Machine Translation and Human Translation: In Harmony, Not in Opposition

Abstract

This paper tries to study some advantages and disadvantages of machine translation in comparison with human translation. It is believed that using computers in translation is not a threat for the livelihood of the human translator, but using machine translation as well as translation tools including translation memory can accelerate translation process and prevent translating repetitive, time-consuming and boring texts. Two criteria, need and use, have been considered to compare relative quality of machine translation and human translation. Each of these two kinds of translation can be selected according to the type of demand. Machine translation with the goal of lowering linguistic barriers between nations can have a very effective role in dialogue among civilizations and communities having different languages and cultures.