The Evolution of Machine Translation: A Review Study

Year 2024, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 104 - 116, 27.06.2024

Hanımnur Mercan , Yaşar Akgün , Mehmet Cem Odacıoğlu

Abstract

In the era of globalization, where an increased need for communication emerges day by day, translation is of vital importance to establish communication among various cultures. Accordingly, there is an increasing demand for translation which also means a burden on translators. With a skyrocketing amount of business and commercial-related translation tasks, the volumes of translation projects have increased to the same extent. Situated in a position where the translators are obliged to terminate the designated project in much more time-restricted schedules, new alternatives brought about by the improvement of technology have happened to be implemented into the translation field. Within this scope, machine translation (MT) and computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools, regarded as the current issues in translation studies, cushion this burden of translation on translators by making the translation process automated and easier, which reveals their significant role in shaping the future of this field. It is also worth mentioning that MT has obtained this prevalence only after many challenges. This situation has created a massive shift in translation studies. However much it affects the field of translation, machine translation still has unexplained ethical issues due to its shared data policy. Each interaction with the system is stored in its database and can be reused by any other users. Considering those, this paper scrutinizes the historical evolution of machine translation as well as its discussion from the ethical aspect.

Keywords

Translation Studies, Machine Translation (MT), History of MT, Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools, Ethics of MT

Makine Çevirisinin Tarihsel Süreci

Abstract

İletişim ihtiyacının her geçen gün arttığı küreselleşme çağında, farklı kültürler arasında iletişim kurmak için çeviri hayati önem taşımaktadır. Buna bağlı olarak çeviriye olan talep artmakta, bu da çevirmenler üzerinde bir yük anlamına gelmektedir. Ticari metinlerdeki artan talepler, çeviri projelerindeki hacmi de aynı oranda artırmıştır. Bu kapsamda kendilerini çok daha zaman kısıtlı bir ortamda mesleklerini ifa ederken bulan tercümanlar, teknolojinin mümkün kıldığı yeni alternatifleri de alana entegre etmek durumunda kalmışlardır. Bu noktada çeviribilimin güncel konularından sayılan makine çevirisi (MT; Machine Translation) ve bilgisayar destekli çeviri araçları (BDÇ), çeviri sürecini otomatikleştirerek ve kolaylaştırarak çevirmenlerin üzerindeki bu yükü hafifletmekte ve bu alanın geleceğini şekillendirmedeki önemli rolünü ortaya koymaktadır. MT'nin bu yaygınlığı, ancak birçok zorluğun ardından elde ettiğini de belirtmek gerekir. Bu durum çeviribilimde büyük bir değişim yaratmıştır. Çeviri alanını her ne kadar etkilese de makine çevirisi paylaşılan veri politikası nedeniyle hala açıklanamayan etik sorunlara sahiptir. Bu sistem ile her etkileşim depolanmakta ve başka kullanıcılar tarafından da kullanılabilmektedir. Bunları göz önünde bulundurarak bu makale makine çevirisinin tarihsel gelişimi ile birlikte etik açıdan tartışmasını ortaya koymaktadır.

Keywords

Çeviribilim, Makine Çevirisi (MT), MT Tarihi, Bilgisayar Destekli Çeviri (BDÇ) Araçları, MT Etiği

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