Human Translation vs. Machine Translation: Assessing the Competence and Exploring the Limits

Abstract

The present study aims to assess and compare the competence of machine translation (MT) and human translation (HT) from Arabic into English . It explores whether the MT product is adequate and more reliable than the HT and seeks to decide whether MT threatens professional translators. The criteria of Hutchins and Somers’ (1992) model were chosen to assess the human translation quality of selected Arabic news headlines taken from the Arabic  official Telegram account of the Media Office of the current Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed S. Al-Sudani  by comparing it with machine translation (Google Translate). The criteria suggested by Hutchins and Somers (1992) are Accuracy, Fluency, and Informativeness. By considering the results, it can be observed that MT manages to comprehensively and accurately transfer the significant data and details from the ST to the TT. Moreover,  a higher level of fluency is achieved by HT as the translator takes the stylistic norms ( like natural words and idiomatic expressions) of the TT audience into consideration.  However, MT proves a high level of informativeness as it conveys and preserves all the details. HT, in contrast, sometimes resorts to delete insignificant details. The results also show that the role of human translators is irreplaceable in tasks requiring profound comprehension of meaning, flexibility, precision and emotional expression, as the human translators have the supremacy in achieving the eligibility and readability to the TL audience