双语复习文件有多种形式和大小, but they all have one thing in common: they’re meant to facilitate the revision stage of a translation project.
如下面的图1中的示例所示, 双语评审文件由几个栏目组成. One column is reserved for the source text (the original content in a given language), 另一个用于翻译(在我的情况下), 英语), 以及其他评论专栏, 状态, 等. The number of columns and their purpose all boils down to which computer-assisted translation (CAT) tool you use1, but the idea behind these files is fundamentally the same—to improve productivity and allow corrections to be implemented in the CAT tool working environment.
(理论)的优势
Presenting the translation in this manner is meant to increase productivity in the following ways:
一个文件,两种语言: The huge advantage of a bilingual review file is that you have both the original text and its translation in the same user-friendly file. This means there’s no need to create a folder structure or be constantly flicking between target and source documents.
市场细分: The text is segmented into digestible chunks (usually sentences) that are much easier to revise than big blocks of unfriendly text. However, the segmentation is dependent on how the text was segmented in the translation stage.
不依赖于CAT工具: This means that revisers and translators don’t have to work with the same CAT tools, 甚至在审校者的情况下使用CAT工具, 能够一起工作. 这是因为文本可以直接在双语复习文件中修改.
追踪变化: 跟踪更改可用于显示文本已修改的位置, and this makes it easy for the translator or project manager to review the changes and either accept or reject them. Comments can also be added to the text without disrupting the layout of the document to add clarity to changes or provide additional information.
实施CAT工具的更改: 一旦修订阶段已经完成, 翻译人员只需一步就可以将更改上传到他们的CAT工具中. The fact that this is so easy and quick to do lets the translator update their translation memories and termbases for future reference with ease.
实践经验
当我开始做自由翻译的时候, 我的第一个作业实际上是复习任务, 但令我惊讶的是,这项任务并不涉及双语审查文件. 我只是收到了两个独立的文件:源文件和目标文件. 你可以想象我的沮丧. We have all this technology available to increase our productivity, yet it wasn’t being used. Alas, this wasn’t my call to make, and I decided to crack on with the task at hand.
I soon discovered from working with various clients that bilingual review files weren’t actually as common as I thought they would be. 但我发现这并没有妨碍我的工作效率,反而提高了效率! 现在已经用这种方式完成了各种修改任务, 我开始思考为什么会这样, 我把它缩小到一个特定的方面:自上而下的方法.
自上而下的翻译方法
说到翻译,有两种方法:自上而下或自下而上. Top-down basically means you start working with the document as a whole and then progressively work with smaller elements within the document. 自下而上的方法正好相反, where you work with a very specific element and progressively look at the bigger picture. 为了解释这是如何有用的,我将给你一些例子.
格式: Working with a target document rather than a bilingual review file allows you to pay more attention to the overall format of the document. You’re able to appreciate the position of tables and images and how these may provide cues to help guide the reader through the text. This is something that is lost in a bilingual review file that only contains the text of a document.
I suppose the solution to this would be to read the source document alongside the bilingual review file, 但是这抵消了只需要在一个文档中工作的优势. 也, 取决于你的屏幕大小, 您可能会发现分割屏幕不是一种选择, as the user-friendly bilingual review file becomes not so friendly when it has to share the screen.
没有细分: 分段可以将文本分解成易于管理的块, but it also encourages a bottom-up approach to translation by facilitating working at the sentence level. 这可能是一个相当麻烦的方法. Even though you might come up with some excellent translations to individual sentences, 如果把它们放在一起不能形成连贯的文本, 那么你的翻译就没用了,你需要重新开始.
通过自上而下的方法, you’re able to view the text in context and then break it down into appropriately sized chunks based on your judgement, 而不是任由CAT工具摆布. 与表, 我通常发现我在句子层面上效率最高, 但对于正文,我更喜欢在段落层面上工作. 这样我就可以调整词序,使文章更简洁, especially since my source languages tend to be very flexible when it comes to sentence structure.
Self-Proofreading阶段
最后, 我强烈建议在提交文件之前做最后一次自我检查, 无论是修改还是翻译. 我最喜欢的工具之一是微软Word中的“朗读”功能. 它会把文本重读给你, 尽管他的声音相当机械, 但它能让你的眼睛得到休息,并让你的听力有所改变. (记住要注意同音异义词!)我发现,如果我连续几个小时阅读一条短信, my eyes are liable to betray me and let me see what I want to see rather than what’s there. My ears, on the other hand, are not as forgiving when they hear something that sounds wrong. 这可以帮助我找出以前可能遗漏的错误.
值得注意的是, 然而, that bilingual review files are not ideal when it comes to the Microsoft Read Aloud tool, as it’s unable to distinguish between the source and target columns and will reread everything to you. Working directly in the target file avoids this problem, as the file is already monolingual. The only disadvantage in this case is that if you’ve used track changes it will reread everything, 包括原声和音轨的改动, but you can choose when and where you use this tool throughout the text so you get the most out of it.
改变的重要性
在我结束这一切之前, I feel like I should point out that my experience is based on working predominantly in medical and pharmaceutical translation in a limited number of language pairs, but hopefully it’s given you some food for thought to switch up your working habits every now and then, 因为你永远不知道什么时候你会找到一种更有效率的工作方式. And if you’re interested in revising directly in the target file but you’re worried about updating the translation in the CAT tool, 别担心. 大多数工具允许您使用编辑过的目标文档更新翻译. 您可能只需要在更新过程中做一些调整.
请注意
安德鲁•贝尔 是医疗和制药翻译和内容作家吗. 他在西班牙工作, 葡萄牙语, and Catalan into English and specializes in the translation of journal articles and clinical trial documentation. 你可以在这里找到他的博客 www.belljohnsontranslations.com/blog. andrew@belljt.com
If you have any ideas and/or suggestions regarding helpful resources or tools you would like to see featured, 请发邮件给约斯特·蔡澈 jzetzsche@internationalwriters.com.