Machine Translation, Its Scope and Limits

machine-translationAuthor: Wilks, Yorick

Machine Translation is the author’s comprehensive view of machine translation (MT) from the perspective of a participant in its history and development. The text considers MT as a fundamental part of Artificial Intelligence and the ultimate test-bed for all computational linguistics, covering historical and contemporary systems in Europe, the US and Japan.

The author describes and contrasts a range of approaches to MT’s challenges and problems, and shows the evolution of conflicting approaches to MT towards some kind of sceptical consensus on future progress. The volume includes historic papers, updated with commentaries detailing their significance both at the time of their writing and now.

The book concludes with a discussion of the most recent developments in the field and prospects for the future, which have been much changed by the arrival of the World Wide Web. Anyone interested in the progress of science and technology, particularly computer scientists and students, will find this a fascinating exploration of MT technology.