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@Linguist_CIOL JUNE/JULY The Linguist 29 OPINION & COMMENT effective, and less time-consuming, than attempting to remedy flaws in MT texts. If an MT suggestion is suitable, it can be retained. Where the style or content of sentences requires fine-tuning, it can be reworked individually before being incorporated back into the text. The final decision on which tool is appropriate must always be made by a knowledgeable expert. High-quality MTPE output will certainly cost more than half the price of a human translation, but in my experience, savings of 20% are still possible. We must make this clear to our direct clients. A new billing model So does this mark the end of pricing by the word – a billing model that has long been the gold standard in the English-speaking world? Not really. After all, it still offers an important calculation basis for segments or sentences that aren't changed by the translator. Crucial here is that the translator is also compensated for retaining suitable MT suggestions. You wouldn't expect a refund on your car's annual MOT just because it doesn't have any issues; it's the mechanic's expertise that you're paying for and it's no different with MTPE. Translators specialising in PR and marketing confirm a text's worthiness, giving the client peace of mind that the content will achieve the desired aims in the target market. How much does this linguistic seal of approval cost? In my experience the amount of time it takes to carefully assess MT output without making any changes is about 40% of the time required to make a new translation, so there would be a 40% reduction in cost for those parts of the text. This is a relatively modest investment when you consider the damage that poor-quality texts can cause. The need for human translation If marketing departments can save 20% by using MTPE, even with a fair billing model, why do they often choose to use professional translators instead? There is one very good reason: PR and marketing texts thrive on originality, stimulating content and the ability to trigger powerful emotions. A high-quality outcome with maximum impact will only be possible if the translator has a free hand in the text's design. What's more, companies need more than a 'good' solution to present themselves in the best light and maximise profits. They must portray themselves in the most original and creative manner possible. Only with high-quality content can they really stand out from the competition. While MT can be a useful tool when it comes to translating less business-critical marketing and PR documents, it should only be considered as one tool in the translator's toolkit. In future, MT is likely to become a more interesting tool, with each translator adding their translations to a personal MT engine that they maintain individually. Clients will benefit from this specialised, well-maintained MT system, and language service providers will be able to concentrate on essentials, such as adapting the higher quality MT output to their clients' corporate identity and tone of voice. Thorsten Distler is a translator, copywriter and personal trainer, specialising in sport and health. www.textandtranslationplus.com TL SDL Trados has already begun dabbling in iMT with its AdaptiveMT self-learning engine. A number of aspects still need to be addressed, including the approach to copyright, as the right to use a creative solution must remain with the translator. Ideally, the developers of iMT systems will secure this right for translators contractually. Otherwise, language mediators will never shed their scepticism and mistrust – and individual MT systems will remain a dream. Of course, clients (and especially agencies) must only be permitted to incorporate the creative solutions of individual translators into their translation memories, and not use them to fill their in-house MT systems. This must also be clearly regulated in a contract. Translators could provide clients and agencies with a privacy statement that adequately protects their intellectual property. This could help prompt a shift away from the mass of ready-made MT solutions towards individual systems that translators can offer to their clients. Services such as DeepL and Google Translate would then only run in the background as basic applications – like a kind of Wikipedia for MT – allowing specialised iMT systems, meeting the highest style and content standards, to become the norm.