Glossary

BLEU: Bilingual Evaluation Understudy; algorithm for the evaluation of a machine-translated text calculated by the correspondence of a machine translation to a human translation.

CAT:  Computer-Aided Translation; the utilization of software tools meant to facilitate the translation process.

 

CMS: Content Management System; system used to store, locate and retrieve large amounts of data – generally partnered with a global management system.

 

controlled authoring: writing for reuse and translation.

 

copywriting:  the act of writing to promote a product, business or idea, regardless of media; in localization, it often entails the creation of content from scratch based upon but not directly translated from original language.

 

crowdsourcing: the outsourcing of a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor to an undefined, large group of people through open call.

 

DTP:  Desktop Publishing; the accommodation of translated content onto global templates; requires post-editing to ensure translation and positioning of all content and is a key part of the localization process.

 

globalization:  an ongoing process of integration of different regions, societies, economies and cultures due to increased worldwide communication and commerce; the globalization of a product refers to the development, manufacture and marketing of material intended for global distribution. 

 

GMS: Global Management System; system that focuses on managing cycles of translation and localization; allows for centralization of linguistic assets in translation databases, leveraging glossaries and branding standards across global content.

 

internationalization: used especially in IT; process of generalizing a product to handle multiple languages and cultural conventions without redesign.

 

interpreting:  the practice of facilitating oral and sign-language communication between speakers of different languages; the conversion of thoughts and expressions from one language to another in real time.

 

localization:  the translation of a product, packaging, publication, website, brochure or other document into a different language, ensuring that the translation is culturally-appropriate for the target audience and keeping in mind things such as symbols, colors, currency and time formats. 

 

MT:  Machine Translation; technology that investigates the use of computer software to translate text or speech from one language to another; can be either rule-based (using linguistic models of specific combinations) or statistical (utilizing pattern matching and learning automatically) and generally requires human post-editing to ensure quality. 

 

open-source software: computer software distributed under a license that allows for its free changing and/or sharing.

 

QA:  Quality Assurance; the meticulous monitoring and evaluation of a product, service or process to ensure the meeting of quality standards. 

 

RBMT: Rule-Based Machine Translation; application of sets of linguistic rules defined as correspondences between structure of source and target languages.

 

SEO: Search Engine Optimization; methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings.

 

SL: Source Language; language to be translated.

 

SMT: Statistical Machine Translation; translations generated on the basis of statistical models, the parameters of which are derived from the analysis of numerous translated texts.

 

translation:  the rendering of a text from one language to another; the comprehension of the meaning of a text and the production of an equivalent text that communicates the same message in another language.

 

TL: Target Language; language into which text will be translated.

 

TU: Translation Unit; text segment treated as a single cognitive unit in order to establish equivalence.