Post-editing: Towards a competency-based definition of the profile and a multidimensional description of the phenomenon

Abstract

Although machine translation and post-editing (MT + PE) have entered in translation mainly through the localization of technical documentation, the corrent application of MT + PE can become mainstream as happened with the use of tools computer-assisted translation (CAT). However, the posteditor’s profile as conceibed theoretically in terms of competences and skills, as well as the way in which this professional profile is seen from the industry, confine poseditors to the task of editing segments in the target language obtained through MT.

This paper presents a more sofisticated conception of PE, comparable to translation with a particular instrumental subcompetence. This conception is based on a comparison of the tasks assumed by any translation service provider using CAT tools vs. TA + PE. Moreover, this paper proposes to withdraw the homogeneous conception of PE that is usually found in translation theory and addresses this translation modality from different dimensions.