The impact and challenges of using machine translation post-editing in sworn translation of Brazilian personal documents

Abstract

Machine Translation Post-Editing (MTPE) and Sworn Translation are both well-known areas in the translation field. However, there is a lack of study regarding the use of MTPE for the translation of personal documents. More precisely, the translation of ID cards and birth certificates from Brazilian Portuguese to American English. In this sense, the objectives of this article were to investigate the productivity of MTPE in Sworn Translation, as well as to describe the overall activity and report on the description of visual elements that appear on documents. The methodology consisted of a timed translation with commentary with MTPE and Human Translation (HT), as well as the description of elements and final formatting that is characteristic of Sworn Translation and the use of an OCR recognition software to convert the PDF files to Word. The results showed that depending on circumstances such as the resolution of the source file, the number of elements to describe, and the lack of use of a Translation Memory (TM), MTPE may be less productive than HT in Sworn Translation. However, this does not mean that this type of technology is not important to translators in this particular field. The results also showed that if the document is in high resolution, and the time for formatting is not taken into consideration, MTPE saves time compared to HT. In this sense, it is a matter of knowing when it is appropriate to apply these tools. And, to do so, the community of translators ought to be knowledgeable and open-minded about using this technology.