http://www.dancohen.org/blog/posts/no_computer_left_behind said:
Google researchers have demonstrated (but not yet released to the general public) a powerful method for creating 'good enough' translations—not by understanding the grammar of each passage, but by rapidly scanning and comparing similar phrases on countless electronic documents in the original and second languages. Given large enough volumes of words in a variety of languages, machine processing can find parallel phrases and reduce any document into a series of word swaps. Where once it seemed necessary to have a human being aid in a computer's translating skills, or to teach that machine the basics of language, swift algorithms functioning on unimaginably large amounts of text suffice. Are such new computer translations as good as a skilled, bilingual human being? Of course not. Are they good enough to get the gist of a text? Absolutely. So good the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency
increasingly rely on that kind of technology to scan, sort, and mine gargantuan amounts of text and communications (whether or not the rest of us like it).
sounds like something you might find interesting, michael. of course, a "good enough" translation probably wouldn't be, not for literature, where the realm of creativity is instantiated, but could it work as a "first pass" that would do the bulk of the "heavy lifting", so a person knowledgeable in both languages could come in and spend relatively little time smoothing it out? well, it's certainly possible, i would think. and maybe probable. especially if progress on the technique proves to be forthcoming... -bowerbird