Bilingual E-Dictionaries and Machine Translators Efficiency Essay

Exclusively available on IvyPanda Available only on IvyPanda
Updated: Mar 6th, 2024

The translation is, as Gutknecht (2001: 693) describes, is a task “where elements of a text of one language (the source language, SL) are molded into a text of another language (the target language, TL).” It is a process that involves transferring an idea or a concept from one language into another. Translation needs a tool to perform this process in order to express the same idea and one of its tools is the dictionary. Translators use bilingual dictionaries because they “would help the actual practice of translation.” (Heliel, 2000b: 238). With the development of modern technologies a new addition to the set of tools used by translators is electronic dictionaries, and even electronic machine translators. Translators use bilingual dictionaries which include both the source and the target language. The machine translation helps to make the process more quick and efficient and has a variety of dictionaries at your fingertips, rather than flipping through the countless pages of books. However, bilingual dictionaries are often criticized by translation students for lacking some information, which might help the translator understand certain lexical and semantic elements of the target language. Although electronic dictionaries and machine translators partially solve this program through a variety of elements included in the interface of the software, they are too widely criticized for their inability to employ human logical reasoning when choosing certain variants of translation.

We will write a custom essay on your topic a custom Essay on Bilingual E-Dictionaries and Machine Translators Efficiency
808 writers online

This research covers the actual practice of translation in relation to the field of lexicology which is “the study of words and their meanings in one language or a group of languages.” (Al-Kasimi, 1983: 1). The related branches of lexicology covered in this research are lexicography and phraseology. The former deals with dictionary-making, while he later refers to the study of word combination and its idiomatic meaning. These word combinations are called fixed phrases or phraseological units and maybe “idiomatic” (Glaeser, 1998: 125). This point is stressed by Burkhanov (1997: 446) that “multiple-word lexical items form a language-specific way of designating extra-linguistic reality which is usually based on metaphoric or/and metonymic extension of lexical meanings of their constituents elements.” These are the elements that translators often encounter difficulties with as rendering notions from one language to another involves a variety of aspects other than the language itself: a comprehensive translation should be based on a variety of cultural, political, national, international background knowledge in both SL and TL.

In the perfect variant, the translator uses one of the direct translations given in the bilingual electronic dictionary and applies it for the translation of the needed language unit. More often, however, the translator after consulting with the dictionary realizes that none of the mentioned translations suit the context and general meaning of the language unit in the SL. In this case, the translator has to derive a generalized meaning of the language unit and then on its basis define the further implications of the language unit in that particular context. Special care should be taken when the dictionary only provides one possible translation for the word, as it obviously would not fit every possible context. In this case, too the dictionary only serves as a starting point for further logical derivations and search for the adequate equivalent.

The research has the aim to test the efficiency of the electronic bilingual English-Arabic dictionaries and machine translators. The purpose is to increase translation students’ awareness of the defects of the dictionaries they use, as well as to educate and inform about the possibilities and challenges that these new technological achievements pose before the translator in the context of contemporary environment of increased people and services mobility and growing border transparency.

Research aims and objectives

The aim of this research is to test the usefulness of English-Arabic electronic dictionaries used by translators on the daily basis to clarify the reasons why many translations lack integrity or completely inaccurate. The research will be based on the student experience at Kuwait University. The research will in more detail focus on phraseology aspects in the English-Arabic electronic dictionaries and machine translators as this language phenomenon are abundant in the texts given for translation in Kuwait University.

In order to test the efficiency and usefulness of the bilingual electronic dictionaries and machine translators, three main objectives have been identified:

The bilingual electronic dictionaries and machine translators used

In order to test the usefulness and efficiency of bilingual electronic dictionaries and machine translators, it is important to identify the dictionaries and translators that are widely used. There are various electronic dictionaries that provide translation from English into Arabic and vice versa that are used by translators and translation students, each of them deserving separate consideration; however, the research will not focus on all of them but will narrow it down to the most used electronic dictionaries and machine translators by the Kuwaiti translation students.

1 hour!
The minimum time our certified writers need to deliver a 100% original paper

Looking up of multi-word units in the chosen dictionaries

The second objective will emphasize the documentation and lexicographical treatment of the multi-word units and fixed phrases in the chosen electronic dictionaries and machine translators. This is essential information to obtain in order to identify the degree of coverage of phraseology in these dictionaries.

Comparison of the bilingual and monolingual dictionaries

The third objective emphasizes the degree of usefulness of the monolingual electronic dictionaries through identifying defects, drawbacks, and challenges in the bilingual electronic dictionaries. Also, solutions to the effective use and making the most of the available dictionaries will be drawn throughout the research.

Translation, as Hartmann (1989: 9) notes, is ‘a complex operation which involves both paraphrase and metaphrase, or the skill to express the same thing in many different ways’. Indeed, the translator needs his/ her tools which are the dictionaries (paper dictionaries, electronic dictionaries, and machine translators) whenever s/he encounters an unknown word or a combination of words. However, consulting a dictionary to find out an appropriate word can present certain challenges and difficulties as dictionaries (even electronic) still have limited capabilities.

The dictionary can be defined as ‘a reference book about words. It is a book about language.’ (Jackson, 2002b: 21). Translators and translation students use dictionaries because they ‘deal with translation equivalents’ (AL-Kasimi, 1983: 59). Translators and translation students use dictionaries when encountering unfamiliar words or combinations of words such as collocations, phrasal verbs, compounds or idioms. It also assists a translator with providing a variety of choices for the words and phrases that are polysemantic (have more than one meaning depending on the context), and here a wide variety is especially important as depending on the general topic, and ideas of the author, the word or phrase can completely change their meaning.

Phraseological units

Collocations

There are several definitions that can be found for collocations as interpreted by different scholars. Teubert (2004: 187) indicates that collocations act as a combination of words, which are “ready-made chunks of language” and are considered different from a single word through its flexibility, meaning, and roles in the sentence. Moreover, Jackson (1988a: 96) points out that such a combination of words “have a certain mutual expectancy” and are expected to co-occur and frequent with certain words. Pederson (1988: 132) states that “such combinations of words as to make up the kind of units traditionally and vaguely are referred to as collocations”. For further convenience of research and discussion, the collocations are classified into several types: Carter (1998: 60) breaks down collocation into two main types: grammatical and lexical. The former is a combination of a noun, verb, or adjective with a preposition such as far from, while the latter combines nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs such as moral values. It is important to differentiate between the two types as they will possess different characteristics and act differently in sentences.

In addition, the research will consider another property of collocations for more detailed results: collocational range or restrictions. Larson (1984: 159) points out that “a list of the other words with which a word may occur is called its collocational range” for example; the adjective nice has a long list of words that co-occurs with words like body, car, or smell. On the other hand, Singleton (2000: 48) states that certain words in English expect a limited list of words to collocate with, for example, rancid strongly expects the co-occurrence of butter or bacon. The collocational range and restriction are considered to be one of the most important issues in translation as the collocational range will differ drastically depending on the language. This point is raised by Newmark (1988: 213) that recognizing the naturalness of the collocation can be a difficult element when translating collocations.

Phrasal verbs

Another type of phraseological unit or fixed phrases that the research will focus on is phrasal verbs. Moon (1997: 45) defines phrasal verbs as “combinations of verbs and adverbial or prepositional particles.” For instance, chip in or rely on. The significance and importance of phrasal verbs are mainly because of their frequent usage in English which poses a serious problem to Arab translators. The difficulty manifested by phrasal verbs lie primarily within the work of identifying its exact meaning, as with phrasal verbs, each part of the unit bears a separate meaning, and yet the phrase as a whole can have a meaning that will be drastically different and can change the meaning of the entire sentence to completely opposite. These units have to be considered as single unattached entities for the purpose of achieving accurate translation. Heliel (1998a: 39) stresses this fact that by pointing out that “most of the phrasal verbs are idiomatic, which means that the meaning of these phrasal verbs cannot be understood by understanding the individual parts.” The native speakers of English will find the idiomatic usage of these phrasal verbs quite natural; on the other hand, the idiomatic meaning will sound unnatural to the Arab translators. For instance, the phrasal verb hangs out has a literal as well as a figurative meaning. The literal meaning describes that something is ‘being out’ like in a phrase like my bulldog’s tongue was hanging out, whereas the idiomatic meaning in the example of my tongue is hanging out to visit Europe means that the speaker of this sentence means s/he wants to visit Europe. Thus, here it is vitally important to rely on a dictionary that includes the widest possible variety of choices in order to decide on one that is most suitable for a particular context. Although many dictionaries do provide a large number of various meanings, some of them are provided without context which makes it difficult to decide on the right choice.

Remember! This is just a sample
You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers

Compounds

Compounds are, as Jackson (1988a: 3) defines them, are “words that form a unit made up of two or more single words”. A fine example of a compound is a fingerprint. This compound consists of two items united to form “a third, new, word” (Ibid: 30). This point is echoed by Bartholomew and Schoenhals (1983: 39) who stress that “the addition of a specific morpheme to the word correlates with a difference in lexical meaning, and the combination constitutes a distinct lexical item.” Indeed, the significant nature of this multi-word item is that two words combined to generate a new lexical meaning that is not exactly the meaning generated when the two components of the compound are separate. For example, the meaning of the compound bootleg is different from the meaning of boot or leg when separated.

Compounds can consist of nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs, however, the noun-noun compounds are, as Ryder (1994: 5) points out, are “the most extreme class in terms of unpredictable output.” When encountering this type of compound, the translator may grasp a meaning that may or may not be the one intended in a text. Ryder (Ibid: 5) elaborates that a compound could generate an “unlimited range of semantic interpretation.”. For instance, a silverfish could either be a fish with a silver color or an insect. A translator may not be aware of the ambiguous meaning of the compound, which could result in an awkward translation. This underlines again the importance of cultural reference present in a dictionary as well as points out that to succeed as a translator, one should possess large baggage of background knowledge in various areas of life.

Idioms

The last phraseological unit covered in this research is the idiom. Due to their size and form, idioms may be the most complicated aspect of all phraseological units. An idiom, as Cacciari and Tabossi (1988: 668) describe it, is “characterized as a string of words whose semantic interpretation cannot be derived compositionally from the interpretation of its parts.” This feature is shared with the other phraseological units or fixed phrases in terms of its non-literal meaning, hence the idiomatic meaning. The idiom, however, is also often larger in size than any other previously described phraseological unit. When the component words are taken separately, then this idiomatic meaning gets lost. For example, spill the beans is an idiom that means to tell a secret. When separating the words, then we get three words that have no relation to the meaning of the idiom when they are together. Cacciari and Tabossi (Ibid: 668) stress that idioms are problematic because of their frequent appearance in the language. The difficulty posed before the translator in the case with idioms is dubious. It is necessary for the translator to not only know the meaning of an idiom in the SL, but also its corresponding idiom in the TL. In the latest versions of electronic dictionaries, idiom dictionaries are often incorporated into the program. Their efficiency, however, is to be researched.

Based on the above, a translator who treats the language as a unity of separate words will always encounter numerous problems and generate inadequate translations. It takes knowledge and skill to be able to differentiate among various language units among other aspects in order to provide the effective translation. The greater the knowledge of the translator is, the higher the efficiency with which she will make use of supplementary tools, such as electronic dictionaries or machine translators.

Methodology

The primary data will be the type of data used in the research. This type of data will be collected by the use of quantitative and qualitative methods in this research.

Quantitative method

The quantitative method seeks to quantify the data and generalize the results from the sample chosen. This method helps define a research problem and the results given by the use of this method are to draw conclusions. It is useful for uncovering facts and opinions about a certain area or topic among those who are directly involved in the process. The quantitative method that will be used in this research is the questionnaire. The questionnaire used in this research is a structured data collection technique and it involves statistical analysis. As mentioned above, the study of the research is an attempt to find out whether bilingual electronic dictionaries are effective in translating phraseological units mentioned above. The questionnaire will also inquire about the students’ experience in using machine-based translation and the level of satisfaction achieved when using this type of translation tool. The subject of this study will be linguistics students attending translation courses at the undergraduate level and translation students at the postgraduate level in the department of the English Language and Literature at Kuwait University, and a sample of 150 to 200 students will be taken for the questionnaire. All of these students will receive a copy of the questionnaire. Most of the questions will be used to investigate the objectives of the research mentioned at the beginning; others will be general to gain a broader view of the students’ usage of these dictionaries, the techniques they use for effective search of translation, and the level of satisfaction with the electronic dictionaries observed among the students. The questionnaire will mostly be based on the fixed response questions that require respondents to select from a predetermined set of answers. Agreement scale questions will be included to measure attitudes ranging from very positive to very negative. The inclusion of these questions is to allow the respondents to indicate how strongly they agree or disagree with the statements provided in these questions. In addition, a pilot test will be conducted among members of a different group before visiting Kuwait University. Pilot tests are necessary to find out whether the questionnaire is clear or not. Finally, the Microsoft Excell program will be used to analyze the results of the questionnaire by sections and the data will be tabulated for further convenience of the research and data acquisition.

Qualitative method

The qualitative method is the second method that will be used in order to collect data in this research. There will be a necessity of gathering qualitative data in addition to the quantitative data to obtain a better understanding of the results of the questionnaire. The qualitative method will be the translation and further analysis of a number of texts using the dictionaries used by the translation students. In this method, which tries to answer the questions arising from the aim of this research, the researcher will translate several texts to be taken from original English magazines, books, and newspapers that focus on different topics in order to gain a wider perspective of the problem. It is expected that the texts will pose certain challenges when translating phraseological units described above, and so the effectiveness of electronic dictionaries will be observed when trying to overcome these challenges and receive the adequate translation.

Finally, the rationale for choosing this method is that the data of this method will support the questionnaire’s data. Both practical translations and the questionnaire will help to identify the main challenges that translators encounter using electronic dictionaries. Through analysis of the translation of various texts, it will also be possible to draw conclusions as to recommendations that can be given in order to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of the electronic dictionary use.

We will write
a custom essay
specifically for you
Get your first paper with
15% OFF

Additionally, a number of texts will be used to explore the machine-based translation from English into Arabic and back. Further analysis of the generated translation will be conducted in order to single out challenges, advantages, and disadvantages of the translation performed with the help of a machine so that further recommendations and suggestions as to the increase in the effectiveness of the machine-based translation could be given.

In conclusion, translation is an activity that involves transferring the concept of the source language to the target language by “way of semantic structure” as Larson (1998: 3) indicates. In order to do so, translators and translation students consult bilingual dictionaries, and in the context of the achievements of technological progress, these dictionaries increasingly become electronic. During the consultancy, they encounter elements from other fields of linguistics, which is pointed out by Riccardi (2002: 2) that translation “has shaped its specificity and built up its own scientific domain to become as an autonomous discipline by drawing on elements from neighboring disciplines.” Indeed, there is the relationship between translation and other fields of linguistics; this point is echoed by Schogt (1992: 193) who points out that “there is an undeniable and very important link between semantics and translation.” The aim of the research, which links translation with the fields of lexicology, lexicography, and semantics, is to investigate the usefulness and efficiency of the English-Arabic electronic dictionaries used in translation courses at Kuwait University. Another purpose is to increase the awareness of translation students as to the defects of the dictionaries they use and suggest remedies for the defects. Furthermore, the objectives of the research are identifying the aforementioned electronic dictionaries, looking up for the fixed phrases in the dictionary, and compare it to other dictionaries in order to suggest solutions using qualitative and quantitative methods.

References

AL-Kasimi, A. (1983) Linguistics and Bilingual Dictionaries. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

Bartholomew, A. and Schoenhals, L. (1983) Bilingual Dictionaries for Indigenous Languages. Hidalgo: Instituto Linguistico de Verano.

Burkhanov, I. (1997) “Bilingual Dictionaries in Pedagogical Lexicography” in Translation and meaning. Part 4. Maastricht: School of Translation and Interpretation.

Cacciari, C. and Tabossi, P. (1988) “The Comprehension of Idioms”, Journal of Memory and Language, 27, 668-683.

Carter, R. (1998) Vocabulary: Applied Linguistics Perspectives. London: Routledge.

Glaeser, R. (1998) “The Stylistic Potential of Phraseological Units in the Light of Genre Analysis”. In A.P. Cowie. (eds) Phraseology. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 125

Gutknecht, C. (2001) ‘Translation’ in M Aronoff and J Rees-Miller. (eds) The Handbook of Linguistics. Blackwell Publishing. 692-703.

Hartmann, R. (1989) ‘Lexicography, Translation and the So-Called Language Barrier’ in M Snell-Hornby and E Pohl. (eds) Translation and Lexicography. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 9-20.

Heliel, M.H. (1998) “Toward a Bilingual English-Arabic Translation Dictionary” Turjuman 7: 31-42 (in Arabic).

Heliel, M.H. (2000) “Arabic-English Translation and its Dictionary” in L Al-Harbi and H Azer (eds) Arabic Language and Culture in a Borderless World. Kuwait: Kuwait University. 238-248.

Jackson, H. (1988) Words and Their Meaning. London: Longman.

Jackson, H. (2002) Lexicography: An Introduction. London: Longman.

Larson, M. (1998) Meaning-Based Translation: A Guide to Cross-Language Equivalence. Lanham: University Press of America.

Moon, R. (1997) “Vocabulary Connections: Multi-Word Items in English” in N Schmitt and M McCarthy (eds) Vocabulary: Describtion, Acquisition and Pedagogy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 40-63.

Newmark, P. (1988) A Textbook of Translation. Hemel Hempstead: Prentice-Hall International.

Pederson, V.H. (1988) Essays on Translation. Kobenhavn: Nyt Nordisk Farlag Arnold Busck:.

Riccardi, A. (2002) Translation Studies: Perspectives on an emerging Discipline. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ryder, M.E. (1994) Ordered Chaos: The Interpretation of English Noun-Noun Compounds. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Schogt, H. (1992) ‘Semantic Theory and Translation Theory’ in R Schulte and J Biguenet. (eds) Theories of Translation: An Anthology of Essays from Dryden to Derrida. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 193-203.

Singleton, D. (2000) Language and the Lexicon: An Introduction. London: Arnold.

Teubert, W. (2004) “Units of Meaning, Parallel Corpora and Their Implications for Language Teaching” in U Conner and T Upton (eds) Applied Corpus Linguistics: A Multi-Dimensional Perspective. Amsterdam: Rodopi 171-189.

Print
Need an custom research paper on Bilingual E-Dictionaries and Machine Translators Efficiency written from scratch by a professional specifically for you?
808 writers online
Cite This paper
Select a referencing style:

Reference

IvyPanda. (2024, March 6). Bilingual E-Dictionaries and Machine Translators Efficiency. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-efficiency-of-the-electronic-bilingual-english-arabic-dictionaries-and-machine-translators/

Work Cited

"Bilingual E-Dictionaries and Machine Translators Efficiency." IvyPanda, 6 Mar. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/the-efficiency-of-the-electronic-bilingual-english-arabic-dictionaries-and-machine-translators/.

References

IvyPanda. (2024) 'Bilingual E-Dictionaries and Machine Translators Efficiency'. 6 March.

References

IvyPanda. 2024. "Bilingual E-Dictionaries and Machine Translators Efficiency." March 6, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-efficiency-of-the-electronic-bilingual-english-arabic-dictionaries-and-machine-translators/.

1. IvyPanda. "Bilingual E-Dictionaries and Machine Translators Efficiency." March 6, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-efficiency-of-the-electronic-bilingual-english-arabic-dictionaries-and-machine-translators/.


Bibliography


IvyPanda. "Bilingual E-Dictionaries and Machine Translators Efficiency." March 6, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-efficiency-of-the-electronic-bilingual-english-arabic-dictionaries-and-machine-translators/.

Powered by CiteTotal, cite machine
If you are the copyright owner of this paper and no longer wish to have your work published on IvyPanda. Request the removal
More related papers
Cite
Print
1 / 1