MT – The Semantix Way
Semantix applies MT as a linguistic asset to all translation projects in Phrase. It is, however, always up to the translator (the language expert) to decide how/how not to use the MT suggestions.
MT in practice
Only translation projects paid per word are subject to MT post-analysis; revision tasks are not. The projects where MT is enabled are run in Phrase. Machine translation will be included as a resource, providing suggestions which the translators may apply or ignore as they see fit. You’ll find the MT suggestions in the CAT panel along with TM and TB suggestions.
As you can see in the screenshots above, you may choose which CAT suggestion to work with. You can insert a fuzzy match and edit it or insert an MT match and post-edit it.
This way, you, as the translator, don’t have to work with MT suggestions that are incorrect or not suitable in the specific context, and it also means that we’ll always pay you for your own words.
In order to measure the post-editing effort, we use Phrase’s default post-edit analysis feature. This analysis is made after you have completed your translation step in Phrase, and it works as follows:
- MT suggestions you confirm as they appear (no post-editing) will be counted and paid for as 100% TM matches in the post-analysis.
- MT suggestions you edit before confirming will be counted and paid for as TM fuzzy matches
- The more you post-edit the MT suggestions, the lower the fuzzy match percentage
- If you manually type something identical or similar to the MT suggestion, the post-analysis will make a deduction as it compares the difference between the original MT suggestion and your confirmed translation.
The post-editing analysis will be used to calculate a new weighted word count. This word count will be used in the updated PO which you can find when the job is completed.
Purchase orders and invoices
You’ll find a preliminary PO including the pre-analysis in the portal when the project is assigned to you. After completing the translation project, the PO will be updated with a new analysis reflecting how much use you had of the MT suggestions – see above. You need to base your invoice on the updated PO information (the invoiceable amount is based on the weighted word count in the post-analysis). If you want to see the details of the post-analysis, you’re welcome to contact your Project Manager.
To help you keep track of the various POs you receive, you can log into Semantix Vendor Portal and find your invoice specification under the tab “Invoices” > “Invoice Specifications”.
Post-analysis
As standard, machine translation will be applied as a resource in all Memsource projects, together with the regular translation memory and termbase. Since the quality of the machine translation output varies considerably due to language combination and subject matter, your purchase order will be based on a post-analysis of your translation.
Before accepting a request you will receive a regular pre-analysis against the translation memory, in order to see the scope of the project. When your translation is ready we will run a post-analysis, which measures the MT post-editing effort for each segment by comparing the machine translation output with the final post-edited translation (edit distance).
If the suggested machine translation was accepted without editing (no changes needed), it will come up as a 100% match in the analysis. If you change the MT output heavily, the match rate will be close to 0%.
This means that you can’t download any PO when the job is started. The PO is generated only when you finish the job in the Vendor portal.