Translating Expressive Prose using CAT Tools : An investigation into discerning the effects of segmentation in student translations

Abstract: Computer Assisted Translation tools continue to become more ubiquitous, but translation students do not necessarily receive much training in using them, and may therefore find translating when using them very different to translating freehand. An experiment was conducted where a three Master’s students were each asked to translate two texts; one in a CAT tool and the other freehand, and the resulting target texts were inspected to determine whether they may have been affected by the segmentation performed by the CAT tool compared to freehand translations of the same text, and if so, how. There were indications that in certain cases, such as very long sentences, the CAT tool may act as a visual aid, and also indications that certain students may be more prone to follow the segmentation provided by the CAT tool than others. However, the influence of personal translator style and translator’s habitus cannot be disregarded and as such the differences that are apparent cannot be entirely attributed to the CAT tool.