Human Issues in Translation Technology (The IATIS Yearbook)

Translation technologies are moulded by and impact upon humans in all sorts of ways. This state-of-the-art volume looks at translation technologies from the point of view of the human users – as trainee, professional or volunteer translators, or as end users of translations produced by machines.

Covering technologies from machine translation to online collaborative platforms, and practices from ‘traditional’ translation to crowdsourced translation and subtitling, this volume takes a critical stance, questioning both utopian and dystopian visions of translation technology. In eight chapters, the authors propose ideas on how technologies can better serve translators and end users of translations. The first four chapters explore how translators – in various contexts and with widely differing profiles – use and feel about translation technologies as they currently stand, while the second four chapters focus on the future: on anticipating needs, identifying emerging possibilities, and defining interventions that can help to shape translation practice and research.

Drawing on a range of theories from cognitive to social and psychological, and with empirical evidence of what the technologization of the workplace means to translators, Human Issues in Translation Technology is key reading for all those involved in translation and technology, translation theory and translation research methods.

Dorothy Kenny is Associate Professor in the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies at Dublin City University. She is the author of Lexis and Creativity in Translation (Routledge, 2001), and served on the Executive Council of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies from 2004 to 2016.