Machine and human translators in collaborative contexts

Abstract

As explained in Alonso and Calvo (2015: 137), throughout the second half of the 20th century until today, a number of voices have claimed that we are heading to a new phase in the history of humanity that implies changes as profound as those brought by the Neolithic or the Industrial Revolution, and that translation, like many other human activities, is experiencing paramount changes. This work seeks to contribute to the current debate about the place that human and machine translators occupy (or should occupy) in the field of Translation Studies, as well as in the translation industry. For this purpose, we will carry out a comprehensive review of existing literature from diverse sources (academic and professional) that will help us outline the development of the dichotomy of machine translation vs. human translation over the last decades, the current landscape, as well as the forthcoming scenario that translation scholars and translators face. As we will try to reveal, emerging phenomena such collaborative translation, cloud-translation and crowdsourcing are challenging the already disputed limits between human and machine translation. Together with technical and labour considerations, this analysis relies on valuable sociological and historical reflections, and signals the importance of incorporating ethics into this issue.