New Trends in
Translation and Technology
Workshop on Translation Technology for Creative Domains
3 July 2022
The Programme
Workshop on Translation Technology for Creative Domains
Download the Workshop’s Programme
In many areas of translation today, particularly technical ones, computer-aided translation (CAT) tools, often supported by some machine translation (MT) functionality, have become so commonplace that a translator working without them can struggle to remain competitive. These tools work best in repetitive, formulaic contexts, where sentences are direct and uncomplicated. As a result, in the context of literary texts and other forms of creative writing, where style can be more flexible, where sentences can be more complex on many levels, and where inter-sentence referentiality can be a bigger factor, a perception developed that such tools are fundamentally unsuitable. This perception hampered the development of tools that might enhance or support the work of translators active in creative domains. However, there are currently signs of change.
The creative domain in this context refers to texts that pivot broadly on the human creativity employed in their production. They exist primarily for aesthetic reasons, rather than as a means for achieving some practical outcome, as in the case of technical texts. Such creative texts include, but are not limited to fictional texts (novels, short stories, poems, plays, comics), non-fictional texts (philosophical works, didactic books, self-help), songs, speeches, films, TV shows, and computer games, as well as advertisements.
This workshop is organised as an accompanying event of NeTTT 2022 (New Trends in Translation and Technology, 4-6 July 2022). The primary aim of the workshop is to ascertain the current state of the art of research on translation technologies in the creative domain. As part of this aim, the workshop will ask about recent developments in the technology itself, as well as in the attitudes of translators working in the creative domain towards translation technology and their experience with it. Thus, it welcomes papers addressing research questions including but not limited to:
- To what extent are translators of creative texts already making use of technology in their work? What are their experiences?
- What challenges do translators face when using technology for translating texts in the creative domain?
- What are the attitudes of creative-text translators to the use of technology in their work?
- What are the fears and expectations of creative-text translators in embracing technology?
- How do readers respond to literary and creative works translated using machines?
- Apart from MT and CAT, what other kinds of computer-based tools could be used by translators in the creative domain?
- What are the latest advances in the use of translation technology in creative texts?
- What are the ecological and ethical implications of increasing creative-text translators’ reliance on technology in their work?
- What are the specific issues pertaining to creative texts that prove difficult for MT systems today?
Kristiina Taivalkoski-Shilov
Full Professor of Multilingual Translation Studies and Vice Head of the School of Languages and Translation Studies at the University of Turku, Finland
Taivalkoski-Shilov was a member of the Nordic research group “Voices of Translation: Rewriting Literary Texts in a Scandinavian Context” (2013-2016) and she has published articles on translation history and on the concept of “voice” in translation. Her publications include Traduire les voix de la nature/ Translating the Voices of Nature co-edited with Bruno Poncharal (2020, Vita Traductiva, vol. 11), Textual and Contextual Voices of Translation, co-edited with Cecilia Alvstad, Annjo K. Greenall and Hanne Jansen (2017, John Benjamins, BTL 137), Communities in Translation and Interpreting, co-edited with Liisa Tiittula and Maarit Koponen (2017, Vita Traductiva, vol. 9), La Traduction des voix intra-textuelles/ Intratextual Voices in Translation, co-edited with Myriam Suchet (2013, Vita Traductiva, vol. 1), and the monograph La tierce main: Le discours rapporté dans les traductions françaises de Fielding au XVIIIe siècle (Arras: Artois Presses Université, 2006).
Antonio Toral
Senior Lecturer in Language Technology at the University of Groningen.
Antonio Toral is assistant professor in Language Technology at the University of Groningen. He holds a PhD in Computational Linguistics from the University of Alicante and has been researching in the field of Machine Translation (MT) since 2010. His research interests include the application of MT to literary texts, MT for under-resourced languages and the analysis of translations produced by machines and humans.
James Hadley
Trinity College Dublin’s Ussher Assistant Professor in Literary Translation, Director of the College’s MPhil in Literary Translation
Dr James Hadley is Trinity College Dublin’s Ussher Assistant Professor in Literary Translation, Director of the College’s MPhil in Literary Translation, and PI of the Irish Research Council-funded QuantiQual Project. His research is representative of his wide-ranging interests, many of which centre on translation in under-researched cultural contexts, particularly in East Asia. James is one of the most active researchers in the world in developing a theoretical mechanism for the analysis of indirect translations. He is also active in Machine Translation and Computer Assisted Translation research, and in integrating Digital Humanities methodologies and empirical research into Translation Studies.
Carlos Teixeira
Localisation Engineer, IOTA Localisation Services Adjunct Professor, Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Carlos Teixeira’s research has revolved around translation technologies in general and translator-computer interaction in particular. Resorting to eye tracking and other real-time data collection methods, his studies have focussed on how translators process different kinds of information available in translation tools while translating, especially in professional workplaces. Carlos currently works as a localisation engineer for IOTA Localisation Services, Dublin, and contributes to the Masters in Professional Translation as an Adjunct Professor for Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain). He has a PhD in Translation and Intercultural Studies from Universitat Rovira i Virgili and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2014). He also worked as a post-doctoral researcher at Dublin City University and the ADAPT research centre (2015-2018) and as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, Trinity College Dublin (2018-2020). Carlos had previously been active for 10+ years in the language industry as a specialised translator from English, French and Spanish into Brazilian Portuguese.