Developments in Systran

Abstract

Systran, the European Commission's multilingual machine translation system, is a fast service which is available to all Commission officials. The computer cannot match the skills of the professional translator, who must continue to be responsible for all texts which are legally binding or which are for publication. But machine translation can deal, in a matter of minutes, with short‐lived documents, designed, say, for information or preparatory work, and which are required urgently. It can also give a broad view of a paper in an unfamiliar language, so that an official can decide how much, if any, of it needs to go to translators. In this way, much time can be saved for a translation service which is already facing a relentless increase in the volume of its work and which will have to cope with the new languages of an enlarged European Union. We have set up a post‐editing service to correct machine texts for users who cannot do this in their own departments. Raw machine translation is only one of a number of multilingual services now being made available. The switch to personal computers throughout the Commission, and the greater use of increasingly reliable electronic mail, also means that other forms of help can be given. First, a bridge has been created between Systran and Celex (the multilingual data base containing Community legislation). Secondly, and only in recent months, Eurodicautom (the Commission's multilingual terminology data bank) has been incorporated in the Systran dictionaries. With this link, it will be easy to look up technical terms in a given language and have them returned in one or more other languages. A survey has shown how officials use Systran and has enabled us to identify their needs. In all these ways, Systran is making excellent progress as a means of rapid communication between the many departments of a multilingual Commission. Our aim is to enhance the quality of Systran, to broaden its application to the languages of the Community and to explain and vigorously promote its use.