Post-Editing of Machine Translation

This chapter analyses the evolutionary process that human post-editing of Machine Translation (MT) output has undergone in previous years. It is well known that post-editing can improve translating productivity as well as target-text quality relative to translation carried out ‘from scratch’, but post-editing has many facets. Initially, it was akin to a step in the MT development pipeline where humans tidied the machine output to make it usable. More recently, post-editing is a professional service with its own international standard. In addition, the focus of translation tasks involving MT is shifting towards more integrated and human-centred environments. The chapter reviews previous post-editing research and discusses emerging issues and future directions on the use of MT in professional translation. It outlines how post-editing has matured as a practice and service and adopts an encompassing understanding of post-editing tasks that reflects MT’s changing role in professional translation processes.