Machine-friendly discourse

Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: The Amazing Adventure of Translation

David Bellos Is That a Fish in Your Ear?*1の第23章では「機械翻訳」（「自動翻訳」）が論じられてる。
100以上の言語ヴァージョンの飛行機整備マニュアルを「機械翻訳」で製作しようとするということを考えてみる；

(…) To produce the hundred or so language versions of the manual that are needed through an automatic translation device, you do not need to make the device capable of handling restaurant menus, song lyrics or party chit-chat―just aircraft maintenance language. One way of doing this is to pre-edit the imput text into a regularized form that the computer program can handle, and to have proficient translator post-edit the output, to make sure it makes sense(and the right sense) in the target tongue. Another way of doing it is to teach the drafters of the maintenace manuals a special, restricted language―Boeinglish, so to speak―designed to eliminate ambiguities and pitfalls within the field of aircraft maintenace. This is now a worldwide practice. Most companies that have global sales have house styles designed to help computers translate their material. From computer helping humans to translate we have advanced to having humans help computers out. It is just one of the truths about translation that shows that a language is really not like a Meccano*2 set at all. Language can always be squeezed and shaped to fit the needs that humans have, even when that means squeezing them into computer-friendly-shapes. (p.262)

「機械翻訳」の言語に対する影響について考えてみると、人間による〈仕上げ〉を経ていないナマの「機械翻訳」のアウトプットに対する違和感・拒絶感は現在はまだ強いが、慣れというか言語環境への人間の適応力によって、「機械翻訳」のアウトプットへの違和感が薄れてくるということがあるだろう。中には、「機械翻訳」を自然な日本語だと感じる人たちも出てくるだろう*3。今引用した部分で述べられているのは、翻訳にかけられる前に、翻訳を前提として、機械にもわかりやすいように、自然言語自体が変わるということ。

*1:Mentioned in http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20111105/1320511640 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20160226/1456456273 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20160324/1458786764

*2:See http://www.meccano.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meccano https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%A1%E3%82%AB%E3%83%8E

*3:言うまでもなく和訳の場合。