What Is a CAT Tool?
What does the phrase CAT tool bring to mind? An indispensable component of a lion tamer’s craft? An app that sends you the most adorable cat videos on demand? I’ll disappoint you now by stating that it’s nothing so exciting in the world of translation.
CAT stands for computer-assisted translation. CAT tools improve the efficiency and quality of the translator’s work by assisting with workflow. Some translators don’t use them (instead working right in a word-processing program), some work with multiple tools, and some use them only for certain types of texts. In fact, CAT tools are inappropriate for texts with a considerable degree of creativity and variation of phrasing, such as novels.
Let’s set one thing straight:
CAT is entirely unrelated to machine translation programs, such as Google Translate, which draw on a database of text to give you an automatic translation. CAT tools, conversely, have no ability to produce a translation.
Even if you’re a buyer of translation services, you’re probably wholly unaware of what’s happening in this tool. And that’s a good thing – these tools boost the quality of the translated text you receive, and you don’t have to lift a finger for it.
So, what exactly is going on in this program? First, the translator loads the text – called the source text (ST) – into the CAT tool. The tool formulates the ST into a column that makes up the left half of the program. In the right half: a giant blank column, waiting for the translator to type up the target text (TT).
Now the magic happens! CAT tools have a bajillion features, but two in particular are its heart and soul: translation memories and termbases.
Translation memories (TMs):
TMs are usually set up as one per client. This function looks for phrases in the source text that have appeared previously. Previously can mean the phrase was used earlier in the text being translated or that it was used in a text translated for that client some time ago. This feature gives a huge boost to consistency.
For instance, say you have a 174-page operating manual, and on page 12 is a section titled Installing Machine Guarding on the ZX120. If page 84 refers you back to that section, it can’t tell you to refer to the section titled Installation of the Machine Guards for the ZX 120 (I mean, unless you want your end user to suffer). It must match exactly, and that’s where a TM comes to the rescue.
Termbases:
You can think of a termbase as a personalized dictionary. Termbases can be set up for different specialties (one for heavy machinery, another for pharmaceuticals, etc.). Most commonly, though, they are set up for individual end clients. Take Apple and Android as an example. These two companies don’t want their texts sounding anything like those of their competitor, so they likely have specific terminology requirements – those would be saved in the respective termbase.
Say the translator reaches a segment where the ST has a word that’s in this curated dictionary. The CAT tool will show the translator what’s in the termbase as the client’s preferred translation for that word. The translator uses critical thinking to determine if that’s the right translation in context, and if it is, presto! Achievement unlocked: translation consistency.
Key takeaways: CAT tools have nothing to do with automatic translation programs. They are powerful programs that save translators some keystrokes and help ensure consistency, primarily through the core features of termbases and translation memories.
They do not translate, nor drastically curtail the time and effort it takes to translate, nor in any way replace a professional human translator. Now if they could ever come up with a PUPPY tool, I might never leave my desk.
Updated: September 3, 2023