Is Translation an Art or a Math Problem?

The following activities are built around an article from the New York Times:

Gideon Lewis- Krausjune (2015). Is Translation an Art or a Math Problem? In New York Times. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/is-translation-an-art-or-a-math-problem.html on 07/04/2016.

Begin by reading the article, either by following the link above or by clicking here.

1.       Below is a summary of the first 5 paragraphs. Complete the sentences by selecting the correct word from the text

In an attempt to solve a problem going back as far as ________________ and Babel, science-fiction has used the ______________ _______________ as a commonplace tool since the ‘60s, when in an episode of ‘Star Trek’, Captain Kirk used one to communicate with ___________ ______________ and to teach it about _______________.  The attitude towards human translators outside the realm of imagination, has sometime been negative, to say the least, with numerous historic instances where the translator was seen as a _________________. The Ottomans refused to learn the languages of the other nations, and employed ______________ ________________ to convey their messages to speakers of other languages. These Greek- Venetian messengers were regarded as cynical and of questionable loyalty, just as computer scientists and engineers working on translation ________________, are seen nowadays by some.

2.       Match the views with the people listed here: David Bellos, Warren Weaver, Lane Schwartz, Yeshoshua Bar-Hillel, Susan Bernofsky, a participant at the Machine Translation Marathon.

NB You may have to use some names more than once

a.       Computational linguists create the impression that translation has nothing to do with art.

b.      World War II generated the possibility of machine translation.

c.       Any text in what is seen as a foreign language, is actually based on a set of coded symbols and algorithms that can be deciphered by a computer.

d.      Machine translation can save lives and money.

e.      Translation has long been associated with betrayal and dishonesty.

f.        Machine translation can only be successful if there is cooperation between advanced automata and knowledgeable linguists.

g.       A translation produced by an automaton or software will never be as elegant and as true to the original artistry, as a translation made by a human being.

3.       Are the following statements True, False or Not Given?

a.       Google Translate and Skype have become very widely used in the fields of meteorology and instruction manual translation.

b.      Most of the researchers and lecturers working in the field of machine translation, are experts in Linguistics and Letters.

c.       The participants at the first Machine Translation Marathon each spoke several foreign languages.

d.      Schwartz believed that machine translation could help American scientists and government officials keep up-to-date with Russian scientific innovations.

e.      IBM specialists put a lot of translation material into a computer and used statistical probability to create a translation system.

f.        Human translators do not care if a person is in danger.

g.       Machine translation would have developed even without the original work of human translators.

Answers

1.       Genesis, universal translator, an alien, love, traitor, the Phanariots, apps

2.       Bernofsky, Schwartz, Weaver, a participant, Bellos, Bar-Hillel, Weaver.

3.       a True, b False, c not given, d true, e true, f not given, g false