Re: [tlug] Dictionary problem

[Christian Horn <chorn@example.com>]

On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 02:19:47PM +0000, Darren Cook wrote:
> >>> I fail to see the technical difference between feeding Google a string and feeding an online dictionary the same string.
> >>
> >> My concern as customer would be that the online translation
> >> site gets to read my content.
> > 
> > And ? Wouldn't an online dictionary like ALC read it too ?
> 
> We're talking the difference between typing "catheter" or "aluminium"
> into the dictionary search engine, and typing "Our [new and top-secret
> design] approach uses a 10mm aluminium ring in the catheter, rather than
> the currently used 9mm rubber rings." into a translation engine.

Exactly, that I had in mind.  IIRC it is established that google
gives agencies access to mail, so also giving them fulltext search
to the searchterms is not far away.


> But as another answer to your question: given a full sentence MT will
> try and guess the correct meaning for each word, and may guess wrong,
> and you may not realize. With a dictionary lookup, on just the keyword
> of interest, you get back all meanings, with a gloss to describe the
> subtle differences, and the translator's superior understanding of the
> context can choose which one is correct.

Ah, indeed.  google offers multiple translations for some words,
but by default you only get offered one.  There was a rumour on
how google "trains" translate, in looking at pages/content which
exist in multiple languages.   If that is true, the correct term
might be chosen considering context - but often enough I look up
single words where the context is not given to google.

Chris