1.3 - Translation Memory (TM) Systems

"One of the most important sources of information to which a translator can have access is a large body of previous translations."
(Kay and Roscheisen 1993, 122)
The concept of a TRANSLATION MEMORY (TM) originated in the 1970s, the first implementation came in the 1980s, but it was not until the 1990s that the commercial success came. TM systems were originally in-house tools used by translation agencies but as time went by, they became available to individual translators.
A TM is a linguistic database that is used to store source texts and their translation. Texts are broken into short TRANSLATION SEGMENTS which are then translated. A TM is sometimes referred to as a PARALLEL CORPUS or a BITEXT.
Reusing a previous translation in a new text is very useful as it lets translators take advantage of their previous work. Although language is dynamic, it is quite repetitive. Therefore, people often use the same or similar expressions when communicating similar ideas. In the past, many people did not keep archives of previous translations. Or those who did, often collected them in an unsystematic way or in a form that could not be searched through easily (e.g. on paper printouts).
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Reflection #1: Have you ever had to look back to your previous translation to look for words/phrases you already translated? How did you do that; did you find what you needed?
a) locate the appropriate source-text file (not easy if too many files)
b) open the source-text file and use the word processor's SEARCH FEATURE to find the relevant word/phrase/sentence
c) open the target file (the translation)
d) scroll down through the target file to the approximate location of the target word/phrase/sentence
e) start reading to find the relevant piece of information
f) copy and paste the desired information into the new translation
g) edit the segment (formatting)
Even though the entire process does not take as long to perform as it does to read through this rather long description, it would possibly be faster to retranslate the sentences from the scratch. This argument practically shows the main benefits of using a TM system, i.e. savings in time and efforts made possible by effective use of previously translated documents.
TM Tools
The following links lead to official websites and tutorials showing current translation tools in action. Now, click on all the links, read/watch the tutorials to get an idea of how each TM tool works.
Available TM Tools:Commercial TM tools:
STAR Transit
SDL Trados
Swordfish
MemoQ
Freeware alternative:
OmegaT
OmegaT+
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Reflection #2: Which system did you like the most? Could you explain your reasons for feeling that way?
Reflection #3: What features/functions do all applications have in common?