Lakhasly

The process of documentation Documentation is a necessary process in translation, and it involves the search for parallel texts, as well as the advice of natives and/or professionals, and the use, if possible, of translation memories.When we talk about documentation, we can distinguish between textual and the lexical levels: -- The TEXTUAL level includes multilingual texts (including texts in the SL) and parallel texts in the TL (both authentic and translated ones).A UNIVERSITY HANDBOOK ON TERMINOLOGY AND SPECIALIZED TRANSLATION -- The LEXICAL level includes multilingual, bilingual or monolingual (with or without definitions) dictionaries, glossaries, specialized terminological databases, etc.Nevertheless, a great amount of the information that translators need cannot be found in books or other edited works but in other types of documents, and when we deal with specialized languages, sometimes, translators may even need the advice of oral informants (native speakers, specialists in the field or other translators).-- Corpus: reference works (lexicographic, terminographic, etc.) are more reliable, useful, and trustworthy if they come from real and authentic corpora.-- Specificity: dealing with specialized languages, this criterion is of utmost importance.This level also includes legislation, leaflets, manuals, and human informants.

The process of documentation
Documentation is a necessary process in translation, and it involves the
search for parallel texts, as well as the advice of natives and/or professionals,
and the use, if possible, of translation memories. When we talk about
documentation, we can distinguish between textual and the lexical levels:
— The TEXTUAL level includes multilingual texts (including texts in the
SL) and parallel texts in the TL (both authentic and translated ones).A UNIVERSITY HANDBOOK ON TERMINOLOGY AND SPECIALIZED TRANSLATION
— The LEXICAL level includes multilingual, bilingual or monolingual
(with or without definitions) dictionaries, glossaries, specialized
terminological databases, etc. This level also includes legislation,
leaflets, manuals, and human informants.
It is important to note a series of criteria that must be borne in mind to
assess the quality of the sources of information (documentation) used when
translating:
— Reliability: not all sources are equally reliable; one should always use
reliable ones as the first wellsprings of information.
— Accessibility: the translator is responsible for having the main
sources of information at hand. When information is reliable but not
accessible, it is no longer suitable.
— Specificity: dealing with specialized languages, this criterion is of
utmost importance. We need specialized resources if we want to
translate a specialized text properly.
— Thoroughness: this criterion is linked to the previous one. If a
translator consults a specialized work which is not thorough enough,
this may result in a waste of time (and money).
— Originality: when texts are written in the original language, they are
much more reliable than translated texts.
— Corpus: reference works (lexicographic, terminographic, etc.) are
more reliable, useful, and trustworthy if they come from real and
authentic corpora.
Nevertheless, a great amount of the information that translators need
cannot be found in books or other edited works but in other types of
documents, and when we deal with specialized languages, sometimes,
translators may even need the advice of oral informants (native speakers,
specialists in the field or other translators). In fact, the element of the “oral
human informant” is one of the most relevant features of professional
translation: they are accessible, trustful, efficient and economical sources
of information.
Another tool of documentation is a translation memory: a database
that stores segments of texts which can be sentences or sentence-like units
TRANSLATION PRACTICE
that have been previously translated. A translation-memory system stores
the words, phrases and paragraphs that have already been translated so
as to aid human translators to deal with similar textual segments. The
translation memory stores the ST and its corresponding translation in
language pairs called translation units.
Translation memories are typically associated to Terminology
management applications as well as to applications of machine translation.
A translation memory used for human translation (no help from machines)
contains several kinds of lexical resources in both languages as well as a
great amount of authentic texts (parallel texts), mainly in the TL.