PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATORS AND TRANSLATION TECHNOLOGY

Today, we are fully conscious of the significant role technology plays in both our personal and professional lives, as this has always been its primary purpose and continues to drive its evolution. This article opens with a brief examination of the relevance of translation technology across different domains of contemporary society, emphasizing the factors that contributed to its emergence and growth. It then provides a general overview of the tools made available by this technology, ranging from machine translation to computer-assisted translation, clarifying what is regarded as the core component of CAT, namely translation memory (TM). In the final section, the article analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of these technological tools from the perspective of professional translators. It concludes that, on the one hand, translators must increasingly adopt these tools to remain competitive in the translation process, while on the other hand, companies developing such technologies should place greater emphasis on translation quality and on the active participation of professional translators in tool development. Strengthening communication between these two parties should represent the next major challenge for technology providers.

时至今日，我们已然充分意识到技术在个人与职业生活中所发挥的关键作用——这始终是技术的核心宗旨，并持续推动其迭代演进。本文首先简要探析翻译技术在当代社会各领域的应用价值，并着重阐明推动其产生与发展的核心动因。随后，本文对该技术所涵盖的各类工具进行了系统概述，涵盖从机器翻译到计算机辅助翻译（Computer-Assisted Translation, CAT）的范畴，并明确了计算机辅助翻译的核心组成部分——翻译记忆（Translation Memory, TM）。在最后一部分，本文从专业译员的视角出发，分析了这类技术工具的优劣利弊。本文最终得出结论：一方面，译员若想在翻译工作中保持竞争力，需愈发广泛地应用这类工具；另一方面，开发此类技术的企业应更加注重翻译质量，并推动专业译员积极参与工具研发。加强双方之间的沟通协作，应成为技术供应商接下来需攻克的核心课题。