languages into Russian and vice versa. A complete solution for automatic translation of business and technical documents, e-mail, websites and presentations.
Translators are available not only for personal computers, but also for mobile phones, tablets and other devices.
For example, in order to quickly and conveniently translate the necessary paragraphs of texts, a program for Android - Quick Translator was created. Its main advantage is that it translates texts after copying them to the clipboard. All you have to do is highlight the parts of the text you need to get a quick translation right on your Android tablet or phone.
IV. Consolidation of the studied material
We met in classcomputer dictionaries and automatic text translation systems and the capabilities of these programs.
1. What are the requirements for computer translators?
2. What are the advantages of computer dictionaries over traditional paper dictionaries?
3. When is it advisable to use computer translation systems?
4. What texts should not be translated using computer translators?
5. What are the names of the best Russian machine translation systems?
V. Homework
Prepare for practical work
VI. Summary of the lesson.
Summing up the lesson. Grading.
LIST OF USED LITERATURE
