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<Paper uid="P80-1044">
  <Title>An Experiment in Machine Translation</Title>
  <Section position="1" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="intro">
    <SectionTitle>
INTRODUCTION
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> Although funding for Machine Translation (MT) research virtua11y ended in the U.S. with the release of the ALPAC report \[1\] in 1966, there has been a continuing interest in this field. Rapid evolution of science and technology, coupled with increased world-wlde exposure of their products, demands more and more speed in translation (e.g., in the case of operation and maintenance manuals). Unfortunately, this rapid evolution has made translation an even more difficult and time-consuming task. The large surplus of (presumably qualified) translators cited by the ALPAC report simply does not exist in many technical areas; the current state of affairs Finds instead a critical shortage. In addition, the proportion of scientific and technical literature * published in English is diminishing. As qualified human translators become more scarce and costs of human translation rise while costs of purchase and operation of powerful computer systems fall, there must come a time when, if MT is feasible at all, it will be cost-effective. It is appropriate, then, to investigate the state-of-the-art in MT with respect to two central questions: is high-quality MT Feaslble (and in what sense); and if feasible, is it cost-effectlve? Thls paper reports the results of an experiment in hlghly automatic, high-quality machine translation. The LRC's MT system, METAL (for Mechanical Translation and Analysis of Languages), is an advanced, 'third generation' system incorporating proven Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, both syntactic and semantic, and stands at the forefront of the MT research Frontier.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> In the experiment, METAL was employed in the translation of a 50-page taxt From German into Engilsh in order to determine whether the system as it exists can be effectively applied to current transiatlon needs, effectiveness to be determined by some objective measure of the quality and cost of machine (i.e., METAL) vs. human translation.</Paragraph>
  </Section>
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