ORIGINAL TEXT
Nadie todavía logró explicar cómo sucedió el accidente, pero todos agradecen que no haya que lamentar víctimas o heridos.
El hecho ocurrió ayer a la madrugada, en la calle 1 entre 73 y 74, cuando un Peugeot 206 de color rojo pegó contra un árbol y quedó destruido.
Las piezas del rodado, según pudieron apreciar los vecinos, saltaron para cualquier lado, incluido el motor, que terminó arriba de la vereda, sobre la entrada a una vivienda.
Por fortuna, explicaron fuentes policiales, el conductor del automóvil, de quien no trascendió la identidad, pudo bajarse por sus propios medios y se puso a contemplar el resultado del terrible impacto.
Leer más en http://www.eldia.com.ar/edis/20140213/Un-auto-choco-contra-arbol-motor-quedo-arriba-vereda-policiales1.htm
MY OWN TRANSLATION
Nobody has yet been able to explain how the accident took place, but everyone is glad that there are no victims or anyone injured to feel sorry about.
The incident took place yesterday during the early morning, at 1st street between 73rd and 74th, when a red Peugeot 206 crashed into a tree and was destroyed.
The parts of the car, as the residents observed it, flew everywhere, including the motor, which ended up on the sidewalk, at the entrance of a house.
Fortunately, police sources explained, the driver of the vehicle, whose identity was not revealed, was able to get out on his own and was able to contemplate the results of the terrible crash.
GOOGLE TRANSLATE VERSION
Nobody still failed to explain how the accident happened, but thank everyone who has not no victims or injured.
The incident occurred early yesterday morning, in lane 1 between 73 and 74, when a red Peugeot 206 hit a tree and was destroyed.
The pieces of road, according to the neighbors could appreciate, jumped to either side, including the motor, which ended up on the sidewalk, at the entrance of a home.
Fortunately, explained to police sources, the driver of the car, whose identity was not revealed, could they get off on their own and began to contemplate the result of the terrible impact.
ANALISIS OF THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MY OWN TRANSLATION AND GOOGLE TRANSLATE VERSION
Google was not able to translate the first words of the first sentence; it was not able to figure out the fact that nobody was able to explain something yet, and stated that “nobody still failed” which does not make sense. It also has difficulty in translating the words “no hay que lamentar victimas o heridos” which came out as “has not no victims or injured” it forgets to include the word “lamentar” as well – worry about or feel sorry for. Using the words “thank everyone” instead of “everyone is glad” shows that Google does not know grammar and sentence construction very well and is not able to figure out these nuances in language.
The second sentence translated surprisingly well. However, in the third sentence it translated that “The pieces of the road”… “jumped to either side”. Somehow, Google got confused and was not able to figure out that the word “rodado” means car, for rodado is kind of an idiomatic expression meaning that which has wheels that spins. Google translates this as “road”. The machine translation was not able to figure out that “cualquier lado” does not mean “either side” it means to any directions and would actually need some human distinction to figure out that this meant that the parts of the car “flew everywhere”.
At the last sentence, Google is not able to figure out who is speaking to whom when the article talks about the police sources. It states “explained to police sources” when in fact the police sources are the one’s doing the explanation. The assumption that someone was explaining to the police when it is said “explicaran fuentes policiales” shows that the machine translator was not able to tune out that there was no “a” between the words “explicaran” and “fuentes” which would then make it sound like the police was receiving the explanations. Google translate is not able to figure out that “pudo bajarse por sus propios medios” is talking about a singular person, and also makes a grammatical error in not knowing how to change the words around to make sense, and so it comes out as “could they get off on their own” when the correct translation would be “was able to get out on his own”
POSIBLES EXPLICACIONES DE DAVID BELLOS
David Bellos explains in his writing in “Is That a Fish in Your Ear?” that machine translation is not able to know all the specific rules of grammar as well as contextual inferences that a human translator can. For this reason, we can see in the translation of this text that Google gets confused when the grammar varies and when idiomatic expressions come into play. Bellos explains that Google is only able to search for statistical data in a database in which previous works of literature, international conventions, or other academic text have once been recorded. Therefore, when a text such as this (which comes from a less known news source) is entered for translation and it is not in the database, Google has a hard time figuring it out, since Google does not really translate anything, it just looks for previously recorded text, which may have been dealt with before. In this case, the text will not be located and the translation will comes out far from perfect. Some believe that there will be one day that computers might be able to figure out these nuances. The Obama administration is investing heavily in science and technology maybe reach a point in history where it will be possible to translate the major languages of the world automatically without any difficulty by an automatic language system, but until then this is the reality that we have to deal with, the imperfect translations of programs such as Google Translate.
Excellent work, Paulo! Your analysis is extremely perceptive, and your reading of Bellos is right on target.
The second sentence probably came out surprisingly well because a sentence like that is absolutely standard in any journalistic account of an accident: when it happened, where it happened, what happened.
With many, many examples to draw on across its vast array of data bases (how many news articles reporting on a car accident are published each day in bilingual newspapers?), Google Translate was able to come up with a more or less correct rendition of the sentence — though it’s quite bizarre that it translates a very common word like “calle” as lane.
Thank you professor! Google sometimes really surprises me on how it can make such simple mistakes such as with “calle” as well. It makes sense that they found got the sentence right if we look at it from that perspective.
Havea great weekend!