Introduction: Help from the computer

Abstract

‘There you have it: the difference between the human translator and the machine’, said Barbara Snell, chairman of ‘Machine Aids for Translators’, when she saw the cover for these proceedings. Fully automatic translation was no longer ‘pie in the sky’, she had said when introducing the conference: ‘machine translation may not be pie on the table, but it is perhaps pie in the oven.’ If intelligent youngsters were not to be put off translating as a career, therefore, translators must equip themselves with machine aids in order to fulfil their potential and make the most of one attribute which the machine would never acquire: the ability to think. The translations of the conference title, so non‐literal and thoughtful, typify the human translator's approach. We render not words, but ideas.

Citation

Lawson, V. (1981), "Introduction: Help from the computer", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 33 No. 7, pp. 265-267. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb050800